Afghanistan

Listening to what Obama said over the weekend about afghanistan, my guess is that he's holding off to develop an exit strategy to tie to whatever decision he makes about troop commitment. Something involving a timeline for withdrawal. This is quite probably wishful thinking on my part.

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Originally Posted by Alternate Reality Pres. Obama

So...we were all on board with Afghanistan after 9/11, right? Seemed like a good thing to be doing, you know, fucking up the Taliban and whatever. So we drop a bunch of guys in there and it turns out the whole place is just a shithole filled with barbarians and werewolves. Look, I'm not gonna say that fucking up the Taliban is a bad idea, but we gotta stop telling ourselves that saving Afghanistan is somehow part of that, because holy shit, what a stinking pile of rocks that place is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by geerussell

Listening to what Obama said over the weekend about afghanistan, my guess is that he's holding off to develop an exit strategy to tie to whatever decision he makes about troop commitment. Something involving a timeline for withdrawal. This is quite probably wishful thinking on my part.

I prefer we stay, but if we aren't going do what the Gens ask, exit strategy is the next best thing.

Is the fuzzy Afghanistan-Pakistan border the modern-day 38th parallel?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Mxy

Is the fuzzy Afghanistan-Pakistan border the modern-day 38th parallel?

I think of it more like the border between vietnam and cambodia.

Neither Vietnam nor Cambodia had nukes.

It's really Pakistan that's the flaming pile of shit right now. The basic problem with Afghanistan has always been that it's easily destabilized by its neighbors. Right now, it's Pakistan's turn to do the destabilizing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Mxy

Neither Vietnam nor Cambodia had nukes.

That I recall, north korea din't have nukes either when the 38th parallel first became significant.

The parallel (no pun intended) I was drawing was in both cases you had the united states fighting in a country (afghanistan/vietnam) where our enemies could easily hop back and forth across a national border (pakistan/cambodia) where we were limited in our ability to pursue or take the fight to them.

If we don't do anything, it'll mean a larger Taliban presence from which Al Qada will plot to kill more Americans. We have to stay the course or increase the troops if the Gens ask for more troops.

^ Or, find some other solution that doesn't involve us propping up a corrupt and ineffective Afghan government. Not that I know what that solution could be right now, but I suppose it's possible.