Afghanistan...what ARE we doing there?

[1ManRevolution]

I have be starting to believe that our leaders have no clue what they are doing in Afghanistan nor do they know what the end goal is. What would have to happen in order for it to be considered "victory".

Now we have leaked souces that state that Pakistan was playing both sides, not really a shock there, and that Iran was funneling weapons to the Taliban, again not really a shock.

IMO, it is time to cut our loses and bring our troops home. We got embarrased just as the Soviets did 30 some odd years ago. BOTH admins are to blame for this.

 

[STDiva]

What would have to happen in order for it to be considered "victory".

This.

 

[~~whimsy~~]

We are allowing politics to play into something that the military should have control over. Military to fight; politicians to fund.

Somewhere along the line it turned into a paved road for money making and it is almost as if it has been a reality show or something for news channels.

I don't want to hop on a soapbox or anything, thing is, we need to either get serious and wipe out the threats, get over the sensitivity towards other cultures and shit like that and realize it is a war; you cannot drive a tank in a sensitive manner, that is not what it was built for, it was built to destroy and help in winning a battle. Same as our whole military function. Military is not for free college and job training; it is for protecting this country when called upon. Or else during basic you would not be learning how to kill with weapons and your own hands and feet, last I knew that is not a prerequisite to get into college or most jobs. Things have just grown so damn soft.

I shall bite my tongue and just try and keep it from getting into anything.

I'd hate to see all go away after all these years. I prefer we just take the gloves off the military, burn the red tape, and let them do what they trained in basic for: to win in war and defeat a threat to not only us, but obviously, in this case, rest of the world.

 

[Shifty]

It's a fucking disaster.

 

[1ManRevolution]

We are allowing politics to play into something that the military should have control over. Military to fight; politicians to fund.

Somewhere along the line it turned into a paved road for money making and it is almost as if it has been a reality show or something for news channels.

I don't want to hop on a soapbox or anything, thing is, we need to either get serious and wipe out the threats, get over the sensitivity towards other cultures and shit like that and realize it is a war; you cannot drive a tank in a sensitive manner, that is not what it was built for, it was built to destroy and help in winning a battle.

I'd hate to see all go away after all these years. I prefer we just take the gloves off the military, burn the red tape, and let them do what they trained in basic for: to win in war and defeat a threat to not only us, but obviously rest of the world.

Great post. That has always been my main problem Afghanistan. We never went balls out to eliminate the threats. I think now we are at a point where either we go all out and end this...or pull out and bring them home. Sadly though, neither will happen and we could be stuck there for quite some time.

 

[BlueBalls]

Manufacturing and distributing large quantities of heroin.

Win!

 

[mrtrebus]

Having a whale of a time!

 

[GregCentauro]

Afghanistan is a success story. USA is a failed state. The Afghans qualified for this year's Twenty20 World Cup. The US didn't.

 

[Shifty]

Troop Casualties Effective July 27, 2010

Country Total

Australia 17
Belgium 1
Canada 151
Czech 3
Denmark 34
Estonia 7
Finland 1
France 45
Germany 42
Hungary 2
Italy 24
Jordan 1
Latvia 3
Lithuania 1
Netherlands 24
Norway 9
Poland 19
Portugal 2
Romania 15
South Korea 1
Spain 28
Sweden 4
Turkey 2
UK 325
US 1207

Total 1968

Not including civilian.

 

[DOA82]

You know what the board needs? Another Afghanistan thread.

 

[BlueBalls]

Troop Casualties Effective July 27, 2010

Country Total

Belgium 1
Finland 1
Jordan 1
Lithuania 1
South Korea 1

Bunch of pussies.

 

[Ulysses31]

I have be starting to believe that our leaders have no clue what they are doing in Afghanistan nor do they know what the end goal is. What would have to happen in order for it to be considered "victory".

Now we have leaked souces that state that Pakistan was playing both sides, not really a shock there, and that Iran was funneling weapons to the Taliban, again not really a shock.

IMO, it is time to cut our loses and bring our troops home. We got embarrased just as the Soviets did 30 some odd years ago. BOTH admins are to blame for this.

Trying to install a democracy in a country that is based on the tribal system is NEVER going to work, even the current 'government' only controls the big cities, the rest of the country has always been run by tribal law and will continue to do so for the forceeable future. A key element for a democracy to work is that the people themselves want it and are willing to fight for it. There was the English civil war and the French Revolution which shifted the power from the monarchy to the people, the key element was that the people of said countries achieved this for themselves from within, the coalition (meaning the US) thought that they could just remove the warlords and say to the people 'ok now vote', they don't know how to and probably don't want to. Democracies in the West have taken decades if not centuries to form, why the coalition thought Iraq and Afghanistan would become democracies overnight I don't know, when people are ready for democracy and want it enough they'll rise up and fight for it, it'll mean nothing to them if a foreign invader occupies their country and hands it to them.

Although I have no doubt that Pakistan is playing both sides there is no question that the US has also played both sides in the past when they wanted the Mujahadeen (now Al-Qaeda) to fight both Russia in Afghanistan and India in Kashmir, the CIA trained and equipped all these religious fanatics and probably helped set up all these camps which they now seek to destroy. You could argue that Pakistan has always funded and supported these terrorist groups and in reality only America has changed sides (after the 'Mujahadeen' turned against them). This is the problem of seeing your enemies enemy as your friend.

 

[PlasmaTwa2]

You should just nuke the fuck out of it and try again in a hundred years when everyone who lives there is too busy being deformed and retarded to fight back.

 

[Member442]

The Us will never leave I don't think if they government gets its way. Someone needs to smack them straight or something as they are in a losing battle at this point. As our my Canadian friends over there who I miss very much and should come home all of them US and Canadian alike.

 

[Crazy4theBrat]

Troop Casualties Effective July 27, 2010

Country Total

Australia 17
Belgium 1
Canada 151
Czech 3
Denmark 34
Estonia 7
Finland 1
France 45
Germany 42
Hungary 2
Italy 24
Jordan 1
Latvia 3
Lithuania 1
Netherlands 24
Norway 9
Poland 19
Portugal 2
Romania 15
South Korea 1
Spain 28
Sweden 4
Turkey 2
UK 325
US 1207

Total 1968

Not including civilian.

What about the count for dead camel jockeys? You quote the number of our casualties, but how about giving their deaths some meaning by also publishing what they have accomplished while they were over there? Even though you don't think they accomplished enough, I'm sure they took out quite a few terrorist rags - and that's a very good thing.

 

[Vanilla Bear]

The more plausible question was...What are WE the Germans doing there? We didn't bomb or destroyed Afghanistan like the USA did! :tongue:

 

[DOA82]

The more plausible question was...What are WE the Germans doing there? We didn't bomb or destroyed Afghanistan like the USA did! :tongue:

The Germans have met their body count quota after all.

 

[LukeEl]

Bunch of pussies.

Hey BlueBalls the South Koreans got their hands full with those starving commies and Hey It's Pat as their leader.

 

[Baill Inneraora]

We are allowing politics to play into something that the military should have control over. Military to fight; politicians to fund.

Somewhere along the line it turned into a paved road for money making and it is almost as if it has been a reality show or something for news channels.

I don't want to hop on a soapbox or anything, thing is, we need to either get serious and wipe out the threats, get over the sensitivity towards other cultures and shit like that and realize it is a war; you cannot drive a tank in a sensitive manner, that is not what it was built for, it was built to destroy and help in winning a battle. Same as our whole military function. Military is not for free college and job training; it is for protecting this country when called upon. Or else during basic you would not be learning how to kill with weapons and your own hands and feet, last I knew that is not a prerequisite to get into college or most jobs. Things have just grown so damn soft.

I shall bite my tongue and just try and keep it from getting into anything.

I'd hate to see all go away after all these years. I prefer we just take the gloves off the military, burn the red tape, and let them do what they trained in basic for: to win in war and defeat a threat to not only us, but obviously, in this case, rest of the world.

I think this is an over simplification of the problem. It sounds like the old “politicians won’t let the military take off the gloves” rhetoric left over from Vietnam.

Afghanistan is much more complicated than Vietnam ever was. We are trying to look at as a good guy bad guy thing, but that’s not what is happening. It is NOT TALIBAN/Al Qaeda vs. the “good guys” struggle.

We want to see the war as a struggle between (relatively) “Moderate” Muslims and “Extremist” Muslims. The war seems to evolved into an ethnic struggle between several ethnic groups. (Tajik, Pushtun, Hazara & Uzbek are the largest) The help coming from Pakistan is more based on supporting fellow Pashtun’s than it is ideological. NATO has inserted itself into a quagmire of a Civil War, not a good vs. evil war where “take the gloves off the military” is an effective strategy. The gloves have been off since the Tora Bora campaign in ‘01/’02.

 

[Shifty]

What about the count for dead camel jockeys? You quote the number of our casualties, but how about giving their deaths some meaning by also publishing what they have accomplished while they were over there? Even though you don't think they accomplished enough, I'm sure they took out quite a few terrorist rags - and that's a very good thing.

I just posted for information.

If you can find an accurate count of dead Taliban, please post it.

And don't put fucking words in my mouth.