The people who oppose our involvement in Afghanistan today are the same people, or their philosophical heirs, who opposed our military aid to them in the 1980's when they fought against the Soviet Union. Then, as now, the nay sayers long for some humilating defeat of the US or Afghan forces that fight a common enemy. All you do is point at deaths, as if that is the be all and end all of a war. A large number of Afghan people do support us. They still remember who it was that gave them the tools to break the back of the Soviet Union. Without us, they would never have put the Soviets out of their country. And for those that have forgotten or just don't now, the Soviet Union used their HIND helocopters to purposely destroy Afghan villages. It was not from stray bombs or mistaken targets that tens of thousands of Afghans were killed and hundreds of thousands were driven into refugee camps in Pakistan.Ultimately, the Soviet Invasion was responsible for 1 million deaths and 5 million refugees. The unfortunate truth is that after the Soviets left we abandoned the Afghans, we refused to help with rebuilding that country and we left it open to explotation from Pakistan and the Taliban. We have a moral obligation to the people of Afghanistan. Our neglect after the war created the Taliban and if we just up and leave now they will take control of the entire country once again. They will impose Sharia law on the population, a law that punishes girls for being raped if there are not enough male witnesses to confirm that she was raped.
Most people on this board KNOW that I was never in favor of the war in Iraq, but that does not mean I am a pacifist by any means. We MUST help Afghanistan become a country where the people have the ability to choose what their country will become. While I served in the Army, I became acquainted with a number of Kurds, and helped train some of their soldiers prior to the Desert Storm. There were a great many angry soldiers when George HW Bush left their shit to dangle in the wind when he had promised support. I saw in those Kurdish men, a desire to be the authors of their own destiny and I KNOW that there are a great deal of men and women in Afghanistan that have that same desire. To leave them now would be a betrayal. One that we cannot afford if we are to ever win the trust and support of people in the Muslim world. For once I want to see us bring to a solid conclusion a change we began. I am tired of the defeatest who repeatedly want to see us lose and get pleasure from them. We should have never taken our eye off Afghanistan, that is a failure to be laid solely at the feet of George W Bush. I certainly believe the only reason we went to Iraq was becuase "success" was going to be easier there and the fighting not near as hard as it is going to be in Afghanistan.
As I said earlier, the number of, or lack of dead and wounded soldiers is not the measure of success. Were that so we would have left WWII before the job was done. Things done right NEVER come easy, and no one knows that more than a US Soldier. They are prepared to die if need be. For the most part US Soldiers like helping the oppressed, like building schools for kids, hospitals for the sick and yes, even killing bad guys so they can't harm people. They do not always do their jobs without mistakes and civilians die, it has been so since one group picked up rocks and sticks and attacked another group, but the majority of soldiers don't harm civilians purposely. There are sadists in every group, including police and even Highschool Football teams, but we do not judge the whole group by them.
Too many of the people opposed to war of any kind in this country are like the America Firsters that opposed intervension in WWII. Always to worried about their own skin, their own comfort to care about helping other people and defeating bad men. Others are just plain and simple opposed to ANYTHING the US does militarily. They would find fault in liberating a death camp in Germany if it existed today because it would reflect positively on the US and our armed forces. I am tired of people that criticize ANY military action just to be opposed. I was sickened at the deaths of over 4000 service members and tens of thousands of Iraqi's because I felt the war was a sleight of hand pulled off by Bush et al. I was, and remain a supporter of the war in Afghanistan because we owe the Afghan people, we have owed them for 20 years and it is time we paid up.
The first part of this is blatanly untrue. MOST of the people against this misadventure are the same people who were against the Iraq misadventure .. you know .. the people who were CORRECT about everything they said about it and our intentions. MOST AMERICANS were no more than vaguely aware of what we were doing in Afghanistan before 9/11.
OTHER PEOPLE who were aware of what we were doing in Aghanistan were also aware of our intentions .. just as we are aware of our intentions in Georgia and why we paid the president of Georgia a billion US taxpayer dollars for starting a conflict with Russia he knew he couldn't win.
You credulousness about geopolitical issues is just astounding .. absolutely amazing.
If only you could have the Star-Spangled Banner playing with flags a-wavin' while you post was being read .. and while you were in Afghanistan .. it would have been perfect.
Newsflash for you brother .. the Afghan people no more want American invasion in their country than did the Iraqi's, the Panamanians, the Grenadians, or the Vietnamese. That holy crap about poor Aghanis .. who we blow the fuck up at will .. is just bullshit.
Those of us who watched what we were doing there before 9/11 .. you know .. when we created the Taliban and trained and funded Bin Laden .. also watched what we were doing after the Russians left. I mean you are aware of what we were there prior to 9/11, are you not? You are aware of UNOCOL's involvement in the POLITICS of Afghanistan and the installment of one of its executives as our envoy there, are you not? You do know who and what Karzai is, don't you?
I could on much further about our involvement there prior to 9/11 .. but surely that would just bore you and you're already aware .. because if you weren't I could give you the facts .. facts you couldn't challenge .. just get mad because I dare present them.
.. start mumbling shit about "conspiracy theories"
What is more than a bit astounding about your post is your total rejection of history .. the history of your own country .. I'm talking about the REAL one, not the Hollywood version. The Hoillywood one doesn't invade countries and mass-murder people for geopolitical power and oil .. the real one does.
Another newsflash for ya': the rest of the world knows something you don't about our intentions in Afghanistan .. just as THEY knew what Iraq was all about.
There are many Americans like myself who have loved ones in the military. We are not pacifists, we believe in the just excercise of military power .. but we are not blind or dumb enough not to know that war is business in our country. We weren't blind or dumb enough to believe there was any justification for Vietnam .. AS HISTORY PROVES .. nor was there any justification for Iraq .. AS HISTORY HAS ALREADY PROVEN .. nor is there any justification for the invasion of Afghanistan .. as history will prove.
Grenada and Panama was bullshit, but Bosnia had purpose.
As with most pro-war comments, yours fails to deal with some seriously obvious truths.
Exactly how many failures and dead Americans soldiers do you require to recognize THERE ARE LIMITS TO MILITARY POWER.
