If we leave Afghanistan now or 5 years from now.....will it make ANY difference?

[KansasVoter]

I remember making fun of the USSR because they were struggling in Afghanistan! Laughing about how their damn country could not even take over a bunch of back ass rebels.

I was wrong and NOT laughing now!!!

I honestly do not think leaving now or 5 years form now will change anything!!! Does anyone here? If so please respond and explain to me why!

All we will do is lose a few hundred (thousand) more troops and spend $30 - $60 Billion more dollars!

And all along teachers, cop and unemployed people are left with nothing.

I guess Cops, teachers and the unemployed should join the damn military. It is a guaranteed job!

[Jennicut]

1. Not really. There is no victory to be had there. Petraeus did not work a miracle in Iraq to begin

with. He had the Sunni Awakening and gave them money. Do we even have a faction in Afghanistan who would even behave in the same manner? I highly doubt it. Nation building in a nation that is barely one just won't work.

[tekisui]

2. The longer we stay, the more we will radicalize, the more blowback we

will have to deal with, the more US and Afghan dead.

Other than that, no. There would be no difference if we leave now or 10 years from now.

[Andy823]

3. I agree with you.

The government now is corrupt, as long as Karzai is in charge, and working both sides of the war, getting richer everyday, nothing will change. Even if he left office, the odds are the next guy would be just as corrupt. We will "NEVER" win in this country, and the only reason I see for staying is that the big corporations want their resources, trillions of dollars worth so they say, the pipe line the oil companies want to run through the country, and the fact that the war machine needs this war to keep it going! The "real" powers that be want to take over the middle east, and as long as they are in control, the wars will never end!

[Clio the Leo]

4. Are those who are opposed to the war also condemning the deaths of the al qaeda leaders....

.... who have been killed since December?

Forgive me if I'm missing those threads.

[KansasVoter]

6. So you think we are winning? Let me know how to know when we do.

[Clio the Leo]

7. My thoughts on "winning"....

... are discussed in depth in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=354490

[droidamus2]

5. Isn't it time

Isn't it time that we acknowledge that there are regions in this world where fighting any kind of war is just stupid (okay I think all wars are stupid but that's another question). Specifically areas where the terrain makes it easy for your opponent to hide or so vast that you control one area so your opponents just move to another part of the country. As we found in Vietnam another problem is when the people you supposedly are trying to protect and defend look just like the people you are trying to control and kill. There is also historic precedent again Vietnam is a good example as well as Afghanistan. Many powerful countries through the centuries have tried to conquer or tame or bring these countries under control and all of them have eventually failed. Shouldn't that tell us something? Do I have a good answer for what to do when you have regimes that subvert personal freedoms and export terrorism? No I don't but pouring money down the hole of un-winnable wars doesn't seem the right solution.

[Autumn]

8. It might make a difference to the ones who

will die, the longer it goes on. I would rather see our politicians light cigars with 100 dollar bills than throw it away on this war. It would be less obscene.

[Orsino]

9. Um, if we leave...

...we will no longer be killing or dying in Afghanistan. That would make quite a difference.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. I don't see how troops can make any difference out their

if intelliegence is sorely lacking and corrupted then we are dead meat