Why is the US in Afghanistan?

[tstv_lover]

Maybe a dumb question - maybe not - but what is the reason that the US has a large (and growing) contingent in Afghanistan?

[thx1138]

To kill people. (Population reduction program)

[Rogers]

Not just the U.S., but N.A.T.O. as a whole. The whole issue of Afghanistan might have already been resolved had Bush-Cheney not had the bright idea of invading Iraq to look for non-existent W.M.D.s'. The longer an occupation of a country goes on the higher the chance that its people will turn against its occupiers. Afghanistan is the type of country that had to "fixed" quickly, though that was quite probably impossible. Anyways, the time for fixing Afghanistan fast has long since passed, and now it can ONLY be a long haul...

[hippifried]

To rotate ordnance.

[tstv_lover]

Yes, I know that NATO has a presence in Afghanistan but the US is also operating outside of the NATO force (Isaf). Isaf seems to have a stated objective - albeit pretty vague - but I'm unclear what the mission objective of the other US troops is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7228649.stm

Is it to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" as President Obama said today (guess that he should know!), to destroy the Taleban, to maintain strategic control in the area, to find Osama bin Laden or something else.

Without understanding the mission objective it's impossible to understand if progress is being achieved and what constitutes success.

[kittyKaiti]

Maybe a dumb question - maybe not - but what is the reason that the US has a large (and growing) contingent in Afghanistan?

Where have you been in the past eight years? Does the name Osama bin Laden ring a bell? Al Qaeda?

[hippifried]

If anybody had really wanted to get Osama binLaden, he'd be sitting in Attica today. It was just an excuse for bombing somebody, anybody, to appease the vengeful mood of the Aerican people at the time.

The Taliban are assholes, but they're their assholes. They never did anything to us. There were no Afghans on the planes. They weren't looking to pick a fight with the US. They couldn't "hand over binLaden" because they never had him in custody. He wasn't engaged in criminal activity there. They said exactly what we say any time someone requests extradition: "Show us your evidence." We bombed instead.

You never know what you don't know, but I've never seen a coherent reason for going in there in the first place, & I see less reasoning for staying there. The war in Afghanistan is a gigantic fuckup. We should admit it & get the hell out.

[kittyKaiti]

The fact that your screen name has the word "hippie" in it automatically voids anything you say.





Conspiracy theorists are so dumb.

[hippifried]

Well the mere fact that you'd say something that stupid, about something you obviously know nothing about, pretty much voids your opinions. So what?

You're right about conspiracy theorists though. That's why it was so blatantly dumb to invade Afghanistan in the first place. Lame conspiracy theories were & are the only excuses for the "war on terror".

[thx1138]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090507/...xsbmJzcHN0b3I- Will the US run out of money before Afghanistan runs out of people? Stay tuned.