Friday, September 04, 2009
Afghanistan
"Members of the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters serving in Afghanistan have been told their tours will be extended by 52 days from 12 months to nearly 14 months."
Can we say "tar baby"? You'd think we'd have learned something from Kennedy's Vietnam and the Soviet's Afghanistan. We and they didn't win then, and I don't see us "winning" now. As if I even knew what result a "win" might be. I don't think there is a basis for a nation to be built there. Afghanistan is a mostly a collection of tribes run by tribal leaders, not from some central location. I imagine that most Afghanistanis you talk to would state they belong to such-and-such a tribe or village instead of the country of Afghanistan.
What I find amazing is that for ten years we supported Afghanistan in its fight to rid itself of foreign invaders, then twenty years we become the foreign invaders ourselves. The Soviets, who I'm sure were a little more heavy-handed than we are, fought there for ten years and roughly 1 - 2 million dead and accomplished absolutely nothing. Does anyone really think we can do any better? I'm afraid we're in a morass that we have no chance of ever "winning" -- whatever winning is supposed to be.
Labels: government, military
