What is going on here? Afghanistan

[BigRob]

That could be. The "tribal" areas appear to be pretty much ungovernable.

Is there a way we could help them and keep them as an ally, or do you think it's time to go in with guns blazing and wipe the Taliban out ourselves?

Well, when you say "go in guns blazing and wipe the Taliban out ourselves" it would suggest that we were capable of doing that. We have been in Afghanistan in a big way for years now and the Taliban still exists even in that country. I do not think that a Pakistani invasion would solve anything, and would really create more problems for us than anything else.

So, what can we do? Really, sadly, the best option right now is to support the Pakistani government, and continue to find and eliminate Taliban, and other terror leader, when we can.

 

[laughinatreps]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8266072.stm
Things were not this bad under Bush.
What's up with this?

No, they were 10 times worse, but of course no one who voted for that ***** would admit to it.

 

[PLC1]

Well, when you say "go in guns blazing and wipe the Taliban out ourselves" it would suggest that we were capable of doing that. We have been in Afghanistan in a big way for years now and the Taliban still exists even in that country. I do not think that a Pakistani invasion would solve anything, and would really create more problems for us than anything else.

So, what can we do? Really, sadly, the best option right now is to support the Pakistani government, and continue to find and eliminate Taliban, and other terror leader, when we can.

I agree. This is not a situation for going in with guns blazing, and, as pocketfullofshells points out above, it would likely be counter productive as well.

The situation in Afganistan and Pakistan is long term, complex, and not ready to yield to simplistic solutions.

 

[Zylstra]

You are correct, but you are discussing the unwinnable war on terror, not the unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

The Definition of victory in Afghanistan is when Islamic extremists no longer control the nation and are no longer a majority in Afghanistan. We are making no progress on that, since military force does not and cannot change people's beliefs.

We're making more extremists...

 

[Zylstra]

The longer we stay, the more we turn from liberators to occupiers in the hearts and minds of the masses

do we learn nothing from our mistakes?

 

[samsara15]

The longer we stay, the more we turn from liberators to occupiers in the hearts and minds of the masses

do we learn nothing from our mistakes?

Not so far. We've certainly repeated the same mistakes many times, in many nations.