Staying in Afghanistan is all about saving face. Much of the country will be under Taliban influence or control whether we leave tomorrow or in 30 years. We could prevent a Taliban takeover of the country without being there by sending a few billion per year to prop up the Afghan government/military. But the only events that will cause us to leave is a significant increase in American soldier’s deaths or the near-bankruptcy of the American government.
He’s doing the right thing.
No kidding. Sheesh people. If he’s your guy, and you don’t like what he does, don’t try to find someone else to blame it on. What ever happened to ‘the buck stops here’?
I pit whoever convinced our president to prolong the war in Afghanistan
That would be the Taliban, and most people already pit them.
You are stupid and know nothing about geopolitics.
We tried that in the 1920s. Perhaps you recall what happened ten years later?
You = ignorant.
The tendency toward isolationism in both the extreme left and right is yet more evidence that the political spectrum is really more of a circle, and the two ends meet at “crazy”.
Ha ha. Republican Party, thy name is irony.
New York City has 35,000 cops. Do you think they could end problems in Afghanistan? It is only the size of Texas with mountains over 20,000 feet high.
I feel like I can’t get a clear picture of the A-stan war. Who knows what all the objectives and sub-objectives are? But if the Taliban threaten to de-stabilize Pakistan enough that it might cough up a nuke, well, that is definitely worth preventing.
Is this line scare tactics? Who knows. P-stan is directly next door, and already destabilized by India. Yet it is hard to believe the Taliban could get the upper hand with them. I can’t decide.
Pakistan isn’t destabilized by India. If anything, the presence of India is the only thing that keeps the non-Islamists from taking power.
Poor, poor Barack Obama, so at the mercy of those who are really in charge. I mean, the President really is just a figurehead, right?
Geez, you’re dumb.
I sure hope not.
It ought to be about national security. Either being there is in our national interest or it’s not. If it is, you DO NOT put some arbitrary deadline on our withdrawal.
Do you not think that the bad guys will strongarm every villager and warlord there, saying not to help the US or they’ll come get them after we turn tail?
That’s what I mean: either fight the war until it’s done (we can argue what victory means in another thread I suppose) or you don’t fight at all. Obama has picked the worst of all possible options, because… well, he’s a politician. He wants to placate the knuckle-dragging meat eaters by appearing to make his General happy, and placate the wimps by pulling out just in time for his re-election bid.
Other than the Obamaniacs who treat him the way the Florida press treats Tim Tebow, I can’t see this as being viewed as a path to success by most of the country.
Has putting a timetable on our withdrawal from Iraq produced the horrible results you’re predicting for Afghanistan?
I pit whoever convinced our president to prolong the war in Afghanistan
It was me. Sorry. I thought it was a good idea at the time. I’ve also got him hooked on Zager & Evans; he’s been reading Hogg non-stop; and he’s posing in cuirassier’s armor for portraits. What can I say - I have a lot of influence on the guy.
Exactly. When Bush proposed the Iraq surge, he was the one pitted, not his handlers.
If you pit Obama’s advisors and not the man himself, it sounds like you think the man is less able to think for himself than Bush was. Nobody deserves to be accused of that, especially one with Obama’s intellectual gifts.
I think it’s the right thing to do, both morally and in terms of our own interests as a nation. Removing a government is a serious action, and carries with it the responsibility to ensure you don’t leave innocent civilians to anarchy or despotism. The fact that we neglected stabilizing Afghanistan in favor of invading Iraq for no reason means the job is a lot harder than it had to be, but it’s still our job to do.
I’m deeply frustrated that these wars have been so badly managed and we continue to pour money and lives into them because of it. I pity Obama for having to try to salvage something from the mess, but I deeply respect him for doing the right thing and not taking the politically expedient path of just saying “Bush fucked this all up, blame him – I’m outta here” and withdrawing.
Could there be an alternative to complete isolationism versus occupying 2 countries at once and having 800 bases around the world and always having a boogey man for social control?
Nah.
Yeah, I agree with this. Fuck that Tony Blair retread and his overreaching foreign policy objectives.
lol whut