So to summarize. The Russians are doing to us in Afghanistan what we did to them in Afghanistan.
Correct. Pick a side. Western values or dictators and religious fanatics. Take all the time you need.
Normal, decent, Americans will choose whatever side that you are not on.
Ok, so in the past eighteen years that side has been in opposition to nation building in Afghanistan, objected to spending money building infrastructure in Afghanistan, been in favor of Nation Building, and argued in favor of building infrastructure in Afghanistan. They have declared that the enemy was not the Taliban, but was Al Queda. Was the Taliban, and now is arguing that we must negotiate with the Taliban.
So what side are you on? The side in favor of nation building, or opposed to nation building. The side that thinks the Taliban is the enemy, or the path to an exodus and peace? Because the Western Values folks have been on every side of that issue several times.
Here is the truth, and I am not sure that Truth is a Western Value in your world. The Truth is that we are no longer fighting to win. We haven’t been in a decade. We have been fighting, and watching our kids injured, maimed, and killed to keep from losing. We have no idea how to get the **** out without looking like we lost. Of course, we had no idea how to get the **** out when we went in. But we were angry and willing to invade the Vatican if that is what it took to punish someone.
The enemy has been Al Quada. Terrorists. The Taliban. Jihadists. ISIS. Radical Islamic Terrorists. The allies have been Islamic Jihadists, only supposedly not Radical Islamic Jihadists. The Taliban. And Groups we would later claim were Terrorists.
We aren’t even pretending that we are looking for a victory. We just want someone, anyone, to tell us that there will be peace when we depart and the Terrorists will not take over while keeping a straight face. They can’t do it. They’re all laughing at us. And we keep on keeping on, because we don’t know what else to do.
So what the **** Western Values are you arguing We are on the side of? Because at some point in the last eighteen years, those values have been tossed aside as we desperately seek an answer we don’t have now.
And whatever side I’m on? I’m on the side of getting those people home. Afghanistan has never been conquered. The Persians came closest. Alexander didn’t do it. Nobody has. Isn’t it funny that when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, Doctor Watson was just home from Afghanistan? It was the 1800’s, and sure enough less than two centuries later, the same insanity is going on all over again. Because we haven’t learned the lesson.
The Russians? All they are doing is making sure the lesson is as painful as possible. The lesson that we have refused to learn, refused to admit after eighteen years. We can’t win. All our technology and computers and miracle drones don’t guarantee a damned victory. If the people don’t want us there, nothing we do is going to change that.
We could have learned this lesson a decade ago. When Obama was running for office and said he wanted to get us out of Afghanistan. Then he realized that he would be blamed for the loss. If he was a little more courageous, we might have saved a few trillion dollars and a couple thousand lives. Instead, we keep pouring money into the newest miracle drone or robot to save our troops over there.
So what the **** Western Values are we talking about. The stubborn refusal to admit we lost? The stubborn idiotic pride that is costing us lives and money every day? The cowardly leaders who don’t have the balls to step up in front of the cameras and admit that after eighteen years we don’t have a ******* clue what to do in Afghanistan, and we are just coming home and leaving that cesspool in the Seventh Century where the people can not learn to read and have medieval sanitation system?
Because now, or ten years or another twenty from now. Eventually we are going to do Just that. And will that be a Western Value You can defend? Or will that be the side of whatever doesn’t agree with your victory at any cost attitude? Because we’ve been bearing the cost, and it is thousands of our people, and trillions of dollars, and we are no closer today than we were when we stepped foot into the god forsaken piece of crap that is Afghanistan. Jesus Christ we are fighting over one of the few countries that doesn’t have any Oil. We can’t even claim we are fighting to protect the worlds supplies of Oil. The only thing they produce is illiterate leaders and poppies that are turned into Opium, none of which ends up treating our medical patients I might add.
I would say Nuke the god forsaken cesspool but the sharp valleys mean that Nukes don’t even destroy enough to make it worthwhile.