Pakistan and Afghanistan cozy up to the Taliban.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Why did we all spend all those lives?

 

We should draw a circle of interdiction around that entire area, then when the chips stop flying, let India mop up the mess.

[jlt122 46]

I whole heartedly agree with you on that Nonny Moose.

[Duke87 1,070]

 

The Taliban refuse to talk with Mr Karzai, dismissing him as a US puppet.

 

...which is essentially what he is. The current Afghan government was set up by the US, not by the people of Afghanistan.

 

Of course, the Taliban was/is dictatorial and wasn't exactly set up by the people of Afghanistan, either. The problem is that said people of Afghanistan don't have the will to govern themselves because they have no culture of doing so. You can't just expect democracy to work for people to whom it is an utterly foreign concept.

 

But let's face it, "bring democracy to the middle east!" is marketing propaganda. The real goal every time the US goes and invades some country is to knock out anti-American leaders and replace them with leaders that serve American interests. And you wonder why so many people in that part of the world don't like us.

 

If the Taliban regains control of Afghanistan (not an unlikely possibility at this point), that should prove how silly all these wars are. Unfortunately I doubt any lessons will really be learned because 1) too many people with too much political influence benefit/profit from keeping the US military busy, and 2) the attitude that we're better than everyone else and are entitled to throw our weight around to get what we want from foreign nations is still too pervasive in American culture.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ hard to argue any of those points.  America is still too full of itself, but since the Japanese got them off their duffs, they haven't really settled down to peace again.  It is nearly a century now, and it is time to think peace instead of throwing its weight around.  Make extra-terrestrial colonies, not war.