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Obama vows to ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan

danarhea said:
Problem is that Afghanistan is where the 911 attacks were launched from. If we had taken out bin Laden from the get-go, we could then have gone home in victory. Now we have Obama, who is going to do the same half-assed job Bush did.
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Perhaps, but once we left, what's to stop the next batch of terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base? I agree that both Presidents are doing/did an awful job. Sadly, very few people here agree with us on that.

We should have bombed the whole country back into the stone age, then left, with a warning that, should another 911 ever happen again, the country responsible would be turned forever into a glassed-over, radioactive desert.
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Considering what Afghanistan was when we got there, the stone age isn't that far away. Doesn't seem like that big of a threat. Besides, we both know that the bigger problem is really Pakistan.
 
obvious Child said:
There's the kicker. How do you do that in a place that has few natural resources, heavy tribal ties, decades of corruption, massive drugs, and a largely uneducated populace?
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I'm certain- well, no, that's not true, but I devoutly hope- that Obama would not take on or continue this mission, at the cost of many young American lives, if he thought it were impossible.
He's obviously put a lot of thought into his war strategy.
He must be able to see some way to accomplish this, which we are currently unaware of.
I for one am eagerly anticipating his speech next week, in which he plans to unveil and explain his decision.
I hope he says something that I can believe in.
 
liblady said:
http://http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34123718/ns/politics-white_house

Obama vows to ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan


Does anyone think this can end well, or soon? I can't imagine a scenario that works.
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That's because people can't bring themselves to defining what is practical and what is not. "Nation building" or "we broke so we fix it" are terms for those who feel they need to prescribe an absolute moral clause to the missions.

The way I see it (and I have studied an enormous bit on the subject) we have already accomplished the practical. All that is left is a lingering determination to legitimize a corrupt government until it crumbles.
 
obvious Child said:
There's the kicker. How do you do that in a place that has few natural resources, heavy tribal ties, decades of corruption, massive drugs, and a largely uneducated populace?
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Most of the solutions I would propose would never be entertained by the Obama administration...

One thing I think they can do, and would do, if they were so inclined, is to implement a serious language program in the military, combat units especially. A Marine build-up is typically seven months long; that's plenty of time to acquire a working knowledge of the in-country language. I cannot stress enough the importance of communication in COIN operations.
 
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