The Ghost Soldiers of Afganistan

[FakeNewsSux]

Stupid Afghanistan, settling for a couple hundred million a year from the US taxpayer! They should have taken the initiative to threaten the US and its' allies with nuclear attack and had our Dear Leader Obama send them pallets full of billions of dollars.


https://youtu.be/37CXJK3Pcak

[Old ridge Runner]

Why shouldn't they take advantage of us, everyone else does.

[Gunny]

Stupid Afghanistan, settling for a couple hundred million a year from the US taxpayer! They should have taken the initiative to threaten the US and its' allies with nuclear attack and had our Dear Leader Obama send them pallets full of billions of dollars.


https://youtu.be/37CXJK3PcakAnother rock and a hard place. There's a LOT wrong with Afghanistan. This is just one issue. Being the opium supplier of the world is another. One article I read awhile back stated the President's BIL was using US military armed convoys to shield transportation of opium.

BUT, if we leave, the Taliban will just take back over. In the meantime, it hides in Pakistan who for some reason while we can invade Afghanistan going after the Taliban, we can't do the same in Pakistan. Shades of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia.

We're never going to win anything playing their game by their rules.

[FakeNewsSux]

Another rock and a hard place. There's a LOT wrong with Afghanistan. This is just one issue. Being the opium supplier of the world is another. One article I read awhile back stated the President's BIL was using US military armed convoys to shield transportation of opium.

BUT, if we leave, the Taliban will just take back over. In the meantime, it hides in Pakistan who for some reason while we can invade Afghanistan going after the Taliban, we can't do the same in Pakistan. Shades of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia.

We're never going to win anything playing their game by their rules.


Saw this exchange Thursday night and found it interesting. I wonder if you had heard his full plan Gunny? Not sure what your views on Blackwater/private contractors is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_M0A6Qz-FA

[FakeNewsSux]

I did find this op-ed in the New York Times from a year ago that gives a little more detail, sounds intriguing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/erik-prince-contractors-afghanistan.html

[Gunny]

Saw this exchange Thursday night and found it interesting. I wonder if you had heard his full plan Gunny? Not sure what your views on Blackwater/private contractors is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_M0A6Qz-FAPrince has a valid point regarding Afghanistan. We are basically "nowhere" there. A lot of it has to do with supporting the Karzai government because he proclaimed himself anti-Taliban. We took an identical position in Vietnam supportion Ngo din Diem because he was "anti-communist". He was also a product of the French Indochina caste system, and as corrupt as they come.

What is lost on me is this: Our initial mission into Afghanistan was to get bin Laden and punish the Taliban (who was the "legit" government of Afghanistan at the time). Bin Laden is dead and the Taliban removed from the government. Shouldn't we be legitimately "done" there?

Nothing is going to change as long as the Taliban has sanctuary in Pakistan. The best we could do given our current course is to run their asses completely into Pakistan and build a damned wall :rolleyes: Not very practical.

Prince's "plan" is as good as any depending on the rules. Remember, Blackwater took a major PR slam from the leftwingnuts for doing its job without screwing around (which I have ZERO issue with and would in fact prefer as ROE). The slobbering at the mouth leftgoons weren't happy until somebody got screwed. Was the usual trying to win with one hand tied behind your back crap.

THIS is something I don't get: The Taliban was bin Laden's baby. Bin Laden was a sunni, who everywhere else in the ME are at war with the shia (Iran-backed) forces. My question is why is Iran backing the Taliban? Or is the Taliban no longer sunni/wahabbi and now shia-controlled? OR ... does the fact they're fighting us trump their internal religious differences which basically go to the fundamental core of their beliefs/styles of government?

An aside is the US government's "war on opioids" (it's always got a war on something :rolleyes:) which has created a rise in heroin addiction. Afghanistan is the World's #1 supplier of opium. Yet that fact has not been addressed much at all since we first went into Afghanistan to date. Hate to sound pissy about it but my best guess is we are ignoring the opium over there to keep our troops in the country.

[SassyLady]

Another rock and a hard place. There's a LOT wrong with Afghanistan. This is just one issue. Being the opium supplier of the world is another. One article I read awhile back stated the President's BIL was using US military armed convoys to shield transportation of opium.

BUT, if we leave, the Taliban will just take back over. In the meantime, it hides in Pakistan who for some reason while we can invade Afghanistan going after the Taliban, we can't do the same in Pakistan. Shades of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia.

We're never going to win anything playing their game by their rules.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is BIL?

[FakeNewsSux]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is BIL?


I believe he's referring to President Karzai's brother (not BIL-brother in law):

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/world/asia/31karzai.html