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The US military just spent 20 years in Afghanistan, a landlocked country on the other side of the world with little economic value, and only left because our po
by labster 3y ago
The US military just spent 20 years in Afghanistan, a landlocked country on the other side of the world with little economic value, and only left because our politicians chose to leave. We could have afforded another 20 years easily with hardly a blemish on our economy or military readiness for other conflicts. Finally accepting the fact that Afghanistan had very little strategic value to the US was hardly a military defeat.
- justinclift 3y agoWell, the US abandoned 100% of the land it had captured, and the enemy it was fighting against then took over that land. Isn't that pretty much the definition of losing the fight?
- labster 3y agoNo that is absolutely not the definition. You win a war when you meet your political goals. The military didn’t lose, the grand strategy changed. This isn’t sophistry, war is just extension of politics by other means. The vast majority of unfixable problems the US faced in Afghanistan were political, you can’t kill your way to a functional multiparty democracy.
- justinclift 3y agoHeh Heh Heh. So you're saying both sides won that war then? ;)
- labster 3y agoNo. I’m saying the military didn’t lose the war, American and Afghani politicians did. And not because we decided to leave, but because there was no strong strategic reason to be there after the primary casus belli was accomplished: the elimination of Al-Qaeda from the region.