Originally Posted by
Chip
We went to afghanistan with two very clearly stated objectives:
Capture or kill bin laden
Destory Al-Qaeda
We have monumentally failed in both this things, so now we have started chatting that we are there to establish democracy or we are there to help rebuild society or to prevent drugs traffic or any other straw that the politicians can clutch at.
We will be there for about another 5 years then we will realise we are getting nowhere, we'll claim some tenuous win for democracy and we will withdraw leaving the country fucked, at which point the Taliban will be back in full control.
No one has ever succeeded in afghanistan, the russians tried and failed (we helped them fail by funding and training bin laden to fight them) about 20 years ago, and we're going to fail too, except we will pretend we didnt cause we will keep changing the rules till we win soemthing.
Exactly. Never mind 5 years... I actually believe everyone at the top knows full well what the score is now. It's just that they're too stubborn to admit it to everyone.
Think how much of an embarrassment it would be for the government if they pulled out now. Everyone would be appalled at the waste of life over there - although I shouldn't say that considering the effort they are putting in. I reckon they'll drag it out over time so that people get so used to it that it pales into insignificance, and then they'll be able to quietly withdraw over time.