They really anger me right now. They have a lot of nerve criticizing our mission there when many times when we notified them in advance, they obviously tipped off the target in advance.
The fact of the matter is, they need our billions so the Taliban doesn't completely take over via a coup but they have sympathies or some kind of relationship with terrorists, kind of how the Saudi Royal family is the official governing body of Saudi Arabia, but to prevent a coup and possibly due to tribal affiliations or lingering sympathies, they grant the terrible religious police a ton of power there.
The atrocities committed against especially women and children in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan sicken me but the corruption and the tribal, backward culture of many of the villages of those countries makes me feel hopeless about ever being able to make any kind of a difference over there.
I feel like our military is engaged in an endless game of cat and mouse as tribes shift their support from democracy to Taliban and back and our boys over there can never really know who to trust. It feels very hopeless to me at times. If we can't get the support of the population, it will be almost impossible to stem the tide of extremism and the terror it embraces.
BBM: I have been thinking along these lines as well. The war on terror is unlike any other war in history. It is not a fight over land or taxes, or even for a specific philosophy--it is a war against extremism, and that will not be easy, if it is even possible, to wipe out.
I consider the billions--or is it trillions?--of dollars going toward these current wars and I cringe over the fact that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. World wars have been fought and ended with some semblance of victory. All wars cost megabucks, but a war that never ends means never-ending cost.
So, with never-ending costs as we fight a never-ending battle, what will become of our country? Our infrastructure is failing. American families are losing their sources of income and their homes. Our citizens' needs have been put on hold, as is always the case in wartime. The difference now, though, is that in past wars putting our citizens' needs on hold was always temporary, while the current battle is ongoing with no end in sight.
Face it--it makes no sense to attempt to fight to the end when dealing with something that really has no end. There will always be extremists, factions with one goal--to instill fear. So why not bring our troops home and put our defense budget to work defending our soil, our citizens and the freedom that we have all grown accustomed to? Fix our highways and rebuild our decaying bridges! Fund education and health care--two fundamentals that US citizens want, need and deserve!
I do not have a problem with offering financial aid to other countries in certain circumstances
temporarily but to pour endless millions or billions into a lost cause makes about as much sense as agreeing to by a man a fish every day for the rest of his life rather than teaching him to catch his own fish. The fact that it is on a much larger scale makes it all the more imperative to take stock now, to move quickly toward having Iraq and Afghanistan realize that they must become self-supporting, that they will have to take care of their own.
Neither war can be won. Both will either never end or will end with very little accomplished to rid the world of extremists.
