Originally posted by pryman
I heard someone say that the war between Russia and Afghanistan is what bankrupted the Russians and eventually caused them to collapse. No one has
every been able to go over there and defeat Afghanistan in thoughs mountains.
...
This is true. But the caveat in this instance is to fight for the
Afghans.
The problem is that self determination is a bit of a foreign concept to most people of the Middle East... at least our flavor of it. As pointed out
by Plato, a true Democracy is the most unstable form of Government, and rapidly devolves into a Tyranny through populism and rhetoric. Once in power,
the nascent tyrant imposes or changes legislation in order to cement the acquisition of power. (See Plato's Republic) A real world example can be
seen in Venezuela and was almost (still might be) found in Honduras. That's one reason that our governement has the electoral process and different
powers allocated to different branches of government. Some people would argue that we are devolving to a tyranny anyway... but most disasters are
just a collection of minor bad issues that steam roll to a really bad outcome.
Enough of that though...
In Afghanistan, as long as the population sees that we are there for them, there won't be an issue. As soon as they loose that perception, or feel
that we are not helping matters any, we are toast. This was one reason that the number of people on the ground was kept small, limited to spec ops
and military advisers. These people were subjected to decades of ignorance and virtually no education. Their world view is focused on the immediate
and surviving. Ideology doesn't have much to do with it other than that or maybe a better afterlife.
Originally posted by pryman
This person went on to say that if America don't get out of Afghanistan soon, we will face the same fate. Then I hear others say that the war is
what's keeping our economy afloat. Right now, thw war in Afghanistan don't seem to be a good idea to me, especially if it's true that every
country who went up against them eventyually went bankrupt.
Right now... according to
US Debt Clock, military spending is sitting at 536 billion and change. Compare that
to the 328.5 billion that we owe in
finance charges on the US Debt of 11.97 trillion dollars (including the 2.66 trillion that we
added this year alone)
Think about that for a minute. 2.66 trillion dollars just this year alone.
One dollar is 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 long, and 0.0043 inches thick (0.11 mm) Stacked one on top of the other, 2.66 trillion dollars would reach 3/4
of the way to the Moon. (~238,857 miles)
And that is just what has been spent this year.
That full National debt obligation?
11.97 trillion dollar bills stacked would put you at 3.37 times the distance to the Moon. This is about $38,380 per citizen if we were to try and pay
it off at once.
Melt down? Just a matter of time.
[edit on 3-9-2009 by RoofMonkey]
[edit on 3-9-2009 by RoofMonkey]