- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 88,712
- Reaction score
- 39,674
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
I understand. I appreciate the passion. I think people need to be clear. The war against Afghanistan ended in 2001. The war against Iraq ended May of 2003. Since those dates we have established relationships with both governments and their military. Clearly we arent 'at war' with either country. Now...if we are in 'post war ops' ala Germany and Japan post WW2, then all of this should be expected and we should still be working with newly formed allies (even if that means doing it differently).Sorry, I always get a little heated when I see that question.
-I would say that we are ending our combat mission. It's now a tactical training operation rather than a war. It's time for the Afghans to fight their own extremism. However, I really don't see this working.
Theres a whole lot of people that think this is all still The War against Afghanistan. When Obama declares it is over, many of his supporters will say he 'ended' the war with Afghanistan. We need to be quite clear about what is 'ending'. What is ending is sustained combat ops against an enemy that while ousted and hiding in caves, still represents a threat.
Personally...I think Bush made a mistake in post war ops in both countries and Obama simply continued those mistakes. The ROE in the last 6 years has been disastrous. I guess its better that we just 'quit' but its not going to make anything better (except maybe making fewer of our troops in theater and vulnerable).