I was all for this withdrawal until I found out it was only 3000 soldiers that we had in Afghanistan. If 3000 soldiers can keep a whole country from going Taliban, then it seems worth it to keep them there.
I am in favor of helping countries that genuinely want freedom from an oppressive regime. South Korea is a great example, they fought tooth and nail alongside the Americans to secure their own freedom. But Afghanis were not like South Koreans. They didn't seem to care much that they were ruled by oppressive regimes. We had a lot of friendly fire problems where Afghani security forces would go rogue and start killing random personnel on base.
The First Republic [of Korea] was characterized by Rhee's authoritarianism and corruption, limited economic development, strong anti-communism, and by the late 1950s growing political instability
And the second and third republics were dictatorships too.
> The Bodo League massacre (Korean: 보도연맹 학살사건; Hanja: 保導聯盟虐殺事件) was a massacre and war crime against communists and suspected sympathizers (many of whom were civilians who had no connection with communism or communists) that occurred in the summer of 1950 during the Korean War. Estimates of the death toll vary. Historians and experts on the Korean War estimate that the full total ranges from at least 60,000–110,000 (Kim Dong-choon) to 200,000 (Park Myung-lim). The massacre was wrongly blamed on the communists. The South Korean government made efforts to conceal this massacre for four decades. Survivors were forbidden by the government from revealing it, under suspicion of being communist sympathizers; public revelation carried with it the threat of torture and death.
Probably more like the expectation that in response to any substantial Taliban coup and thus danger to NATO soldiers, (tens of) thousands more soldiers with vehicles, tanks, aircrafts could be there in a matter of days.
But its not just about guns - the key difference is that south korea has recieved more financial aid than all of africa combined. Thats is probably thr key difference
In WW3, the Taliban will be nobodies and one or two minimal terrorist attacks in Europe will be the least of our worries.
We have not been this embarrassed or humiliated since Saigon. It's pathetic foreign policy, and a stupid military withdrawal -- capping off a monumental waste of lives, time, and money.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/12/afghanistan-us-urges-citizen...
We need to realign all resources to point towards the CCP and probably Russia.
Wasting time to have the resources available if Afghan war operations need it is a colossal waste.
What benefit will the freedom of these people that mostly don't want it badly (or their 300k fully equipped soldiers would fight well) have for us in the future? Most likely we will have a global conflict with CCP, Russia, NK, Iran in about 5-10 years time. I highly doubt the Taliban will influence the outcome of that.