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Subject: How Long will we stay in Afghanistan????
Europa    9/18/2006 1:58:27 AM
Im curious, with the increase in violence both in Iraq and Afghanistan I would imagine that this has caused serious re-planning on the part of Military analysts of the US army and international forces(IFOR/Nato). While fatalities continue increasing, forcing one ally (Pakistan), which has ironically lost the most troops against Al-Qaeda & taliban militias to search for alternative methods of dealing with militants, one gets the impression that things are not progressing as smoothly as they should be some 5 years into the operation. How long will the operation need to be in order to bring back normalcy to Afghanistan. because at the current rate it seems somewhere in the order of >7 years possibly longer given the increasing violence, improving methods of the militants(especially with the use of IED's) and the intention of rebuilding the country and its own forces up. Plus if history is any marker, Afghans eventually will turn on outsiders in their country, though with our superior military this will pose more of a nuissance and Public relations factor then any real threat, but nonetheless we dont want a repeat of whats happening in Iraq where its proving too difficult to pull out cleanly! any ideas as to how long were in for??
 
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Desertmole    Depends   11/5/2006 3:56:28 AM
The real question is what your objective is.  If you just want to stabilize the country and leave, it will take enough time to turn the Taliban funding off (local drug money and oil money from the Middle East) and quiet things down.  Currently most of the Taliban fighters caught or killed recently are Pakistanis, with a mix of Chechens and some Arabs filling out the ranks.  Rumor is that its costing the Taliban about $500 per man per month.  Money is the key.  If you can do that, you could probably leave in a few years.
 
If you want to effect real change, be prepared to be here a generation plus.  You have to change the attitudes of the people, and you need to start with the young kids now.  By the time they grow up you will have effected some change.  When I say change, I mean moderating the society and changing some of its core values (like educating women for example).  It is not an overnight process.
 
However, one must not worry about that.  If the Democrats take over Congress, I expect we will cut and run, and the Taliban will be back in with a vengence. A new genocide will be launched against all those who sided with us, and it won't be pretty.  Look at the great job the Democratic Congress did in Vietnam.
 
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TopGun       11/11/2006 10:11:27 PM
there are dangerous signs that the war in Afghanistan is also spiralling out of control as is happening in Iraq....
 
The other day there was a suicide blast inside a Pakistani army camp that was purportedly carried out as a revenge attack for a previous assault carried out by the Pakistanis who have been carrying out regular assaults and strengthening their positions along the long porous border with Afghanistan.  The pakistanis have so far, suffered the most through all this.
 
There is serious danger of this conflict spiralling out of control, but my question is, what do the majority people in Afghanistan want?? for the Taliban ( a basically Pushtun based tribal movement-- moreso than a religious one contrary to what many believe) to have regained a footing despite the international forces pressure in major urban centres of Afghanistan(majority of the country is still running on its own defacto rule-minus the international forces) and the fact that  eastern periphery is being cordened off by the overstretched and overburdened Pakistani army whilst suffering its own loses does raise some interesting questions.  What if the people of Afghanistan dont really want an international pressence there for an extended period of time? they may not necessarily like the Taliban, but they may even despise(moreso) the presence of unwanted foreign troops! which is why many may be supporting the now resurgent Taliban.  If the War on Iraq is any indicator, we cannot base our judgement on the news being filtered out those countries by the miltary's carefully tailered editing bureau's, and polling Afghans living in Kabul and perhaps Herat doesnt really represent the entire population of 30 million..  We need to re-evaluate our intentions and goals, and also, take into account what the people of these countries really want to achieve.  Instead of looking for scapegoats we need to re-evaluate our mission in its entirety
 
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