Should the United States get out of Afghanistan?

A poll question about whether the U. S. should get out of Afghanistan or remain there appears here from time to time. We've been involved there militarily for over 15 years, with no apparent end in sight.

What's your opinion? Should we continue to stay there under the same circumstances, or should we pack up and leave soon?

 

They should have never gone in the first place.

 

All Afghanistan has been for the U. S. is a convenient place to dump billions of dollars that were obviously not needed for any other purpose....

Idiot Bush started it, with good intentions, but it turned into a big, stagnant pile of sh*t. Idiot Obama promised in no-uncertain-terms to end it while campaigning for the presidency as far back as 2008. He lied.

Now all Afghanistan does it get a few Americans killed every few weeks, for NOTHING. And, of course, we go right on dumping money into this bottomless Islamic pit, with no end in sight. Thus, the question arises -- should President Trump stop this adventure in Afghanistan NOW? For me, it isn't even a matter of debate anymore. I'd like to see us out, bag and baggage, by the end of this year! If not , then what the hell are we staying there for...?

 

The Taliban had sheltered ALQ there in order to have a safe haven for terrorism. We went in and destroyed that safe haven. Problem is, we should have left right after that.

 

Afganistan is our problem. We made it our problem. We can't just bug out and let it become another failed state.

We must stay for the time being; just not under the curremt conditions.

 

Talk like this always reminds me of an old saying.

"If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the fury of the Legions."

 

I have heard the reason the US stays in Afghanistan has to do with the black budget and the drug trade.

We should leave but I doubt it's going to happen due to how rare it is for the United States to withdraw bases from any nation it has ever put them in.

 

'Afghanistan' per se has been running rings around you and us since we went in 15 years ago and are still doing it. And if that isn't enough, we have made no material improvements for the Afghanis in all this time, therefore there's no point staying there any longer. I actually believed the first thing Obama would do was get out as soon as he was elected but he didn't, so that's been yet another four years with nothing to show for it.

Edit - actually they've been running rings around the US even longer than that - ever since the Great Bitter Lake talks in fact??

 

Disagree. The Taliban ran the entire nation of Afghanistan up until we came in. By December it belonged to us. Now it's just fighting little tiny pockets of those who aren't hiding. Definitely time to go. We destroyed them. Game over

 

We should never have gone and it is time to leave. It serves no purpose that is worth the lives and treasure of America.

 

From a guy who has admitted to never having stepped foot on Afghan soil. "But but but... I WATCHED A YOUTUBE VIDEO ONCE!!!" Will be your response.

 

As stupidly useless and disastrous as America's Vietnam 'adventure' was, not even IT lasted anywhere NEAR this long....

So, we're remaining in Afghanistan just so it won't look to the rest of the world like we are leaving?

. "Meh, now we only get one or two killed a month...."

 

As I keep saying to you, it wasn't a 'youtube video', it was an in-depth documentary by a respected film maker whose exposé was universally acknowledged and applauded. Incidentally, to date I've watched Bitter Lake roughly 7 times.

 

What does the OP want another ISIS? We are still in Japan, Germany and South Korea.....We have no choice but to remain in Afghanistan for another 50 or so years.


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Yes get out

Burn all the poppy fields and go

 

Agree that - a bit like we over-stayed our welcome in Iraq.

 

Agreed so far ...

Unfortunately the problem was caused by the USA themselves in foolish behavior!
That Al Qiada and their friends Taliban who gave them safe heaven had to bleed for after 9/11 is clear and un-doubtful! The USA started the issue extreme smart with using CIA teams, some special forces and very few ground forces in sum (aside the Air Power of course), but backing the enemy of Taliban - the Northern Alliance as ally!
This worked extreme good and we all know how fast the Northern Alliance was able to kick the Taliban nearly completely off from Afghanistan with US support and in mid of 2002, the Taliban were nearly eliminated together with Al Qaida in Afghanistan. It was the head of Taliban who asked for a honorable surrender to the new Afghan government, but who forbid this surrender which would have ended the war? The US government!
The big mistake after this huge mistake to deny any negotiations came then, when the US did not finish the job totally, reduced military actions and strength, as well interest (!) due to focus again on Saddam in preparation for the attack in 2003.
Exactly at this time, the Taliban and Al Qaeda strengthened as the dead Phoenix from the ashes and are since then as a plague no longer dead!

Summarized:
The United States could have ended the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2002, with perhaps 10,000 men supporting the Afghan government, rebuilding and building the new Afghan army and police a few more years. But no, the idiots in Washington at the time have messed it up!

 

Aka YouTube video by random blogger.

 

We do get the message - or at least I do - that you'd rather the world didn't know the true facts about your ill-conceived and abjectly failed adventure into Afghanistan, but don't shoot the messengers.

 

The united states brought the Taliban to life supporting the Mujaheddin back in the 80's and the chickens came home to roost





http://www.salon.com/2015/11/17/we_...ld_have_supported_osama_bin_laden_in_the_80s/

 

Murder 3,000 Americans and go liberal and do nothing ???

By 2003 Al Qaeda had fled Afghanistan and went into hiding in Northern Pakistan and relocated to Yemen and the Horn Africa where they were cornered and checked, unable to operate until Obama became POTUS.

The Taliban got their butts kicked a bloody red and fled to Northern Pakistan where they licked their wounds while they watched what was going on in Iraq and on the streets of America. By 2006 the Taliban watched what was going on in America and saw that the liberals were doing it again like they did during the Vietnam War, back stabbing the American soldier and the Taliban said those stupid Americans didn't learn jack **** about how you can lose a war on the streets of America and started to infiltrate back into Afghanistan. Under Obama's PC ROE that favored the enemy and resulted in American troops bleeding and dying in the name of political correctness, Al Qaeda soon returned to Afghanistan back in 2015.

"Al Qaeda is being decimated and is on the run." That was the community organizer platform he ran on in 2012 reelection campaign. It was one big freaking lie.

After 9-11-01 every member of Congress except for one Marxist Black Panther Congresswoman voted for putting American combat troops in Afghanistan.

But liberals and neoconservatives are always in the nation building business and like using the U.S. military for nation building.

The war in Afghanistan should have been fought as a punitive action war. "Crush and Bolt." Same with Iraq.

Go in and crush the enemy. Kill every thing you see. Any friendlies get caught in the cross fire, though ****...let God sort out the bodies. The entire theater of war is one big freaking "free fire zone." (That's how we won the war in Europe and in the Pacific during WW ll.)

After you crush the enemy you "Bolt," you leave, leaving a message...**** with America again we'll be back and crush you again. That's how America use to fight its wars before 1946.

 

Trump White House weighs unprecedented plan to privatize much of the war in Afghanistan


The White House is actively considering a bold plan to turn over a big chunk of the U.S. war in Afghanistan to private contractors in an effort to turn the tide in a stalemated war, according to the former head of a security firm pushing the project.

Under the proposal, 5,500 private contractors, primarily former Special Operations troops, would advise Afghan combat forces. The plan also includes a 90-plane private air force that would provide air support in the nearly 16-year-old war against Taliban insurgents, Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm, told USA TODAY.

The unprecedented proposal comes as the U.S.-backed Afghan military faces a stalemate in the war and growing frustration by President Trump about the lack of progress in the war.

The U.S. military has 8,400 U.S. troops there to train and guide local forces. They do not have a direct combat role, and presumably would be replaced gradually by the contractors.

The plan remains under serious consideration within the White House despite misgivings by Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, an Army three-star general, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Other White House officials, such as chief strategist Stephen Bannon, appear open to using private contractors.

“At what point do you say a conventional military approach in Afghanistan is not working,” said Prince, a former Navy SEAL. “Maybe we say that at 16 years.”

Blackwater, founded 1997, worked extensively in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prince sold the company in 2010.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Prince said the plan will cost less than $10 billion a year, significantly lower than the more than $40 billion the Pentagon has budgeted this year...

continue -> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...e-house-weighs-bold-plan-privatize/548004001/

 

Revisionist history.

Your post is fake news and liberal revisionism.

There was no Taliban when Reagan was President and the CIA didn't oppose arming the Mujaheddin with Stinger missiles, it was the CIA who wanted to arm the Mujaheddin with Stingers.

The Taliban was founded by the Pakistan intelligence service.

Actually it was a liberal Democrat in Congress, Charlie Wilson (D) who was behind arming the Mujaheddin, not President Reagan. Reagan was to busy fighting the Cold War in Central America at the time, remember "Iran-Contra" ? But the Soviet / Afghanistan War was just one battle that was fought during the Cold War just as the Vietnam War was just one battle fought during the Cold War. Both were just two of the over 50 proxy wars fought during the Cold War.

 

we should get out of Afghanistan so the Taliban can burn down the poppy fields and end the heroin epidemic

the cia doesn't need the money anymore, now that they've lost their Syrian war.

 

It's hard to know. ISIS is in Afghanistan too. Anyway, the terrorism problem is deeply rooted in Islam and because their is 1 billion muslims, the problem of terrorism will last for a long time.