(March 25, 2026 at 6:37 pm)Leonardo17 Wrote: I think (and I might be wrong) that the US could have stayed there with a minimal military resources and simply stay there as they stayed in South Korea or Japan for instance.
You're definitely wrong in this regard. Both Japan and South Korea provide excellent basing to offset their high operating costs. Those costs would be extremely high if we were to base our troops in a country whose population largely hates us ... a country that could only provide us one base of significant strategic value. Our Afghanistan folly cost America roughly $100 billion per year, every year, on average.
