| Anecdotal information on the video, cherry picked and out of context to the larger changes in Afghanistan. How much do government officials and contractors waste on the road projects Eddy would like done right here in America? I would argue a lot more, on a daily basis.
But to his point about me: I do not like spending a trillion dollars somewhere else than in American on infrastructure, especially in Afghanistan. But I don’t like 3,000 people killed and hundreds of billions of dollars destroyed by international terrorists based in Afghanistan, or anywhere else that has un-governed spaces or enemies that seek the US demise.
Isolationists somehow think that we can sit back in a complex, economically interdependent world and still thrive. The world sat back and watched Hitler take power and property until it cost more human lives and more destruction than any time in human history to stop him. We sat and watched the communists destroy all dignity and millions of lives for a failed system until Reagan. No nation wanted to end up fighting a pointless first world war, because no-one acted to stop it before it started. How can we be safe from the people who seek the destruction of our capitalist system by hiding behind a wall, or a dollar? Not possible, though I wish it were.
Afghanistan, Iraq have sunk costs. But they are long term investments that will pay in time, if we hold. Don’t sell on a low. The one very big lesson we have learned from the 2011 run-away from Iraq, and 2014 run-away from Afghanistan is that even greater threats to our people and our economy will fill the vacuum. ISIS killed tens of thousands, disrupted major markets and forced even great Western security measures that take away Western freedoms because ISIS was allowed to flourish with impunity. With a low profile force, use of allies, and open rules of engagement, and allowing commanders freedom of action, Trump decimated what Obama called a “generational” problem in a year. The same can happen to the Taliban – they will cut a deal as they see our commitment and continue to die uselessly – if we don’t sell out and run early, again.
I would like to live in an idealistic world, in a protective bubble, but the cost to our liberty is high if we focus on internal security. We are building a police state to protect us from the outside world, but still depend on the outside world for resources, people, capital, and trade. That is, in my view, a defensive measure that is destroying our Constitution.
Don’t fight unless you have to, but IF you have to fight, you better win it and win it fast with everything you got – that is what both Bush and Obama failed at miserably. Fight those that want to destroy us on their turf, beat them into submission, and reduce the global risk to our economy and our people while building allies that support our system that has been so successful. Force those (Europeans, especially) that get a free ride to do/pay more of leave it up to them to solve their problems. Show no mercy to those that kill the innocent, give no free pass to those that want to destroy America.
Trump is stuck with it, so the best way out is to win it with the Afghan forces leading, us supporting and guiding, training and equipping. But we cannot run away again an lose our investment – what the video does not say is that Afghanistan now has a fledgling democracy. It has a growing education system, a slowly growing economy, and a growing sense of nation. These are huge strides, and never before in their history have they achieved them. This is a long term investment. The cost over there is much lower than the cost to America here, in individual freedom, maybe the eventual collapse of capitalism or global war descends again, because we did not act early. I don’t want to live on the defense, in a security bubble, it won’t last. If someone is attacking you, you can never win by not fighting – you might survive, but it is one sure way to lose.
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