Afghanistan, after we leave, is going to be run by a combination of Iran, Pakistan, people that aggregate poppy production, religious fundamentalists and western puppets. We are only scratching around the edges. Not much more is possible on time frame and manpower\fiscal constraints that are realistic.

With respect, your reading of India\Pakistan is way off.

The current generation of Pakistani leaders is solid, sort of like a half frozen lake is solid. Corrupt and venal: we know how to channel those impulses, even if they can’t entirely be controlled.

The younger to middle end of Pakistan’s officer core is more suspect. Many are true believers aka “those you can’t buy off.”

Nuclear war on the sub-continent is just about the worst possibility that exists in this world. Mostly that’s because we need India to balance China in the next 50 years.

This would be my solution. Offer to grant the leadership of Pakistan a small extraterritorial state in Nevada, within distance of Las Vegas, in exchange for destroying or handing over the necessary infrastructure of their nuke program.

Mansions plus a guaranteed supply of chemicals, women, and gambling… I think we could swing that.

Btw, where is the kumbayah foreign policy we were promised that would garner international cooperation and participation in Afghanistan? Were we not told that the rest of the world “hates” us and that was why we could not get more participation in Afghanistan and Iraq? AFAIK, Obama has yet to convince anyone to dedicate more troops to Afghanistan than Bush.

Do you want the Truth of HOW we went to war with Japan?? Japan was at war in china and the Pacific islands, and WE cut off their OIL ROUTES to the middle east. I wonder if that PISSED THEM OFF.

For some reason WE NEED WAR. if only to terrorize our OWN nation.

Who do you think is paying now? As you cut tax rates, a higher share of income taxes is paid by the wealthy. Happened under Reagan, Clinton, Bush. When you raise tax rates, the reverse happens.

That sounds great… get in, get out, peace out. But it doesn’t work that way when the people you are fighting disagree with your plan and insist on keeping the fighting going.

In fact, the only time I think that happens is if the war is planned, like Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan hill, or the first Golf War.

One novel idea is to actually win the war as quickly as possible instead of dragging it out for a decade or more. No wonder it’s so expensive.

It’s time to suit up members of Congress and send them to Afghanistan. They obviously have it too good as the only contact battles they participate in is attending Washington parties that we pay for.

I propose we let Senators and Representatives play whack a mole and dodge roadside bombs for a while. That should speed things along quite nicely.

For example, if you tell Christians that the Afghanis killed Baby Jesus and stole the Holy Grail, you can start a new Crusade. Or, tell Hindus that they eat cows there, or tell China that there’s coal in them thar hills. You don’t need fancy equipment when you can put millions of expendable, bloodthirsty fanatics on the ground.

RBG

When the conservatives where in charge, the subject never even came up.

(well, except by us libs but the cons called us “troop haters” for even raising the issue of how to pay for things.)