On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:23:58 -0800, "DGDevin" wrote:

"Robert Green" wrote in message
...

I feel the invasion was justified (which is not the same thing as wise)
in
that Bin Laden was operating from there,

Would that justify invading the area of the US that Timothy McVeigh
operated
from? Of course not, and when framed that way, the invasion of
Afghanistan
makes equally little sense.

Ummmm, that's not an effective analogy, as there was no need to invade
territory to find and apprehend McVeigh.

However I see little chance of a
stable democracy being established in Afghanistan in the foreseeable
future,

So then what's the fV(I*ing point? Wars should have clearly defined
goals
and exit strategies. They've taught that at all the military schools
since
'Nam but it seems like the entire DoD developed amnesia after 9/11.

The Neocons have a huge blind spot, they think they can engineer history
with the application of military force, they don't consider that sometimes
that simply doesn't work. It is beyond their comprehension that centuries
of ethnic and religious tensions will not be overcome by their
democracy-in-a-box nation building. As you say, they don't seem to be aware
of history.

In this case, it was a matter of stopping the Al-Qaeda, which meant the
Taliban also had to go. Without installing some sort of replacement they
would/will be right back. Little choice.

The worst part? We've cried wolf so often that the public will have
little
taste for another war, even though Iran is developing into the most
serious
threat of Middle East. When we need to exert military force the most, we
may find ourselves out of money, out of will, out of faith and out of
luck.
If Korea, Taiwan and Iran all "light up" at the same time we're still busy
in AfRaq, we'll find out how seriously drained our military has become.

Some senior leaders of the Chinese military have told their government that
now is the time to become more aggressive, because the U.S. military is so
tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. won't react strongly if
China moves to absorb Taiwan or whatever. That's what happens when you grab
ahold of something you can't release.

Now is the time because the Dummy-In-Chief won't do anything. It has nothing
to do with Iraq and Afghanistan.