Should the West intervene again in Afghanistan?

What are we going to do level Kabul and Kandahar?

 

We need to stay out of Afghanistan. Nothing there is worth one more American life.

 

We didn't, we were more subtle than that, we sent them to Afghanistan and bled the Sovs dry.

 

Will you be saying that if another 9/11 is launched from there and another 3000 American lives are lost?

There had not been an American death there in over a year and a half. Americans were not in the front lines the Afgahns were there and fighting.

 

If the Taliban launch another attack on the United States then we go in with overwhelming force, burn their cities to ash and disperse their population. Make sure there is no more Afghanistan, then leave. Make an example of them that to kill our people is a death sentence for you and everyone you love. To quote Sherman "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

 

You said

And now it's well if more Americans are killed THEN we will do something. In others we only act in a reactionary mode, Americans killed first, then we act. That certainly contradicts what you are saying about American lives. Is it worth American lives to NOT confront the Islamic Jihadist and terrorist so they can kill more of us?

 

What exactly is "confront the Islamic Jihadist" Mean? All I have seen in Afghanistan is us spending money, wasting lives, and getting no where for decades. Is that "confronting the Islamic Jihadists." Because if it is then I prefer what I stated far more. If not, then whats the plan Stan?

 

We will be compelled to go again in our own defense, again.

 

And it would have been less of a quagmire had we done it better.

 

You can't 'do it better' because less of a quagmire, is still a quagmire. Lots of folks across the globe have a vested interest in preventing us from ever really winning that war from Russia, to Pakistan, to sympathetic muslim regimes in the middle east, to allied terrorist cells with wealthy benefactors. They just have to keep pouring enough resources, enough military support and weaponry, enough intelligence and sanctuary to keep Taliban hopes alive.

 

A position bereft of common sense in my view. Less of a quagmire is better. The only thing keeping us from ever winning a war is politics. We need to give up the concept of being a planetary police force. We aren't competent at it.

 

We have every right to continue to pursue Isis K and the like with drone strikes and special forces.

 

They could have fought off the Taliban they clearly want to live under them, so let them.

 

Treat it like an old girlfriend, it's over, no more gifts and accept that you'll never get the rings back and move on.

 

. And this is common sense? We aren't competent at guerilla warfare in Asia, Africa, or South America so that is the concept we need to give up on. The pattern is sitting in American interference in historically colonialist parts of the globe where we decide to invade, accomplish our 'mission' and then leave. While you keep looking to 'tweak' your model for this guerilla war in the mountains and caves and poppy fields of Afghanistan year after year after year, everyone looses. The answer is to STAY OUT of quagmires, not try to do better in them and if you happen to find yourself in one, pull out as fast as possible. The entire debacle was predictable from the moment we planted a lot of American troops in there.

 

We always knew where the poppy fields were.

 

So many questions. I think we need to focus on actual threats to our security, and the Taliban may not be that threat, if indeed they ever were. It was Al Qaeda, not Taliban, that attacked us, so why would we want to go back and attack the Taliban again? While it was a noble effort to free Afghanistan from their oppressive rule, the real goal was to combat terrorism, especially of the 9/11 sort. These days, we may actually have to look at working with the Taliban to combat such terrorists. In fact, it would be up to them to do the ground fighting. We could provide airpower and intelligence if they want to take up that fight. It could actually be quite mutually beneficial and would be much better than allowing ISIS-K and the like to continue unmolested. The main goal is that they don't have a safe haven in Afghanistan or anywhere else.

 

Yep, drug crops means there will always be a method by which a guerilla army, or an insurrgency can fund its weapons and operations against a conventional force. You will never be able to control their access to finances simply by 'freezing bank assets' or enforcing sanctions or putting up a blockade.

 

I think the West should only violently respond if the Taliban launch another terror attack. But not to help the Afghans out of Islamism hell. Just only to destroy and punish the terrorists.

 

Did we use all our agent orange in Vietnam?

 

Were al Qaeda and ISIS and other terrorist groups freely operating out of Afghanistan planning and conducting attacks on the western nations? And you call preventing them from doing so a waste of lives? We had not lost a life in Afghanistan for EIGHTEEN MONTHS before Biden cause 13 to be killed by his dereliction of duty. The Taliban leadership was being descimated anytime they tried to show their heads.

The question is what now, you think the war against the Islamic Jihadist just ended?

 

No argument there. We need to stay out of the business of other countries. While we should not have gone into Afghanistan, the reason was that we viewed it as the source of the 9/11 attack and hence was an enemy with which we had to deal. Once Bin Laden left the country we should have left the country as well. The desire to "fix" broken countries is a serious weakness with the U.S. government. I can accept the motivation to go there but the decision to stay there was indefensible.

 

Biden has been ill served by the people advising him and acting in his name.

 

Lol, this may be one of those times on forums like this, where we may have agreed during the entire debate, but did not know it!!

 

Depends. If the Taliban goes back to their old habit of giving safe haven and training grounds to terrorist organizations like ISIS and AQ among others, we might not have a choice. Depends meaning if one or more of these terrorist organizations use Afghanistan as a place for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks on the U.S. and Europe.

Remember, the only reason we went into Afghanistan to begin with was a terrorist attack, 9-11 where UBL and AQ used Afghanistan as a sanctuary, safe haven for their planning and carrying out the attack. We wouldn't have cared one iota if the Taliban took over all of Afghanistan if it weren't for 9-11. Much depends on the actions of the Taliban whether or not we get involved once again there.

Having said that, we allied with the 13 tribe northern alliance who were fighting the Taliban who were trying to rule over all 18 tribes of Afghanistan. One man, one tribe rule over all the rest. Using a few SF and paramilitary on the ground, letting the Afghans do the ground fighting while supplying the air power. That drove the Taliban into the mountains on the Pakistani border. Then Nation Building.

Now we didn't listen to the wants and wishes of the 13 tribe Northern Alliance leaders. All they wanted was to return to their tribal homeland to be ruled over by their tribal elders and religious folks. But we forced democracy on them, which they didn't want. That equated to the same thing in their eyes that the Taliban was trying to do. One tribe, one man rule over all the other tribes. You can equate the tribes of Afghanistan to our own American Indian Tribes which each one was basically a nation unto themselves. Several of the 13 tribes, once our allies then deserted and went over to the Taliban. We decided what form of government the Afghani would have, not the Afghan's themselves. They didn't want our form of government. We dug our own grave so to speak. When we began this so called nation building, it was bound to fail. Fact was that there was no central government in Afghanistan prior to us forming one. The USSR had tried that before us, setting up a central government only to have it fail also. Each tribe wanted their own rulers, not rulers from another tribe. Expect more tribal war in the future against the Taliban. But the Taliban now has the power to subdue the rest. The Taliban is a name adopted by 5 tribes of the Pastun when they united.

So we'll wait and see. Old habits of the Taliban or will they now become a country, a nation as we recognize a country, a nation to be instead of a mixture of different tribes ruling over their own area of Afghanistan. Will they refrain from giving safe haven to terrorist. Who knows? So depends is my answer.