How can we successfully end the war in Afghanistan?

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   ExpertCLBposted 13 years ago

   How can we successfully end the war in Afghanistan?

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   ThePeeDeeWildcatposted 13 years ago

   I suppose that the answer lies in how we would define "success". If America could somehow persuade the Afghanis to liberalize their attitudes toward other religions besides Islam, treat their women with dignity and respect, educate their girls as well as their boys, cultivate other agricultural crops instead of opium poppies, maintain a society that respects the rule of law, etc., then we might be able to say that the war ended successfully for us. The Afghanis could then be a potential bulwark against terrorism. Most of Afghanistan, however, is stuck in a time warp of centuries gone by and, quite frankly, I don't see how at this moment that America can accomplish such a miracle.

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   nomadicasianposted 13 years ago

   Unfortunately, there is no success in sight given the fact that Afghanistan cannot be ruled by any legitimate government because the country is beholden to fundamentalist religious belief and guns and bombs.

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   Wayne Brownposted 13 years ago

   I think the short answer if that Afghanistan has all the ruggedness, mountains, and caves to support hidden operations of terrorist training camps, weapons stashes, etc.  Until we can successfully deprive the terrorists of those strongholds, I don't see a way that we can leave short of giving up.  If we do, we will find ourselves going back to finish the job which has grown to an even greater task.  I cannot envision a time when Afghanis will be able to conduct this mission on their own and do it successfully. WB

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   internett1t3posted 13 years ago

   I think the answer seems to impossible but to end the war on Afghanistan they have to be diplomat first. there government rules by their religious beliefs and their courage came from their guns and bombs.

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   Old Empresarioposted 13 years ago

   Since the center of gravity has moved to the mountainous Pakistani hideouts, the war for Afghanistan has already been lost. We're hacking at leaves on a tree in order to kill the tree.
   
   The US Army is not and never has been trained or task organized to execute counter-insurgency operations successfully. We need constant intel from an Afghan population that won't give it to us. Why?--Because the Taliban will kill them if they do. Check mate.
   
   Our troops must be trained to speak the language and must start acclimatizing to the local people. The local national interpreters imbedded with US troops are all spies. The army has its head too far up its own ass to know who we can and can't trust. They let interpreters take monthly furloughs to get debriefed by the Taliban. Excuse me, but trying to win a war without intel and without Afghan cooperation is like trying to swim the English Channel without knowing how to swim. Our last option available is to swallow our pride and negotiate with and/or pay off the warlords in charge (or else get out). If we get out, Afghanistan will fall back under Taliban rule and Karzai will get his job back at Unocal. Big deal. It's not as if this comedy of errors hasn't happened before in different parts of the globe. The day the US government learns from past mistakes and the day Americans actually remember these past mistakes, I'll eat my hat.

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