Did the United States Accomplish Its Mission in Afghanistan - Was It Worth The Sacrifices?.

Friday, August 20, 2021

President Joe Biden has totally botched the withdrawal of U.S. Troops, U.S. citizens, and US-friendly Afghan citizens, from Afghanistan.

As a result, Taliban terrorists are now going door-to-door, murdering those who assisted enemies of the Taliban (USA, Britain, etc.) over the past 20 years.

Source: www.foxnews.com...

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WHY was the USA in Afghanistan to begin with? Here is a "think tank" analysis from November, 2001:

It is not clear that the United States has changed its initial strategy in Afghanistan. It seems doubtful that either Afghan experts or top level policy makers ever believed that the Taliban would suddenly collapse the moment the United States started bombing, or that the opposition would suddenly win victories. It may have been a hope, but it is doubtful that it was ever a plan.

The basic strategy from the start seems to have been to use air power to weaken the Taliban militarily, while using US, British, and other special forces to train the opposition, help it to selectively reequip, and develop the kind of forward air control that could both better target Taliban ground forces, and support them in their offensives.

Source: csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com...

Why did the USA want to destroy the Taliban terrorist group? It was the Al-Qaeda terrorist group who bombed the NYC World Trade Center complex in 1993, and destroyed it in 2001.

WHAT did the USA accomplish, if anything, during it's 20 year involvement inside Afghanistan?

Today I heard a disgusted foreign policy historian say this is the first time in history, that a country's Governing administration, and the United States, have been defeated, and driven out of the country, at the same time.

After reading and hearing about the carnage occurring right now inside Afghanistan neighborhoods, at the hands of the Taliban, in addition to the deaths of 2,448 U.S. Soldiers, and 3,846 U.S. Contractors over the past 20 years, it made me wonder if we accomplished enough to make the sacrifices worth it.

ATS Members: In your opinion, were the accomplishments (that you're aware of) inside Afghanistan, worth the past and presently-occurring sacrifices of human lives and injuries?

-CareWeMust

Nope, and Bush/Cheney, and a few others will burn in hell for it..one can hope anyway.

Whatever was accomplished, has about been wiped clean, what was accomplished?..time will tell, if things get real medieval, I would say not much..in the long game.

a reply to: carewemust


One of the objectives was to make sure anyone else who got the idea to harbor terrorists intending on attacking the United States would know with absolute certainty that they would pay a very heavy price for doing so.

That goal was accomplished a long time ago, and reinforced every year since.

joe really blunted the effect of that in the past few weeks, but someone would still have to be a special kind of stupid to think they could ever get away with that again.

That was not the case on Sept 10, 2001, or at any time prior.




Was it worth the dollars?

Probably.

Probably could have done the same at much lower cost though.

We tried to give the Afghan people something pretty special.

That is not an easy thing to do, and will fail more often than it succeeds.

Still worth trying.

Some of our closest global friends were born/reborn this way.





Was it worth the lives lost and many serious injuries?

I'm not sure if anything ever is.

All American casualties are a tragedy.

Is one of the things that made us unique.

Now many countries are same.



My 2 cents.

a reply to: vonclod

Thanks for replying.

I realize its difficult to prove that many more lives were SAVED, than were SACRIFICED.

Maybe it's not all about only "lives", but "way of life", as well.

From what I gather, America was fighting in World War II to preserve our "way of life", in addition to saving lives.

My friends and I left so much of our blood and bodies in Iraq and Afghanistan. I never served in Afghanistan but I did 3 tours in Iraq and another tour in Haiti in 4 years. As a US Marine my friends and I that is, we took what we were doing very seriously and accepted the locals friendly to us (with a plan to kill them if they turned) Lots of us parts of our hearts and souls are with these folks.

One thing outside of being an 0311 during the height of all this bs most of us never been to a foreign country most of us were barely 20, me personally my first combat tour I turned 19 in fallujah iraq. We met people fighting, we met people in the population, we met people in the arabian desert.

I lost friends in afghanistan after my mission and reassigned from my group for something else

none of us like this

for a time my friends were there for them and lost their lives and took lots of lives for them.

not to mention I smell something coming out of this that don't smell good.

Not good enough to answer you, the sacrifices everything just F U * K NO

I served in another war.
I seen the opium going into the pot that we smoked in Vietnam.
I Seen the falsehood of war.

War is a fkn racket.

a reply to: Nunyabizisit

Your "2 cents" is a very thoughtful and reasonable analysis.

I'm getting the impression that the U.S. was in Afghanistan before the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack(s). Apparently, we suspected the Taliban of planning something serious.

Since we pulled out and left them alone this year, I suppose the Taliban is no longer seen as much of a threat to the USA and the United Kingdom.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Nunyabizisit

Your "2 cents" is a very thoughtful and reasonable analysis.

I'm getting the impression that the U.S. was in Afghanistan before the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack(s). Apparently, we suspected the Taliban of planning something serious.

Since we pulled out and left them alone this year, I suppose the Taliban is no longer seen as much of a threat to the USA and the United Kingdom.

There is a lot of suspicion, and a little evidence that DC 'knew' they were working on something big, but no idea what that meant.

Most probably were thinking embassy or foreign base.

That was what I was reading into it in early/mid 2001.

Fbi really screwed the pooch with the MN laptop that basically laid out their entire plan. Didn't bother to look at it until after 911. Or even tell cia that they had it.



A few weeks ago I might have agreed that now a minimal threat to U.S.

That was before joe gave taliban an entire armys worth of modern equipment & ammunition.

Now I am more concerned than ever before.

The full ramifications of what joe just did are not well understood yet.

originally posted by: musicismagic
I served in another war.
I seen the opium going into the pot that we smoked in Vietnam.
I Seen the falsehood of war.

War is a fkn racket.

Thank you for your service!

a reply to: Brotherman


Thank you for your service!

I don't have any words to express just how grateful I am for the service, and sad about the sacrifice of and by so many.

It was a failure all round due to complete lack of understanding of Afghanistan or it's people.

The US and allies never tried to tackle the funding from Saudi or the brainwashing Madrasa Mosques in Pakistan which are the two main causes of Wahhabism.

The invasion was so poorly planned the US teamed up with warlords and druglords as they were desperate for anyone who controlled border areas, then acted suprised that such groups were corrupt and as bad, if not worse, than the Taliban.

The Taliban always controlled the majority of Afghanistan outside Kabul throughout the occupation - they'd do minor retreats when troops came to visit and re-appear as soon as they left.

a reply to: bastion


All of that is pretty well known.

Doesn't address the question.



Or are you only interested in trying to deflect from what joe just did?

That's it, isn't it?

You saw an opportunity do some joe supporting in a somewhat related thread, hoping nobody would call you on it.



SURPRISE!

a reply to: Nunyabizisit

How do you figure?

The question was did they accomplish its mission, did they acieve anything and was it worth the sacrifices; which I answered as an obvious no based on all the evidence.

Edit: Yet again I've never supported Biden, never have, never will - just like every other poster you wrongly accuse of doing the same.

originally posted by: bastion
a reply to: Nunyabizisit

How do you figure?

The question was did they accomplish its mission, did they acieve anything and was it worth the sacrifices; which I answered as an obvious no based on all the evidence.

I don't see the no.

Just the explaining, distracting and avoiding.



But thank you for your answer now.

How is explaining why the answer is no,why and what happened in Afghanistan distracting and avoiding? It's directly answering the question.

Are you sniffing glue again?

a reply to: bastion



"Edit: Yet again I've never supported Biden, never have, never will - just like every other poster you wrongly accuse of doing the same."


Might be a good idea to contemplate a little on why free thinkers keep saying that about your posts?

Just a thought.

originally posted by: bastion
How is explaining why the answer is no,why and what happened in Afghanistan distracting and avoiding? It's directly answering the question.

Are you sniffing glue again?

And I had just decided to not launch on you...

Then back with the glue sniffing and the stupid.



The problem isn't the explanation.

The problem isn't that we didn't accomplish many objectives in Afghanistan.




The problem is that you forgot to actually answer.

The problem is that joe forgot about the evacuating.



More clear?

(Unscramble the above pairs if still confused)

a reply to: Nunyabizisit

You're the only one who claims that; no one else ever has. You also claim it for several other posters despite them never having supported Biden or Democrats in any way shape or form or even coming from the US.

It's yourself who needs to contemplate why you're falsely accusing people and can't provide any evidence to back it up.

Did you read the OP? It's about if the US achieved it's aims in Afghanistan, doesn't even mention the botched evacuation.

originally posted by: bastion
a reply to: Nunyabizisit

You're the only one who claims that; no one else ever has. You also claim it for several other posters despite them never having supported Biden or Democrats in any way shape or form or even coming from the US.

It's yourself who needs to contemplate why you're falsely accusing people and can't provide any evidence to back it up.

I just did.

Again.

Comprehension issues?

our initial mission yes we did, the one we entered into after our initial mission no we failed tragically and completely.

We are sitting on our thumbs when the people we promised to get out are killed, while americans are left wondering if they will become hostages.

While our leadership rolls over for the taliban in very submissive way saying we cant go get them... while the brits and the french go get their people and apparently even some of our people.

Once more the US military did not fail, our leadership failed the Sec Def failed, Chairman of the joint chiefs failed, the president failed.

They should all resign in disgrace and disappear into obscurity.