In Afghanistan, Insurgents Undefeated, Corruption Rife

In Afghanistan, Insurgents Undefeated, Corruption Rife

www.huffingtonpost.com

KABUL, Afghanistan -- It was what President Barack Obama called a "war of necessity," a conflict thrust upon America by the 9/11 attacks. As NATO's mission here winds down nearly 11 years later, the insurgents remain undefeated, corruption runs rife and the peace process is stuck in the sand

(visit the link for the full news article)

The war in Afghanistan is on the table in Chicago.
What they are saying is not very promising.
After the surge, after to many years of military drudgery.
Are the poppies as abundant as ever. Do we own any oil pipelines. What gives here.
What are the Taliban up to. How is this effecting the American economy?
Cheers ljb


www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The headline of this thread is relevant today
and the same headline could be used for the last couple thousand years.

There is no winning in afghanistan...no great afgani empire ready to rise up with the right conditions.

So, time to bring out ruthless calculations
1) is OBL dead? yes
2) Are terror training camps disbanned? Yes
3) is there a (pretend) government in place? Yes

good...time to leave. pull the flag up, come home, queue the ticker tape parades. There is nothing more we can do.

reply to post by SaturnFX


Well this guy is crying for money. Should the US and other nations foot the bill?

"Our security forces last year cost $6 billion while our national revenue was $1.7 billion," said Ashraf Ghani, head of a commission overseeing the process of passing the baton to the Afghan forces. "Investment in our security forces is part of an investment in international security."

This bloody war truly is Vietnam 2.0. We need to just leave, but that won't serve our shadow government who want to bleed this country out.

Its time to stop the crap. Most of us on here know that this war was built on false claims any way. Afganistan was a grab for minerals, plain and simple. With a side line of no bid military contracts for a garnish.

If we were serious about American security, we would bring every one home and put up signs every where at the borders. All terrorist attacks will be responded to in like. ( heat and sand make glass) Top that off with getting our noses out of every ones buisness and we might be suprised how the worlds attitude would change about America.

Maybe then we might find time to address some of our domestic problems here at home.

Originally posted by David134
Its time to stop the crap. Most of us on here know that this war was built on false claims any way. Afganistan was a grab for minerals, plain and simple. With a side line of no bid military contracts for a garnish.

If we were serious about American security, we would bring every one home and put up signs every where at the borders. All terrorist attacks will be responded to in like. ( heat and sand make glass) Top that off with getting our noses out of every ones buisness and we might be suprised how the worlds attitude would change about America.

Maybe then we might find time to address some of our domestic problems here at home.

Hi dav,
Well put. Now how do we get you into the meeting with a dark complection and big ears. lol ljb

Originally posted by longjohnbritches
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Well this guy is crying for money. Should the US and other nations foot the bill?

"Our security forces last year cost $6 billion while our national revenue was $1.7 billion," said Ashraf Ghani, head of a commission overseeing the process of passing the baton to the Afghan forces. "Investment in our security forces is part of an investment in international security."

I want to say no
but we helped in making this mess...and if they don't get the money this way, they will get it in very unsavory ways.

I say it should be a joint nato/russia funding (considering it was us and the russians whom ultimately caused the modern mess that is afghanistan..
but there needs to be some quantifiable evidence of production..aka, show me the product, else no more money...

What a mess.

"insurgents remain undefeated"
You can never win when fighting insurgents. They feel that they have aready lost so they have nothing to gain by stop fighting. We coould be there for another 100 years and the heanline wouls till read the same. We did what we could and now it is time to leave. The way things are over there hae been the same way for ocer 2000 years and it will still be the same way 2000 from now.

reply to post by longjohnbritches


Thank you. It has always amazed me that no culture has ever been able to just be happy with their own life and country. No matter how prosperous a society is, They always seem to have to impose their will on others. It has been proven that the more successful a group, the more they feel they have the right to impose on others.

Take the massive spending on the last two wars, add in the amount of money give to countries that are supposed friends. ( Pakistain, Egypt, ect... ) How well could Americans live with that amount kept here domesticly. Even my dumb, redneck, butt can do that math.

I am pretty sure both the russians and nato wanted a foothold in afghanistan to have a large say on the opium production. The taliban as religious fanatics had banned its commercial exploitation and that pissed off washington.

Iraq was for the oil and rebuilding contracts. As long as Saddam didn't bother america's friends and kept iran in check he was tolerated. When he turned too big for his shoes he had to go. The only thing good about saddam was that he kept iran in check, but now that saddam is gone, we have shiite extremism in iraq and iran bullying everyone else.

Israel and capitalism are the biggest reasons for "the west" making a big deal about the middle east. Freedom and liberty never existed there and everyone and their dog knows that...or they should! We have been treading in dangerous waters competing with china and russia IN THEIR TERRITORY! Time to leave those folks alone and things will take care of themselves imho. We have europe, south and central america to exploit so it is plenty.

The main thing allied troops have stopped is The Northern Alliance (which opposed the Taliban long before we were there) creating a functional, BUT tribal democracy. Instead we have a centralized government, with centralized corruption, with horrific centralized human rights abuses, but it's otherwise modeled very much in our own governments image.
The Afghan government will obviously collapse near the moment our troops leave -indeed it barely functions now. This is what more people, than people who died on 9/11 have died for (to prove it's not racist to say a complete clone of Western democracy, doesn't work in a tribal society) but hay they were "only" soldiers = toilet scum if your a Demo-Rep politician, although you'd obviously never say that.
Hopefully those who supported this war on the grounds we must not leave until the job is done, have learnt that it will never be done, and the best thing to have done would have been to support the Afghan's building a government in their own image -not our own.

"Afghanistan is where empires go to die"
-- Rudyard Kipling

Time to get the frack out of there.

I think it it strange to call it a war when it is just some people resisting occupation. They have honed their resistance skills for decades. Calling it a war is as silly as declaring war on your own people.

This is not the first time this has happened. The British Empire when they were the superpower left defeated in 1842:

history1800s.about.com...

The Afghans only left alive ONE Soldier to teach the retreating army a lesson. I suspect that has a lot to do with why Brits are their again, to regain their face and for vengeance, but it is not happening.

I made a thread on this situation as well if people are interested:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I know the news often shows the doom and gloom aspects of the War in Afghanistan and do not get me wrong, war is always bad. Yet, here is a video showing some good that is happening.

reply to post by MysteriousHusky

That is funny, we invade a country because they are doing training. Our excuse for not leaving it that they cannot do training. LOL

Think of it like invading your friend's home because he could not defend himself from bullies. Then you end up investing a lot for his home in anti-bully technology. When you want to leave, you find out you need to train him versus doing the bully-fighting yourself. Lesson learned? Yes. Lesson learned late? Heck yes.

The hearts and minds of the people cannot be won with the current approach as the whole justification for invasion based on lies. The middle east knows full well that 9/11 was a Zionist plot and this is the banner our forces still stand under today. An uneasy peace based on fear and intimidation is the best that can be achieved as drones hum in the sky and exterminate isolated pockets of their community. But even this goal is unrealistic as generational conflict in this harsh and barren region has matured a strong and resilient culture.

If the US is serious about bring peace to the region then quite hiding behind the transparent propaganda and get to the point. These are people in this country, mutual respect will work a lot better than blind victimisation.

reply to post by kwakakev


Hi kaw,

I tipped a few back with brothers of "The Thunder From Down Under."
Hats off to those dudes.

Australia in the Vietnam War
cybersarges.tripod.com/aussiemem.html - Similarto Australia in the Vietnam War

Australia in the Vietnam War 1962 – 1973. This page is dedicated to our brother Australian Soldiers. who fought and died along side us in Vietnam. Australia's ...

Shame the US has abused it's alies as it has.
At least the people get it.
cheers ljb