‘Why did my friend get blown up? For what?’: Afghanistan war veterans horrified by Taliban gains

[Anomalism]

Stop monkeying around with those that mean you harm

The millions of innocent civilians we would vaporize in the process do not mean me harm.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

The millions of innocent civilians we would vaporize in the process do not mean me harm.

I never mentioned vaporization.

Why are soldiers contacting lawyers before killing an enemy?

If you don't realize that happens you're in over your head

No disrespect at all but it happens

 

[Asclepias]

I doubt it. The world deciding to unite against us in a violent conflict would destroy the world. It's more likely they'd get angry but ultimately not be willing to stand up to us. Just my opinion.

There's a reason we don't glass sheet other countries and its not because we want to be seen as the good guys.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The whole point was to waste as much money and morale as possible

 

[debbiedowner]

He went for his beliefs after 9/11.

Go gfy, Asslips

So he knew the risks as they all do since this is all voluntary.

 

[Anomalism]

There's a reason we don't glass sheet other countries and its not because we want to be seen as the good guys.

I would suggest to you that perhaps we are not as evil as you think, either.

 

[Asclepias]

The whole point was to waste as much money and morale as possible

You're very naive. The goal is to make money and the only way to do that is lift morale so people will fight for you.

 

[Asclepias]

I would suggest to you that perhaps we are not as evil as you think, either.

Its not just we. Its practically every country. Has nothing to do with evil. Its greed and fear.

 

[bendog]

He seems to be a dumb mother fucker if he didnt know what would happen. He has Vietnam as a glaring example and those people were not even driven by religious zeal. Either way he wasnt in charge or a decision maker. He was just an expendable asset that obviously was not smart enough to know this.

The United States and everyone of us in complicit in treating them like .... meat. But the OP fails to point out that it was truly a bipartisan effort. Not exactly a Profile in Courage moment.

I'd give Obama small praise in getting the VA to go out and find homeless vets and get them into housing and medical and psych treatment.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

So he knew the risks as they all do since this is all voluntary.

Go away, you're another one in way over your head

The thread is about why we don't finish what we went into you dumbed down loon

 

[Anomalism]

I never mentioned vaporization.

Why are soldiers contacting lawyers before killing an enemy?

If you don't realize that happens you're in over your head

No disrespect at all but it happens

You seem to not understand why the war as we fought it was unwinnable. There is no organized, uniformed threat to fight in the Middle East. They hide, hit and run in very loosely organized groups, and new groups form all the time as new people are recruited. You can't kill an idea like that. It's not an army. It's just pissed off people. You would have to commit genocide to end all extremism in the Middle East.

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

Afghanistan was a complete waste of time. Most who served there, if honest about their time, will tell you the same. The same with Iraq. You cannot impose your will, your culture, and your value sets on others. It never, ever works out.

 

[Anathema]

As we have since 1945, the US Military and Government enacted a plan to FIGHT a “war” rather than a plan to “Win” a war in Afghanistan and once again we have LOST the war instead.

it is time for the American people and the US Military to DEMAND a plan to WIN future conflicts before the first boots hit the ground in EVERY future conflicts.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

You seem to not understand why the war as we fought it was unwinnable. There is no organized, uniformed threat to fight in the Middle East. They hide, hit and run in very loosely organized groups, and new groups form all the time as new people are recruited. You can't kill an idea like that. You would have to commit genocide to end all extremism in the Middle East.

It was winnable, Iraq was won until Ears fucked it up.... Afghanistan was winnable but ROE prevented that.

 

[Anomalism]

It was winnable, Iraq was won until Ears fucked it up.... Afghanistan was winnable but ROE prevented that.

No, they were not winnable as we were fighting them, and the last 20 years has proven that. It's pretty ridiculous to say it's just because of Obama we didn't "win" the war on terror. Get real.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

You're very naive. The goal is to make money and the only way to do that is lift morale so people will fight for you.

We never fought to win in Afghanistan. It was stupid to go there in the first place, but that was the entire point. Get the Military bogged down in an endless, unwinnable war.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

No, they were not winnable as we were fighting them, and the last 20 years has proven that. It's pretty ridiculous to say it's just because of Obama we didn't "win" the war. Get real.

You're clueless.

But carry on and have a good day

 

[SassyIrishLass]

We never fought to win in Afghanistan. It was stupid to go there in the first place, but that was the entire point. Get the Military bogged down in an endless, unwinnable war.

Fortunes were made....in an ignorant endeavor

 

[Asclepias]

Go away, you're another one in way over your head

The thread is about why we don't finish what we went into you dumbed down loon

Youre a clown. You never know what you are talking about. Dont you get it yet? You cant win a guerilla war.

 

[colfax_m]

So it seems that our war veterans feel the Fucktard is throwing their sacrifices away....

‘Why did my friend get blown up? For what?’: Afghanistan war veterans horrified by Taliban gains​

After enlisting in the U.S. military against his family’s wishes, Chicago native Tom Amenta said he found himself in “middle-of-nowhere,” Afghanistan, in 2002 as an Army ranger in a remote area some 15 minutes from the border with Pakistan. He was fighting the initial battles of a war that few knew would stretch on for 20 years.

Now 40 and retired from the military, he felt anger foam inside as he watched the evening news on Thursday while on a work trip to Pennsylvania.

Headline after headline broadcast the latest gains by Taliban fighters, who have seized control of more than a dozen of the country’s provincial capitals as the Afghan government inches closer to collapse in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal. He was riveted in horror by news of fighters committing suspected war crimes against civilians or Afghan troops.

Friends who had been killed there came to mind, including NFL star Pat Tillman. Fond memories of former Afghan colleagues, such as interpreters, who remained in the country and whose fates he didn’t know, also resurfaced.

“It makes me angry, really angry,” Amenta said of the U.S. withdrawal, lamenting the billions upon billions of dollars spent on the war effort. Not to mention the emotional, financial and human toll suffered by thousands of Americans who served or had sent their loved ones to fight in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan “has never had a clean solution. But now that it’s gotten hard, we’re just going to bounce? It doesn’t make it right,” he said in a phone interview.

Amenta is one of many veterans across the world voicing frustration over the Taliban’s faster-than-expected comeback, reflecting how deeply the conflict resonates throughout the world. Around four dozen countries have sent troops in support of the United States, which with 2,300 killed while serving, has spilled the most amount of blood in the war excluding Afghanistan itself.

Taliban fighters capture Kandahar, Herat and Lashkar Gah in sweeping territorial gains
Amenta recounted memories of Jay A. Blessing of Tacoma, Wash., a goofy friend and fellow Army ranger who used to put hot sauce on everything: “I mean, literally everything. He put hot sauce on ice cream.” Blessing was killed by an improvised bomb in 2003 in Asadabad, Afghanistan.

“I mean, why did my friend get blown up? For what?” said Amenta, who has recently spoken to nearly six dozen veterans from the post-9/11 wars to write a book that’s to be released next month.

n the United Kingdom, where at least 455 British lives were lost over the course of the war, Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair Tom Tugendhat, who served in Afghanistan, tweeted: “If you think I’m taking the news from Afghanistan badly and personally, you’re right.”

Tugendhat said the withdrawal was “wasteful and unnecessary.” He said, “I’ve seen what it costs and what sacrifices are being thrown away.”

Tugendhat, in a BBC interview, said that withdrawing coalition support in the country had left its government exposed and weak. “We’ve pulled the rug from under them,” he said. “We’ve taken away their air support, we’ve taken away their logistics and we’ve said, ‘Go on then, let’s see how you do.’ ”

Speaking from his home in Tucson, Army veteran John Whalen sighed as reports came in that Kandahar, the second-largest Afghan city, had fallen to the Taliban.

“It’s just frustrating,” Whalen said over the phone. “We knew that this would happen. Now, all the people who went and served, are like, ‘Why did my friend die?’ ”

“I ask that question, too,” Whalen said.

One long sunk cost fallacy.