I'm not sure. Doing nothing costs nothing, and accomplishes nothing. Dropping that bomb cost 314 million and accomplished the same thing. You tell me.
Ummm..no, doing nothing does not "cost nothing", there are immediate and opportunity costs to any decision that is made with respect to the situation in Afghanistan. The U.S. pulling out and sitting on the sidelines has immediate draw down costs (which are relatively small) and incalculable potential opportunity costs since it would be effectively ceding vast swaths of Afghanistan as a safe haven for Islamic Terrorists (you know like it was before 911) and/or could lead to the complete collapse of the Afghan government turning the entire country into a failed state, which in turn would threaten the stability of the entire region, especially in nuclear armed Pakistan.
For better of worse we've thrown our chips into the Afghan pot and there's no easy, clean or cheap way to extract ourselves from it, which would explain why neither of the two previous Administrations could figure out a way to achieve an acceptable exit while minimizing potential negative consequences and costs.
