US Doubles Down on Afghanistan (again)

[OJsDad]

I think the economy did more to keep us out of Afghanistan in the late 90's than anything else.  It was going so good no body believed it was eve going to end, except those of us that new the high tech side was build on a house of cards. 

[Jarhead0331]

The way I see it, we have three options.

1. We stay there forever, in a perpetual cycle of killing the guys who need killing. Let's face it, in that country, in that terrain, with that tribal culture and religion, they basically have a limitless supply of recruits...unless;
2. We say fuck it, and just kill them all. "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius..."; or
3. Just get the hell out, wash our hands of the bloody place and simply prepare to defend our shores.

[MikeGER]

well, now seriously

@JH
4) intimidate them,
and you are lucky atm to have the only president, who is considered 'crazy' enuf (by the chamberlain friends and the foes of the USA alike) to actually keep word when he threats and f$%*#ing act.   

Kill those who have to be killed including those in Northern Pakistan safe heaven, and don't be all to shy with the MK82 rain. (and also take out silently some single "independent Gentlemen", in Qatar and such places, who sponsor terror as a hobby beside golf and falconry... punish one, educate hundred)
Then tell the local warlords / tribal chiefs there: This is your valley, do what you want to do, but if you harbor terrorist an we find out, we arclight your sorry little stretch of landscape from above, including you, your kids and your goats... your choice.

that whole area is stuck in medieval clan system time period and will ever be , they like it that way .
the clans only bow to strength nothing else. words, contracts, promises, honor and bribes only works for a time being. Alliances are made and broken and made again... that is in their tribal tradition, and it goes also down to a single sub/family inside a tribe or even down to the single man
(a local solider or guard can be a trustworthy follower of the installed government this month and a traitor tomorrow, it all depends...)

I guess one tribe may will try to test the borderline and Donald has to follow his words, and annihilate a remote valley with a B52-fleet (no nukes needed), but the others will keep their turf clean from then on for good

Well, Donald would get über-bad press incountry (MSM will go apeshit, but who cares ...they already do on whatever he does atm or does not and how fast or how slow), and also from Europe and the UN will howl too, if he really acts. but that is the situation today already anyway, isn't it.
so where is the difference for him, and btw. it would be a strong message to Putin and China too.
That they better see the USA like its 1941

[GDS_Starfury]

Whats the alternative.

[GDS_Starfury]

when Germans and Jews agree on nuking something it just needs to be nuked.

[Gusington]

Who would know the difference if it was nuked or not?

We should leave. Have some kind of rapid reaction force ready to kill whoever's turn it is, but totally minimize our permanent presence there.

[JasonPratt]

The rapid reaction force has to stage from somewhere. They can't nap in orbital deep freeze to land in drop pods and then teleport back out.

That's the point of the current... well, 'plan', for want of a better word. You put rapid response teams, like the military version of SWAT, in bases scattered around the country, properly supported, properly guarded.

[BanzaiCat]

without a multi-generational overhaul in education, equal rights, rule of law, ending of corruption and tribalism, and separation of church and state.

Hell, we can't do any of that here in the States...why would it work in a culture that's thousands of years older and a billion times more stubborn?

[JasonPratt]

https://www.duffelblog.com/2017/08/trump-taliban-afghanistan-strategy/

"You will not win a battlefield victory," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday in a warning to the Taliban, the militant group currently winning in Afghanistan. "We may not win one but neither will you," he added, mistakenly disclosing the Pentagon's highly-classified Kick Can Down The Road operations plan.

The Pentagon plans to use a system for Afghanistan similar to the Bush administration's color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System, which would soon allow Americans to track the level of winning in Afghanistan on a monthly basis.

Okay, that was too uncomfortably close to real! Winced while 

[bayonetbrant]

https://warisboring.com/when-it-comes-to-the-war-in-the-greater-middle-east-maybe-were-the-bad-guys/

[bayonetbrant]

https://www.thenation.com/article/what-the-us-military-still-doesnt-understand-about-afghanistan/