Taliban took over Afghanisatan [SERIOUS]

i swear that was like two whole ass decades of fighting only for them to dip and the taliban eat that shit up like its fuck all

admittedly aside from that and people clinging onto a fuckin plane. i know jack shit about why they are leaving and at most i can assume this probably started after 9/11 given the timeframe

My opinion is that the Afghan government folded like a napkin without even putting up a fight. We shouldn't have even been in Afghanistan. We invested thousands of our troops, trillions of dollars, weapons, etc to help their military and it wasn't enough because quite simply they didn't want to fight for a system they don't care about.

It was a complete waste of time, and this was going to happen whether we left ten years ago or twenty years in the future. America shouldn't put effort into fighting a war that the Afghan government/military doesn't want to fight themselves.

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↩  lyicx i swear that was like two whole ass decades of fighting only for them to dip and the taliban eat that shit up like its fuck all

We didn't just dip, it was a gradual scaling back of military presence there that has now effectively completely ended. I feel bad for the people there but if their own troops won't fight then there isn't much we can do other than just stay there forever which is incredibly stupid.

tl;dr
feel bad but it was a waste and they won't even fight for themselves so why should we

↩  Rex2LostOldAccount yeah it's just sad that american lives have been lost only for the afghan forces to just give up without a fight. All the sacrifice was for nothing

What is worrying about this is the fact that other countries, seeing the American military retreating from the Taliban, now have more confidence in their ability to start wars with US allies. If the world famous military of the united states is fleeing from the Taliban, what chance do they have compared to countries like China and North Korea combined?

↩  burger We're not fleeing from the Taliban, we could destroy them if we really want to, but why would we? This is withdrawing because it's just not a worthy investment. Any war with China (and NK) would most certainly end up being a global conflict, and the United Nations would most definitely get involved.

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↩  Darth We're not fleeing from the Taliban, we could destroy them if we really want to

If our military has the power to "destroy them if we really wanted to", then why has it taken 20 years, 2 trillion dollars, and thousands of lost US troops for America to finally decide its not worth it?

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↩  Darth Any war with China (and NK) would most certainly end up being a global conflict, and the United Nations would most definitely get involved.

I was more so pointing out the fact that this is an eye opening event for countries who have for a long time considered America's military to be unstoppable. Many have therefore delayed plans of taking over land belonging to US allies because of this false belief. Due to this recent event, that could change very soon

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↩  burger If our military has the power to "destroy them if we really wanted to", then why has it taken 20 years, 2 trillion dollars, and thousands of lost US troops for America to finally decide its not worth it?

Because our goal was never to destroy them?? Our goal was (supposedly) to facilitate the creation of a functional and peaceful democracy in Afghanistan. It's taken twenty years and trillions of dollars and the lives of many US soldiers because two of the past four presidential administrations didn't want to end the conflict for some reason. It was regarded as not being worth it early on. In other words, because the US has a knack for not admitting when it's wrong and taking a long time to correct mistakes.

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↩  burger I was more so pointing out the fact that this is an eye opening event for countries who have for a long time considered America's military to be unstoppable.

No, it's not eye-opening at all that a badly planned military operation will go badly. The strategy/reasoning/etc behind occupying Afghanistan was faulty, so the occupation of Afghanistan also ended up being faulty. It's not so much losing as it is us realizing that it was a huge waste of time, effort, lives, and money, wasn't getting us anywhere, so we take our ball and leave. We aren't retreating, we are withdrawing our troops because the whole thing is fucking stupid

↩  burger America has the firepower to end wars, but at the cost of collateral damage.
The Afghan War is very similar to the Vietnam War. Both ended with troop evacuations which also had locals clinging to aircraft. Both were fought and ended in vain. It's also not easy to fight an enemy that hides among civilians and uses civilians and children for their dirty work, for psychological warfare.

USA should've never been in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle-East.
USA was never meant to be a white-knight for other countries - the USA can't even take care of their own.

I've had to do a few moderation's to this thread. Can we please keep it civil when we're having a reasonable discussion...

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↩  MEGAF4IL USA should've never been in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle-East.
USA was never meant to be a white-knight for other countries - the USA can't even take care of their own.

agree, why do we have to keep getting involved in other peoples problems instead of fixing our own like lmao we still havent figured out healthcare

↩  Miasmus laughs in nhs

↩  Miasmus Military spending contributes to a major part of all the technologies we have today (e.g. The internet, GPS, automatic vehicles) whilst also "protecting" the nation".

↩  MEGAF4IL

Despite all its flaws: the US has, by far, the biggest pharmaceutical market and, if you've got the money, the best healthcare in the world.

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↩  Miwojedk if you've got the money

I remember someone, some years ago, calculated that he'd have spent less money to fix a broken knee if he flew to Spain and got to a private hospital there.

↩  Miwojedk USA may have the biggest pharmaceutical market and "best healthcare", but still manages to be unable to provide for their own without putting them into crippling debt. Sweden and France are arguably better in both regards.

Watch this

↩  MEGAF4IL France and sweden are not better in both regards. More access yes. Not quality of care.

↩  Miwojedk inb4 in America you go into crippling debt after visiting a doctor or going to a hospital. It's a joke. Stop acting like it's superior.

↩  MEGAF4IL i never said it was superior. I pointend out that what you were saying wasn't true.

Anyways this is getting off topic.