Why are we still fighting in Afghanistan?

[Redbear]

McCain has adopted Obama's position that troops should be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan, but why are we even still there?

What is the goal of our current military presence? To find OBL?

[AngryAmish]

1. Because Bush is Hitler.

[ixion]

2. $oil

would be my bet.

[Redbear]

3. Maybe.

It's obviously not just a Bush/Cheney deal. Obama will get us out of Iraq, but Afghanistan will go on and maybe be expanded.

[dsotm-wywh]

4. Um...Al Queda actually does exist, just not in Iraq

Sept. 11 terrorist attack was caused by Al Queda and they need to be wiped off the face of the Earth because of it and they are in Afghanistan. The reason we are still there is because Bush got so oil greedy that he didn't wipe them out completely, he invaded Iraq for no reason, while the Al Queda's are there right now regrouping and deciding how they're going to try to kill us next.

It's ridiculous that we're in Iraq at all but it's also ridiculous those people who think we never should have gone to Afghanistan to wipe out Al Queda.

[Redbear]

8. So, we will have forces in Afghanistan until all Al-queda are dead?

Is that the goal?

[Squatch]

11. Hopefully, until Al Queda is rendered ineffective as a organization

that is able to plan, coordinate, and execute transnational terrorist attacks. :thumbsup:

[conspirator]

26. Or until the US ethnic cleanses the area, which ever comes first [sarcasm] nt

[arcadian]

10. What does a member of Al Qaeda look like?

n/t

[Squatch]

12. Here are a couple of them

[arcadian]

19. Nice, brand new M-65 field jacket.

Props to the Defense Logistics Agency.

[Squatch]

20. LOL. Well played.

:thumbsup:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. So then why aren't we in Pakistan?

And why haven't you enlisted?

[Moochy]

27. Some Nations are Sovereigner Than Others...

apologies to the Smiths. :D

[wuushew]

31. The odds of being a victim of terrorism are somewhere between shark attack and lightning

i.e. not very probable. Takes money to run complex organizations like Al Queda. Traditionally that money was from petro dollars flowing into the Islamic world. Disposable funds combined with frustration over lack of political and economic freedoms go far to explain how we got here. Our imperialism is the third element.


Just walk it off, the age of oil will only last 50 more years tops.

[seasat]

5. Several reasons

First and most importantly, the Afghan citizens want us there. While support for the US/NATO presence has declined with the recent increases in violence, they still want us there to prevent the Taliban from seizing control again. Unlike our presence in Iraq, we are still wanted in Afghanistan (provided we don't make our presence permanent). The majority still supports our overthrow of the Taliban. A huge majority opposes attacks on US and NATO troops.

We owe it to them since our policy in support of the Afghans against the former Soviet Union without followup support to aid them in rebuilding their country contributed to conditions where the Taliban could originally seize control. We used them for a proxy fight against the former Soviet Union then cast them aside. IMHO, that was one of the biggest foreign policy blunders of the last century. We need to provide security until their elected government is stable enough to survive on it's own.

We need to provide security so that infrastructure can be built so they can have a stable economy. We also need to build institutions so that Afghan citizens can find some work without being subjected to the slavery of the opium trade. We need to open up talks with Pakistan and Iran to develop regional trading partners focused on building a market for industry and/or agriculture that is best suited for Afghanistan.

We need additional troops because our current policy relies on too heavily on air support and that results in too many civilian causalities. With more troops in the area they can respond to perceived threats and access the situation up close instead of having air craft blast anything that moves.

The main reason we are still in Afghanistan is because they still want us there. If they change their support against us, then we should leave.

[Moochy]

6. Permanent War

[arcadian]

7. The fact that Marines are being deployed from Iraq to Afghanistan

Should be a wake up call to most Americans. It means that we aren't being told the real nature of that conflict.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Because it is “central front in the war against terrorism,”

Not my words. Senator Obama's words:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080722.wobama0722/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. To protect corporate interests in the pipeline.

[bdamomma]

17. sounds right to me.

[kenny blankenship]

14. They don't love us enough yet there

When we get a hug from them, we'll leave - but they have to mean it!

[Maggie_May]

15. We are still there because of Bush's half ass job!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Because the bosses need a bogeyman to "protect" us from.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

18. I have a feeling this will come to no good end.

Afghanistan has long been the world's briar patch. It truly is a tribal culture, and once you get out of the few cities, you have little but mountains, desert, a largely illiterate and superstitious people who have never really been beaten by an outside military force. They know their area of operation intimately. They have little regard for human life, theirs or others. They cling to traditions because it is all they really have, and growing poppies is one of those traditions.

The Soviets threw some of their best troops at that briar patch and lost. Miserably. I suspect we could meet the same fate.

And Afghanistan has little or no known oil. They might have mineral wealth, but who can explore for it?

Afghanistan has always been a tough nut to crack.

[islandmkl]

21. possibly a 'containment' action versus an 'engagement' action...

keeping al-q at bay in their home (wasn't that what was happening in iraq before the oil $$$ made saddam look tempting) is the 'safest' bet...

if bush had actually executed a 'war on terror' instead of this 'war for oil and plunder of the american treasury' we would be about 4125+ lives ahead, 50-60K strong bodies ahead here at home, 100sK peaceful iraqis ahead, etc....and who knows the true $$$ cost?

there is no similarity between afghanistan and iraq...no common thread except the cost in lives and treasury...and i will submit that afghanistan is not remotely as profitable for anyone/any company as iraq....

afghanistan is about the guys who are organized and devoted to wiping us out (the motivation and justification of which is not the issue here)...iraq was an excuse to basically rape and plunder a country and its people and resources...

[The2ndWheel]

22. Because the world must be brought into the same sphere of influence

That's what globalization is about. If the globe had an actual global military, and not just the US military acting as global cop, it would probably be done quicker. We don't have enough of a military to do it, draft or not, and nobody else has much of a military period. So, we have a global world, but no real global infrastructure to allow that global world to work as well as it's supposed to. Commerce is more global than governance. That's the main problem.

[blues90]

23. probably for the same reason they went in there in the first

place , their damn pipe line no one ever hears about anymore.

[Greyhound]

25. Because the pipeline is not complete or secured. n/t

[spanone]

28. to keep the opium trade flowing? i have no clue.

[wildbilln864]

29. To enrich the elite war profiteers! nt

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Because we never did a thing in Afghanistan.

The GOP put too few troops in to do anything and whatever troops were there were pulled out before they could do anything.

[ellie]

32. I have no idea!

The CIA wants to protect its very lucrative drug trade?

[RedCappedBandit]

33. Who Cares?

Violence is fucking stupid. End of story. Who cares why?

[spanone]

34. because 15 of the 19 hijackers on 911 were saudis?