20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

by Simon 34 Replies latest social current

• 

  Simon

  So the occupation of Afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely NOTHING in that 20 years apart from:

  The death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.

  Handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).

  Has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country? It doesn't appear so.
  

  I said at the time that the US wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change. They lack the political stability and will-power for the length of campaign necessary to transform a culture, which has to be multi-generational.

  Remember: next time your "leaders" tell you to go to war for dubious reasons, grab the nearest rifle and point it at them - that's the only fight worth fighting.
• 

  waton

  there must be something magic about that place, the Soviet Union, which was toughened up by winning a real big nasty war, had the same fate there. feel really sorry for any peaceful people there though, may be only the poppy crop will help?
• 

  WokenfromJWcult

  Feel sorry for all the women that discarded their burkas and those that tried to make it in fashion. They will all be rounded up and whipped and shot at the soccer stadium in Kabul. Just cant change a 5th century religion based on an old covenant made in a wilderness. Will never see any cart witnessing in that country.
• 

  Bill Covert

  The war was lost as depicted in the movie Charlie Wilsons war when the Russians pulled out and the USA Congress did not want to spend any more money to rebuild the country. They left a void which was filled by a religious forced conversion of a weak society.

  I met a Afghan a few months ago, he told me that the CIA was funding the Majahideen prior to the Russian invasion. Of which the Majahideen killed off the intellectuals, professionals and the educated. They made the country into dumb farmers. That surprised me very much. He said when he was a kid it was a very good society, very respectful of older folks, well mannered. But that the country became ruined by the larger power plays of major world powers fighting over its assets.
• 

  Rivergang

  This event was foretold almost 140 years ago by the English poet, Rudyard Kipling - not because he had any psychic power, but just by using straight out simple arithmetic!

  Even back in the year 1886, when Kipling penned the poem Arithmetic on the Frontier, it was fairly obvious that no occupying power could afford to remain in Afghanistan long enough to make much of a difference to things.

  Its final stanza pretty much sums things up:

  With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,

  The troopships bring us one by one,

  At great expense of time and steam,

  To slay Afridis where they run.

  The "captives of our bow and spear"

  Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.

  (See the below link for the full rendition of Kipling's "Arithmetic on the Frontier" -plus some background notes).

  http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_arith.htm

  No wonder that country has been described as "The Graveyard of Empires".
• 

  Rocketman123

  Shame what a waste .
  

  I think the only way to overturn a country such as that is by itself internally, under its own power, military and self determination..

  It unfortunately takes a lot of money and the right people in that power to accomplish this..
  
• 

  resolute Bandicoot

  there must be something magic about that place, the Soviet Union, which was toughened up by winning a real big nasty war, had the same fate there.

  No nothing magic at all, just a people that are driven by a giant meat grinder disguised as a religion, that knows no limit on human consumption. An opponent that is hamstrung by political correctness and multiculturalism, with little understanding of the enemy, no clear goal and no tolerance for a high body count, never stood a chance. The US should called it a day when they used up all tomahawk cruise missiles and B52 "dumb bombs" that were approaching the use by date and come home.
  

  The end result - we defeated the Americans - Allah the merciful is with us, praise to mohammud, peace be upon him, next jihad please.
  
• 

  Rivergang

  Religion plays its part, certainly, but there is also much more involved. These people also saw off the armies of Alexander the Great, over 500 years before there was ever such a thing as Islam.
• 

  smiddy3

  The same can be said for the USA`s coalition partners such as Australia who lost many lives and many more who suffered injuries both physical and mental.

  All for nothing.Now the poor Afghans who supported America and her allies ,have their heads on the chopping block.
• 

  FFGhost

  Sadly true.

  "The graveyard of empires".