Afghanistan- A War of Choice?

[Marauder06]

I stumbled across an interesting headline when I was trolling through MSN.com a little while ago. The underlaying question is, "Is Afghanistan a war of choice or war of necessity?"

Well, what do you think?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30563143/

 

[AWP]

I voted No, but with a *.

The war isn't JUST Afghanistan, though we've sold the US public (and the world) on that. Pakistan and Afghanistan are intertwined. Yon referred to it as the AfPak War back in…’06 or something like that and I think it is an accurate description. I think we must consider the two countries to be one theater with many facets and problems, some convergent, some divergent. Right now no one wants to admit this, at least no one in a position of power. We are putting a separate face on the two countries, but it isn’t that simple or contained in the real world.

We are kidding ourselves if we think that Al Qaeda will quit, we’re kidding ourselves if we think the various Taliban/ extremist factions over here will quit, we’re kidding ourselves if we think that the Pakistani gov’t isn’t hanging by a thread, we’re kidding ourselves about a multitude of issues in the two countries…..

The Emperor’s New Clothes suck and someone needs to recognize that fact.

 

[JJ sloan]

I voted No, but with a *.

The war isn't JUST Afghanistan, though we've sold the US public (and the world) on that. Pakistan and Afghanistan are intertwined. Yon referred to it as the AfPak War back in…’06 or something like that and I think it is an accurate description. I think we must consider the two countries to be one theater with many facets and problems, some convergent, some divergent. Right now no one wants to admit this, at least no one in a position of power. We are putting a separate face on the two countries, but it isn’t that simple or contained in the real world.

We are kidding ourselves if we think that Al Qaeda will quit, we’re kidding ourselves if we think the various Taliban/ extremist factions over here will quit, we’re kidding ourselves if we think that the Pakistani gov’t isn’t hanging by a thread, we’re kidding ourselves about a multitude of issues in the two countries…..

The Emperor’s New Clothes suck and someone needs to recognize that fact.

Could not have said it better myself.

 

[Tyrant]

The war may not be a choice, but the location we choose to fight it is and will always be a choice. We could fight this fight in any number of countries. We could also fight this fight in a number of different ways, namely without as large of a footprint in Afghanistan. I totally support where we are fighting, I just think there are more efficient ways of doing it.

 

[7point62]

Afghanistan will never be totally unfucked. We can't make it the 51st state. Too many rocks to grow wheat or corn. The best we can do is kill enough Taliban and AQ to minimize their offensive capability; but anything we do is temporary. We "choose", I guess, the length of our committment and get out when we feel it's safe enough to dismount the tiger's back. Radical Islam is not going away anytime soon so we'll be fighting them somewhere, out of necessity.

 

[doorkicker]

I totally support where we are fighting, I just think there are more efficient ways of doing it.

+1

A victory in Afghanistan is not possible without a victory of sorts in Pakistan (which isn't going well). Paki govt spends just as much time wrangling with the Taliban as they do the US per treaties & agreements.

We are also talking about a land locked country with no natural resources with the exception of Opium (Afghanistan supplies 92% of the world's Opium!!!).

The only thing that Afghanistan has to offer IMO is a stategic geographic location.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Personally I feel that as long as military leaders and Gov leaders are afraid to fight this war effectively and efficiently, we are simply wasting our time and money. I have no experience in Afghanistan, but I know how the machine works and it fuck disgusts me on too many levels…

I think the money and man power could be better spent in the Americas and when dealing with the terrorism we develop a catastrophic strike option (if you attack us, we WILL destroy your population) Nuke the fuckers kind of attitude.

Afghanistan is a toilet bowl and the strategicness of the realstate is a moot point b/c Russia, China, or Iran will demand we move out of the area as soon as we have it stable and as our elected leaders always do, they will give into those demands…

 

[HOLLiS]

I think the only time to go war is out of necessity. If I have a choice, why aren't the other choices exhausted. Much like the use of lethal force. War is just a hellava lot more deadly.

 

[7point62]

We GOTTA stay there until we kill OBL. That, IMO, is priority #1. We gotta kill that motherfucker. That's the necessity. Too many of our bros & sisters have paid the ultimate price for that sonofabitch since 0900 9/11. Draggin his dead ass out of the mountains is victory.