No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
We didn't have an exit strategy because there was no real exit strategy that could ever be formulated. War isn't static. It's fluid, always changing, always unpredictable. There was only one real certainty; Osama had to die, and so did all of his supporters, allies, and friends.
Problem was, the POTUS at the time is a monstrously selfish, greedy, arrogant worm with a cabinet of equally selfish, greedy, arrogant worms surrounding him, so rather than commit to the war in Afghanistan, he went for his REAL goals in Iraq. But, strip away all that? The war in Afghanistan was very well-justified. Is Afghanistan a perfectly safe haven? No. Is it better for our interference? It's very shades-of-grey there, but overall, I'm willing to say that, yes, it's better. I don't live there, though, so I can't say that conclusively or even with much conviction. I know the Taliban has been Talibanned from most of the civilized areas of the country, and I know they were a cancerous infection on the ass of humanity that desperately needed surgical removal, and I know that at least women there can go to school, business can flourish (yes yes yes I know, the poppy trade, blah blah blah, but hey, that's capitalism and the free market for you; there's a demand, and they saw an opportunity to be the supply, so I can't really fault them for that), and even if Karzai is a thug, at least the basis of election by the people is there. So, at least they now have better prospects for self-governance and self-determination, and I honestly hope that in the not-too-far-future I get to see Afghanistan become as influential as any European nation at the least, with a quality-of-life index to match (but not a QoL to match the US; I'm hoping for good things for them, after all) and a government as populist, as well.
Given how things were beforehand, and the prospects they had before we kicked the taliban and the other sweater-monkey groups out of the cities and more-populated areas of Afghanistan, I'm comfortable with stating the war in Afghanistan, while as ugly as war will always be and with the usual accompaniment of blood and tears to go with it, it was still just, and I hope that, in the long run, it will turn out to be worth it. Fuck knows the Afghanis deserve some peace, quiet, stability, and prosperity for once...
We didn't have an exit strategy because there was no real exit strategy that could ever be formulated. War isn't static. It's fluid, always changing, always unpredictable. There was only one real certainty; Osama had to die, and so did all of his supporters, allies, and friends.
Problem was, the POTUS at the time is a monstrously selfish, greedy, arrogant worm with a cabinet of equally selfish, greedy, arrogant worms surrounding him, so rather than commit to the war in Afghanistan, he went for his REAL goals in Iraq. But, strip away all that? The war in Afghanistan was very well-justified. Is Afghanistan a perfectly safe haven? No. Is it better for our interference? It's very shades-of-grey there, but overall, I'm willing to say that, yes, it's better. I don't live there, though, so I can't say that conclusively or even with much conviction. I know the Taliban has been Talibanned from most of the civilized areas of the country, and I know they were a cancerous infection on the ass of humanity that desperately needed surgical removal, and I know that at least women there can go to school, business can flourish (yes yes yes I know, the poppy trade, blah blah blah, but hey, that's capitalism and the free market for you; there's a demand, and they saw an opportunity to be the supply, so I can't really fault them for that), and even if Karzai is a thug, at least the basis of election by the people is there. So, at least they now have better prospects for self-governance and self-determination, and I honestly hope that in the not-too-far-future I get to see Afghanistan become as influential as any European nation at the least, with a quality-of-life index to match (but not a QoL to match the US; I'm hoping for good things for them, after all) and a government as populist, as well.
Given how things were beforehand, and the prospects they had before we kicked the taliban and the other sweater-monkey groups out of the cities and more-populated areas of Afghanistan, I'm comfortable with stating the war in Afghanistan, while as ugly as war will always be and with the usual accompaniment of blood and tears to go with it, it was still just, and I hope that, in the long run, it will turn out to be worth it. Fuck knows the Afghanis deserve some peace, quiet, stability, and prosperity for once...
