"Digital rodents and abandoned Pokemon presided over the streets of Bagram Airfield..."
Is this a joke? Satire? Why? I suppose trillions of dollars later this is what we deserve. Mission Accomplished.
Is this a joke? Satire? Why? I suppose trillions of dollars later this is what we deserve. Mission Accomplished.
There was zero right answer in this war. We don't have some corrupt cabal of leaders in our government and military. I can't recall a single American that didn't want to go into there after 911. Our soldiers have been stuck there putting their lives on the line to keep the house of cards from falling down. This power vacuum will disappear with another incredibly violent war after we leave. There will be zero way for the current government to maintain control. I don't see how it could possibly avoid becoming an isis like state that will lash out with more terrorism and I'm afraid this won't be the last time American boots will be in country.
You must not have been paying attention. There were a hell of a lot of us, and we weren't quiet. Or wrong.
> I'm afraid this won't be the last time American boots will be in country.
Oh, of course not. We'll have left behind whole shipping containers full of the things.
The Taliban were widely recognized as the absolute worst, and sheltering Bin Laden was just icing on the cake. This was a close to national unity as anything will ever be.
The public, here in central Europe, was and still is mainly against the US invading countries for their own means.
(This is actually part of the reason so many of my generation learned to hate America for their actions in a early age)
And I feel like holding massive anti-US protests in the weeks after 9/11 would have been a huge talking point in the last twenty years.
On a side note I would be surprised if Wikipedia had a line for a few hundred young lefties demonstrating in a basically forgotten country like austria. When I say huge, I mean relatively, Austria ain't big. But there should be Media and pics somewhere I guess.
That's like a decade after the war started.
Even in the US, by the time of the Iraq War a significant chunk of the population had turned anti-Afghanistan war, but resistance was very limited in the month between September 11th and the start of the war.
Even today, I personally have no idea what the US went to do in Afghanistan. Iraq, at least, had oil. But, Afghanistan? What was the point?
(And in case you genuinely don't know: the Taliban were openly harboring Al Qaeda including Bin Laden. The US ordered them to either hand him over or allow the US to pursue him. They refused. So, the US eliminated the Taliban.)
Removed the Taliban from power, they still very much exist.
As the other poster said, Afghanistan's connection to 9/11 was clear, not even Afghanistan denied it.
But I'm curious why you say "yet another country." Between September eleventh and October seventh which other countries do you think the US attacked?
What? How old are you? Where did you live when it happened? What community or group was against striking back after 911? How can you even say you were "right" when the rest of the country didn't agree with you?
> Oh, of course not. We'll have left behind whole shipping containers full of the things.
Do you really think Afghanistan won't be the new isis state? The government is weak and one of the mightiest militaries in the world couldn't help defeat the taliban. The taliban is battle hardened and it seems incredibly doubtful they won't retake the country. If you disagree, please explain how you envision a happy war free Afghanistan that won't breed enemies of the United States after we leave.
You could better answer the question yourself with a study of recent history in the region.
Largest anti war protests in history.
> We don't have some corrupt cabal of leaders in our government and military
You have patriots, who are far more dangerous because they believe they're doing the right thing. And a certain amount of cabal willing to lie about how much of a threat Iraq was.
The only winning move is not to play.
-- Wargames, 1983
For the Iraq war. The Afghanistan war had very little resistance as things like the Congressional approval happened on September 14th giving the military a blank check to "capture the criminals."
What would you do when you fought alongside people that became your brothers? Would you betray them and abandon them to this horrible fate?
It's easy to call them useful idiots sitting thousands of miles away and safe. They are not dumb, they see the reality on the ground that we are not privy to.
At the same time, our soldiers are dieing. It's ugly whatever route we take and I don't know the least horrible decision that should be made.