the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

The US was never in a war against Afghanistan, or even the Taliban. We were on one side of a civil war that is ongoing.

The PRC would have a better chance than most, butt the cost would offset the gain. Better to get mining concessions in exchange for humanitarian aid.

This singular focus on the warpath, without regard to the past lessons of history; boggles my mind
I mean all could have learnt.... but no. The tremendous loss of life in both military and civilian sides
is really regrettable.
In the end, Afghanistan is still Afghanistan.

Sure, one can argue that progress has been made, but the question is for just how long and will it continue
Personally, i have my doubts

Afghanistan is a beautiful country. Though I was deployed for 1 year (Bagram, Parwan Province/Charikar), I got to know the people and work with many people (Pushtin, Tajik, Uzbek, Druze, Kurd (affiliated wuth Yuksel, a Turkish construction concern) and I realized the "pawn state" that Afghanistan has become. It was US interests that gave BnLaden weapons to destroy the Russians and then the Afghans turned it on US interests. It did not help that US tried to secure oil interets but that fell to the wayside and we will pay for that. The lies never stop with war! My hero General Smedley Butler put it in a nutshell but with today's political climate, he might not have said anything because we failed to understand it so we repeat the same mistakes. It never ends!