It's worth noting that the history of this region dating back thousands of years has usually ended with the same result. Nations and empires, from the British, to the Soviet Union, China, Arabs, and even the Persians have all tried to rules this land. Afghanistan has known in that time period all forms of Govt. Democracy, Marxist, Kings, Islamic, and so on and all of them eventually fade or are reduced into tribal conflict. This is all this region of the world has ever known, tribal conflict and tribal wars. Generation upon generation of young people have grown up not with a sense of national pride or even a sense of regional pride , but a fierce loyality to ones home and tribe. Each time they band together they do so for necessity. This can be seen when we invaded the nation and the Northern Alience banded together to rid themselves of the Taliban. It can also be seen now, as we train new so called Afghan military the sheer number of members that just disappear and return to their homes. Afghanistan is not Iraq and the nation is little sense of what national commitment is and a plan to train an Army that will maintain a peace and reforms once we have left will not last long and from a historical perspective, the nation will eventually fall back into a it's tribal culture and all those efforts will be for nothing. The United States making a commitment to deploy forces to secure a nation that has a several thousand year history tribalism will eventually be one more in a number of nations that have gone to Afghanistan , stayed , changed the direction of the nation and once again the culture will remain the same. Having said all that, the US Military should expend the resources in a devestating manner knowing the above to flush out those responsible for all the acts of 9-11 and those that are part of the international terrorist community. The US Military should leave no doubt as to the outcome of such a mission. When we as a nation engage in the habit of nation building and use the US Military as the vehicle for that, we expend resources in both lives and national will with little results, so perhaps it's time the nation return to the original mission in Afghanistan and that is to hunt down , kill, and engage the people responsible for 9-11 as well as those that would plan such an attack in the future because the nation of Afghanistan is a pipe dream and those that think it is like Iraq are kidding themselves.
Many great points but the alkida bit is at best questionable. If going after alkida was a top priority we would have performed a regime change in the islamic theocracy most responsible for funding and justifying terrorism. Instead we remain close allies. Doesn't make sense.
While I understand your point, there is a little thing called stability that needs to be considered when speaking of going that direction. First of all the United States is ill-prepared to sustain itself in term of energy needs should that region no longer supply our energy needs and thats a sad fact. Each time Americans go to the gas pump in a small we some of that funding finds its way back to the hands of these oil barons that have little or no interest in our well being other than the money we provide and in a lot of cases the very weapons that are purchased and used against American forces are purchased indirectly because of that need. So if we wish to end this domination once and for all then take away that funding by being self sustaining in energy and we will find ourselves in little need of having to engage in conflicts in that part of the world and also have the ability to focus on those who would intend to harm this nation no matter where they are. Many Americans ask, when will we know if we have won, well there is your answer, we can win many battles in this war in the field without a doubt, and make no mistake this is a war. However, victory will come when our nation can look at these nations in the middle east without the need to beg for a handout in terms of energy. Then we can really direct our resources to peaceful solutions in that region rather than funding the very same people who set out to harm us.