I don’t understand how the US even considering staying in Afghanistan can be supported by anything.
Twenty years, dead soldiers, tons of money. And still, a pathetic, humiliating defeat. The US army is a joke. It hasn’t win anything in forever. Yes, yes, it hung around when the USSR won WWII. But since then – crickets. One loss after another. One pathetic defeat after another at the hands of a ragtag gang du jour. With all of the weaponry, with all of the money, this is an outrageously incompetent army. And until it becomes less incompetent, it should stay home and train, or something.
I know this is now going to turn into a debate on the US’s role in WWII but whatever you think about that, it was 75 years ago. Since then, it’s been ludicrous on every level.
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m not arguing for once!
How exactly do you define the mission in Afghanistan? I also view it as a defeat, but the army is a very small part of that in my mind.
The US army cannot completely change a foreign society. And the mission that failed was the one that depended on that. When the army withdrew and stopped effectively running the country, things would go back to the way they were, and this is what we’re witnessing now.
I think much of what the army had been used for since WW2 was country-building. It can still be effective in a type of actual warfare – limited engagements on foreign soil with concrete achievable objectives.
WW2 involved very different kinds of warfare – an all-out war to recover our allies’ occupied territories in Europe, and resisting foreign aggression in the Pacific war theatre. Thankfully, the army hasn’t and hasn’t needed to engage in those. It may very well turn out to be a complete failure in them.
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I don’t even remember what their declared mission was. Democracy? War on terror? I don’t think anybody remembers at this point. The real purpose is, of course, to spend taxpayer money in extremely corrupt ways. In that sense, the mission was accomplished.
The army is pathetic because did you see those Taliban guys? A bunch of hoodlums, dressed in rags and living in caves. If you can’t wipe them out with all your technology and resources, what can you achieve?
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I agree that the “mission” to Afghanistan was…. ill-advised (let’s leave it at that).
I’m seeing comments (no way to verify) that the current Taliban push is being aided by China (which has been holding meetings with them).
It will be interesting to see if the CCP (who obviously don’t care about anything like human rights) are expecting in return for letting the Taliban run things.
Extra benefit? According to at least one estimate up to 3 million Afghans will probably want to leave with most wanting to go to Europe, more specifically Germany… which is probably shitting itself right now.
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Unfortunately the military has become a jobs program for a lot of poor people, the government needs to justify foreign adventures to keep these folks employed. My brother is a Navy recruiter in rural Virginia and a lot of high school students sign up because the local job market is terrible, it’s either working at a big box store, gas station, widget factory or chicken slaughterhouse. So somehow these people need jobs so they become cannon fodder in the latest war du jour
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All true, sadly.
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The mission was to shovel boatloads of money to DoD contractors who then donate a portion to establishment politicians’ campaigns. Mission accomplished! Now, of course, we have COVID for shoveling money into the pockets of cronies and campaign donors, so… no need for Afghanistan.
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