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Afghan War ending, foretold by The Onion 10 years Ago [DT thread ruined by politics]


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5 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Nope, you control the 6 major airports and everyone flies out on the same day. Fuck shutting off the lights. You hammer the generators with a hellfire. You do not create a choke point. You do not create chaos for political grandstanding. 

I voted for Biden. I am very pissed right now but I am still working with my friends there to get them out. We know they cannot go to HKIA. We are working other plans. 

Without ANA support, how many American troops on the ground do you think this would've required?

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2 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

The cycle could end. Why they are allowed to take up air on this planet I cannot fathom. They can't be reasoned with or educated. They just need to be eradicated. I have never trusted the enemy of my enemy can be a friend. Taliban about to get their asses handed to them by ISIS or what the fuck ever POS org is out there. Just get some aircrafts...

Yeah, yeah, more "turn it to glass, make the rubble bounce."  You willing to blow up every mud hut in every mountain pass?  Every cave?  That's what it would take.  And even then....it wouldn't be enough.   You gonna hit them in Pakistan?  In Iran?  Those are the same tribes.

Our goal should be to keep them from being a training and support ground for people who would project their power onto American interests and harm us.  Our mission never should have gone beyond that.  And we shouldn't forget that we still need to accomplish that mission.  But us using force to turn Afghanistan into a good place was never going to work.

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Just now, wildcat09 said:

Without ANA support, how many American troops on the ground do you think this would've required?

500 at each location plus command and control at BAF. This would be people on teh ground and does not include AirPower. But hell, when was the last time we lost a plane there? You hold each perimeter and at the same time you make the bad guys to have to think about multiple places. Let me know if you want me to name the locations. 

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5 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Where have I heard this before?

What group of people do you know that routinely rape and slaughter little girls and women that deserves to live? Watching CNN right now they were saying that is already happening...shit it was always going to happen no matter if we never went over there. This was the deadliest DAY for our troops in a decade. Period. This is not to throw Biden under the bus...that is what it is. 

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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, yeah, more "turn it to glass, make the rubble bounce."  You willing to blow up every mud hut in every mountain pass?  Every cave?  That's what it would take.  And even then....it wouldn't be enough.   You gonna hit them in Pakistan?  In Iran?  Those are the same tribes.

Our goal should be to keep them from being a training and support ground for people who would project their power onto American interests and harm us.  Our mission never should have gone beyond that.  And we shouldn't forget that we still need to accomplish that mission.  But us using force to turn Afghanistan into a good place was never going to work.

I was told we were going to smoke 'em out.

 

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5 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

The cycle could end. Why they are allowed to take up air on this planet I cannot fathom. They can't be reasoned with or educated. They just need to be eradicated. I have never trusted the enemy of my enemy can be a friend. Taliban about to get their asses handed to them by ISIS or what the fuck ever POS org is out there. Just get some aircrafts...

This is fucking stupid and the type of thinking that keeps getting American troops killed in pointless foreign wars.

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I remember when the DT thread was awesome and you could ask guys like Inka and MillerEP their opinion on what’s going on with the minimal necessary commentary. They have extremely detailed knowledge of pretty much everything there. Now we’re here with a bunch of Cr armchair geopolitical/military experts. 
 

Now we have a DT thread where content must be approved. The mods are EXTREMELY touchy on this particular subject. GGWP

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Just now, Muy Frio said:

I remember when the DT thread was awesome and you could ask guys like Inka and MillerEP their opinion on what’s going on with the minimal necessary commentary. They have extremely detailed knowledge of pretty much everything there. Now we’re here with a bunch of Cr armchair geopolitical/military experts. 
 

Now we have a DT thread where content must be approved. The mods are EXTREMELY touchy on this particular subject. GGWP

fuck off.  you DT fucks can't fucking help yourselves and are what drove this thread over here to get stupidly merged with the CR one.  go fuck your face.

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2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, yeah, more "turn it to glass, make the rubble bounce."  You willing to blow up every mud hut in every mountain pass?  Every cave?  That's what it would take.  And even then....it wouldn't be enough.   You gonna hit them in Pakistan?  In Iran?  Those are the same tribes.

Our goal should be to keep them from being a training and support ground for people who would project their power onto American interests and harm us.  Our mission never should have gone beyond that.  And we shouldn't forget that we still need to accomplish that mission.  But us using force to turn Afghanistan into a good place was never going to work.

Yes. And we were. We knew how the tribes operated under the Taliban umbrella. We knew Iran and Pakistan was supporting the Talibs. 

Our mission should have gone beyond just killing the Taliban. I believe in our role as a strength for development. I applaud the NGO's who follow their mission. We had a plan to sit and hammer when needed. Again, we are still in Iraq, though few Americans realize this.

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34 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I suppose there was no way to not announce the time/date of our departure/withdrawal? 

Here's the thing.  The pumpkin day has been by September 11 under Biden, shortening more recently to August 31.

This didn't turn into chaos because there was a date certain that passed and the Taliban cried Havoc and let slip the dogs of war.  It turned into chaos basically in the middle of the withdrawal when the Afghans fell and the Taliban overran everything.  That was going to happen, one way or the other, as soon as the Taliban could get away with it.

The die was cast months and months ago about reducing troop levels and pulling support for the Afghans.  So, to the extent the chaos is directly attributable to the fall of the Afghans and the Taliban running amok (which I submit is damn near 100%), this kind of thing was inevitable.

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3 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

500 at each location plus command and control at BAF. This would be people on teh ground and does not include AirPower. But hell, when was the last time we lost a plane there? You hold each perimeter and at the same time you make the bad guys to have to think about multiple places. Let me know if you want me to name the locations. 

Are you talking about just getting Americans out, or the couple hundred thousand plus friendly Afghans as well? I could certainly be wrong, but 500 doesn't sound like anything near enough to process high-tens of thousands of people per location quickly. 

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10 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Why are you against adding troops to Kabul to let the Taliban know we are onto them? That’s the obvious answer, no? 2500 turns into 12500 in June if Biden pays any lick of attention.

How is the taliban going to go against a super power who controls the city? Are they going to go after us with their AKs and shitty cars/pick ups?

I get it now. This is a bit. 

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2 minutes ago, Muy Frio said:

I remember when the DT thread was awesome and you could ask guys like Inka and MillerEP their opinion on what’s going on with the minimal necessary commentary. They have extremely detailed knowledge of pretty much everything there. Now we’re here with a bunch of Cr armchair geopolitical/military experts. 
 

Now we have a DT thread where content must be approved. The mods are EXTREMELY touchy on this particular subject. GGWP

Maybe you shouldn't have fucked it up by breaking the rules.

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12 minutes ago, elfenix said:

some place had to be the last place to pull out from. 

Very true, and by that time we should have had many more people out in a more orderly/safe fashion than the after the fact airlift, which our military has done a marvelous job handling by all accounts.  

The horrible decision to not inform our allies was made by this admin. The decision to cut, and run, and apparently let people die who we should have been getting out was made by this admin. (I think they thought it wouldn't resonate with the "voters").

Mr. Bidens remarks tonight were much better, and he left out the string of BS he was slinging last week about ghost contingency plans. They didn't start this shitshow, but they've surely fucked up the leaving part really badly.

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4 minutes ago, Muy Frio said:

I remember when the DT thread was awesome and you could ask guys like Inka and MillerEP their opinion on what’s going on with the minimal necessary commentary. They have extremely detailed knowledge of pretty much everything there. Now we’re here with a bunch of Cr armchair geopolitical/military experts. 
 

Now we have a DT thread where content must be approved. The mods are EXTREMELY touchy on this particular subject. GGWP

Still trying. 

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7 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

500 at each location plus command and control at BAF. This would be people on teh ground and does not include AirPower. But hell, when was the last time we lost a plane there? You hold each perimeter and at the same time you make the bad guys to have to think about multiple places. Let me know if you want me to name the locations. 

How do you safely get the evacuees to those locations? Won’t they need escorts?

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3 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Are you talking about just getting Americans out, or the couple hundred thousand plus friendly Afghans as well? I could certainly be wrong, but 500 doesn't sound like anything near enough to process high-tens of thousands of people per location quickly. 

Yep. All of them. And 500 troops is a lot of firepower. The Talibs don't want to fuck with us. Maybe some of their soldiers do but not the organization. They want us out. 

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I get it now. This is a bit. 

Is that what the CR troubleshoot guide says to post? Well I share the same feelings as ink who knows a thing or two about Afghanistan and certainly not saying joes doing a hell of a job on this and it couldn’t go any better. 13 servicemen are dead today from outsiders because joe ignored intel all summer. Americans also advised to leave are also to blame but they aren’t powerful like the president…who right now seems like a wimpy little bitch.
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3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Here's the thing.  The pumpkin day has been by September 11 under Biden, shortening more recently to August 31.

This didn't turn into chaos because there was a date certain that passed and the Taliban cried Havoc and let slip the dogs of war.  It turned into chaos basically in the middle of the withdrawal when the Afghans fell and the Taliban overran everything.  That was going to happen, one way or the other, as soon as the Taliban could get away with it.

The die was cast months and months ago about reducing troop levels and pulling support for the Afghans.  So, to the extent the chaos is directly attributable to the fall of the Afghans and the Taliban running amok (which I submit is damn near 100%), this kind of thing was inevitable.

I am not disagreeing with you in terms of this was not ever going to be a smooth transition. We were just a peace keeping force. (JMO) But none of us can know what would have happened...What is happening is all you can judge. My best friend likes to play that one game about the civil war (not the re-enactments just the game to see what would have happened)...again the results are what they are. You can say it could have been worse. You can say it could have been better. What could have been or what would have happened doesn't matter. 

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1 minute ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Is that what the CR troubleshoot guide says to post? Well I share the same feelings as ink who knows a thing or two about Afghanistan and certainly not saying joes doing a hell of a job on this and it couldn’t go any better. 13 servicemen are dead today from outsiders because joe ignored intel all summer. Americans also advised to leave are also to blame but they aren’t powerful like the president…who right now seems like a wimpy little bitch.

You don’t share the same feelings as him

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3 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Is that what the CR troubleshoot guide says to post? Well I share the same feelings as ink who knows a thing or two about Afghanistan and certainly not saying joes doing a hell of a job on this and it couldn’t go any better. 13 servicemen are dead today from outsiders because joe ignored intel all summer. Americans also advised to leave are also to blame but they aren’t powerful like the president…who right now seems like a wimpy little bitch.

I know this has been said before...but I seem to remember you as a different type of poster I guess. If you are going through something, like I totally understand, but damn I remember you as being different. Like more open-minded I guess. Not criticizing you. I just seem to remember your posts differently. 

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4 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Is that what the CR troubleshoot guide says to post? Well I share the same feelings as ink who knows a thing or two about Afghanistan and certainly not saying joes doing a hell of a job on this and it couldn’t go any better. 13 servicemen are dead today from outsiders because joe ignored intel all summer. Americans also advised to leave are also to blame but they aren’t powerful like the president…who right now seems like a wimpy little bitch.

Do you think Joe should have overridden his generals to disperse the 2500 troops on the ground to the various airbases to conduct the withdrawal from there?

That's Inka's latest proposal.  Sounds reasonable to me.  Plausible.  Might have obtained a better result.

And it is almost without doubt below the Presidential level of decisionmaking.

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1 minute ago, Nicole44 said:

I know this has been said before...but I seem to remember you as a different type of poster I guess. If you are going through something, like I totally understand, but damn I remember you as being different. Like more open-minded I guess. Not criticizing you. I just seem to remember your posts differently. 

He started being a dickhole over Covid.  It seems to have gotten worse.

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1 minute ago, Sawbonz said:

How do you safely get the evacuees to those locations? Won’t they need escorts?

You overwatch. You tell the Talibs "Yo, tomorrow 50 cars are going to go to Leatherneck or Herat at this time. Open the roads up Achmed or we will drop a GP bomb on your check point." 

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15 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

The horrible decision to not inform our allies was made by this admin. The decision to cut, and run, and apparently let people die who we should have been getting out was made by this admin.

Did you read what TXG8R posted earlier?  

Also, check the date on this article from AP and how it relates to "not informing our allies."  They were gone already.

Most European troops exit Afghanistan quietly after 20 years

By GEIR MOULSON and KATHY GANNONJune 30, 2021
 
 
Soldiers of the German Armed Forces have lined up in front of the Airbus A400M transport aircraft of the German Air Force for the final roll call in Wunstorf, Germany, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. The last soldiers of the German Afghanistan mission have arrived at the air base in Lower Saxony. The mission had ended the previous evening after almost 20 years. The soldiers had been flown out with four military planes from the field camp in Masar-i-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan. (Hauke-Christian Dittrich/Pool via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the U.S.-led mission was officially expected to end — part of an anticlimactic close to the “forever war” that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Poland’s last troops returned home, bringing their deployments to a low-key end nearly 20 years after the first Western soldiers were deployed there.

Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony — a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the U.S. invasion to rid the country of al-Qaida after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the ensuing decades, the war went from one mission to another. Former U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration shied away from nation-building and the United Nations advocated a light footprint. But with the passing years, NATO and U.S. troops took on greater roles developing Afghanistan’s National Security and Defense Forces and training police. At the war’s peak, the U.S. and NATO military numbers surpassed 150,000.

NATO agreed in April to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan to match U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull all American troops from the country, starting May 1.

Biden set a Sept. 11 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But more recently, American officials have said that pullout would most likely be completed by July 4 — and many allies have moved to wrap up their own presence by then as well.

NATO declined to give an update Wednesday on how many nations still have troops in its Resolute Support mission. But an analysis of 19 governments’ announcements shows that more than 4,800 of the non-American forces have left.

The U.S. has refused to give troop figures, but when Biden announced the final pullout, between 2,500 and 3,500 troops were deployed. As of February, a total of some 832,000 American troops had served in Afghanistan, while about 25,100 Defense Department civilians had also served there.

The U.S. has also refused to give a clear date for a final withdrawal.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday only that the U.S. withdrawal remains “on the timeline that the president announced ... which is to get our troops out of Afghanistan, while having a remaining diplomatic presence on the ground, by September.”

Germany announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister late Tuesday, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.

Three transport aircraft landed at the Wunstorf air base in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon. The troops, wearing masks, lined up on the tarmac for a brief ceremony, but the military dispensed with a bigger reception because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have worked long and hard to stand here today,” said Brig. Gen. Ansgar Meyer, the last commander of the German contingent. “As your commander, I can say for you: ‘Mission accomplished.’ You have fulfilled your task.”

But the top American general in Afghanistan gave a sobering assessment Tuesday, warning about the recent rapid loss of districts to the Taliban and cautioning the country could descend into civil war.

The German pullout came amid a spate of withdrawals by European nations. Poland’s last departing troops were greeted Wednesday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Some 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The last Italian troops from Italy’s base in Herat arrived at the military airport in Pisa late Tuesday. Italy officially declared its mission in Afghanistan over in a statement Wednesday, with Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini paying tribute to the 53 Italians who died and 723 who were injured over the past two decades.

Going forward, Guerini said Italy’s commitment to Afghanistan would remain, “beginning with the strengthening of development cooperation and support for Afghan institutions.”

Georgia’s last troops returned home Monday, while Romania brought home its remaining 140 troops Saturday, when Norway also pulled out. Troops from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands also returned home last week. Spain withdrew its last troops on May 13, Sweden on May 25, and Belgium on June 14. The small contingents deployed by Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Albania, North Macedonia and Luxembourg have left as well.

The pullout is nearing its end as security in Afghanistan worsens. Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have overrun district after district, including along major transportation routes. Many have fallen after Afghan soldiers surrendered, often convinced to leave their posts by elders. But elsewhere there have been bitter military battles, with Afghan troops sometimes losing when their positions could not be resupplied.

The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austen S. Miller, meanwhile, expressed concern about the resurrection of militias, which were deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces but have a brutal reputation for widespread killing.

“A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory it’s on right now, that should be of concern to the world,” he said.

At a ceremony last week to mark the official end of the Dutch deployment, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten underscored the uncertain outlook.

“We see reports of the rise of the Taliban, growing violence, also in areas where we were stationed,” she said. “A lot has been achieved but we must be realistic: The results are not irreversible.”

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I remember when the DT thread was awesome and you could ask guys like Inka and MillerEP their opinion on what’s going on with the minimal necessary commentary. They have extremely detailed knowledge of pretty much everything there. Now we’re here with a bunch of Cr armchair geopolitical/military experts. 
 
Now we have a DT thread where content must be approved. The mods are EXTREMELY touchy on this particular subject. GGWP

Yea. It’s because of posters who couldn’t refrain from injecting their commentary on how Biden fucked up or it was all Trumps fault.

So here we are. Somewhere everyone is free to be as stupid (almost) as MN’s posts.
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6 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I am not disagreeing with you in terms of this was not ever going to be a smooth transition. We were just a peace keeping force. (JMO) But none of us can know what would have happened...What is happening is all you can judge. My best friend likes to play that one game about the civil war (not the re-enactments just the game to see what would have happened)...again the results are what they are. You can say it could have been worse. You can say it could have been better. What could have been or what would have happened doesn't matter. 

I wasn't sure that you were making the argument, but there's a common notion among critics of the withdrawal that a day came and went and all hell broke loose because we were withdrawn, but unprepared.  And that's not quite how it went down.  

I think there are legit criticisms as to why non-combatants weren't evacuated months ago.  Hell, why didn't they leave on their own and why weren't they more forcefully encouraged to do so? Why was evacuation centralized to Kabul/Hamid Karzai?  Scores of things seem to have been questionable decisions.

But the more I drill down into it, the more it seems like these are the kinds of things that a) aren't Presidential decisions except in the most macro sense, b) likely excuses for further delay in the ultimate withdrawal, and c) going to require more troops than were on the ground as of 1/20/21.

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2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

He started being a dickhole over Covid.  It seems to have gotten worse.

Why does not the Taliban have the Covid? This would be a win win. Same with ISIS...

And yes, Covid seems to have brought out a lot of stuff to the surface. But I think most everyone on this board are good peeps. I haven't seen anything that would make me not want to be friends with anyone here. I am sure, that there are those that think they know me and would choose not to befriend. totally understand. 

I think I am just reminiscing on old high school friend. I have thought about him from time to time over the years. He just wanted to join the Army because his dad was a Marine for 24 years. And he got called back (after joining the National Guard) and that was when my friend was killed. I just can't imagine how service members view this. Unlike Vietnam, we treat our veterans much differently. But shit...it still hurts to turn over a country back to a bunch of assholes. On the History channel the other night they had all of these minerals that were listed as to why that country is important. Fucking A. 

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9 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

it is almost without doubt below the Presidential level of decisionmaking.

This right here.  Some here have a problem with the "Commander in Chief" idea.  He's not making the calls, nor should he.  My guess is he tells the Pentagon the results he wants and trusts them to execute.  

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3 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

On the History channel the other night they had all of these minerals that were listed as to why that country is important. 

China is next in line to take a crack at those minerals.  Let's see how it works out for them.

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2 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

This right here.  Some here have a problem with the "Commander in Chief" idea.  He's not making the calls, nor should he.  My guess is he tells the Pentagon the results he wants and trusts them to execute.  

I mean, that's great, but the head coach is still the one that takes the fall. That's the job.

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4 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

So you think that we can "fix" how the Taliban thinks or acts? We spent twenty years over there. 60.000 Afghan fighters died. Just to be taken over by a group of people who deserve to die. 

No I think we should just blow the whole place up. That seems reasonable. Very nuanced.

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8 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

So you think that we can "fix" how the Taliban thinks or acts? We spent twenty years over there. 60.000 Afghan fighters died. Just to be taken over by a group of people who deserve to die. 

There are lots of monsters in the world*. The Taliban isn’t the worst. We can’t stop ideologies that don’t adhere to our norms. Hell, look what’s happening in America … we can’t stop the bigotry and hatred from our neighbors on our own soil.

* American imperialism has created a metric ton of ‘em, too.

 

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2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Americans do not have the stomach to do what you want to the Taliban.

Not only that but there are evil people all over the world.  When we are done killing all the Taliban then should we start killing all the bad people in this world by continent?  Let’s do the same in the rest of Asia, Africa, South America, and so on.  Sounds like a hell of a plan.  It sucks but bad people will continue to do bad things all over this planet and there is nothing we can do about it except make sure it doesn’t come into our neck of the woods.

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