U.S. Strikes Deal With Taliban to Withdraw Troops From Afghanistan

[Dave Grubb]

After more than a year of talks, the agreement lays out the beginning of the end of the United States’ longest war. But many obstacles remain.

DOHA, Qatar

— The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America’s longest war — the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides.

The agreement lays out a timetable for the final withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan, the impoverished Central Asian country once unfamiliar to many Americans that now symbolizes endless conflict, foreign entanglements and a potential stage for terrorist plots.

The war in Afghanistan in some ways echoes the American experience in Vietnam. In both, a superpower bet heavily on brute strength and the lives of its young, then walked away with seemingly little to show.

I have many mixed feelings about this---but while I think of those that have been killed and their families, I have no thought that we should remain.

[Truckman]

Leaving them to their own devices to fix the cesspool they've chosen to create and inhabit is a fitting end as long as their own violence is contained within their own borders...Can they do it?...I don't think so......Ben

[Mike]

I am glad to see us leaving. I don't think there was ever a chance of a traditional military win there. We should have learned from the Russian attempt, but our arrogance got in the way of clear thinking.

The best thing to do is to keep chopping off the head of the snakes utilizing drones and the occasional special forces hit. Keep the leadership in turmoil.

[Dave Grubb]

I am glad to see us leaving. I don't think there was ever a chance of a traditional military win there. We should have learned from the Russian attempt, but our arrogance got in the way of clear thinking.

The best thing to do is to keep chopping off the head of the snakes utilizing drones and the occasional special forces hit. Keep the leadership in turmoil.

I was in full agreement with our going after Al-Qaeda after 9-11, but then it just drug on with no clear mission or objective, much less the defined parameters needed to measure progress. It simply became a swamp being filled by lives lost of our patriots without justification.

[Mike]

I completely agree with going after Al-Qaeda. I don't agree with the manner in which it was done. They were not a traditional military with which we could engage in a traditional war.

[Dave Grubb]

I don't mean to disparage our military, but it seems we have not learned how to fight an enemy that has no "structure", no supply lines, no visible physical presence and can disappear into the non-combatant population at will. We surely never figured that out in Vietnam and I don't see any clear indication we have learned to do it now.

It makes me think of our own Revolutionary War and how the British, in their ages old beliefs of how to conduct a war---with bright red coats, standing in line in the middle of a field being shot by a bunch of farmers hiding in the trees---we have been the ones in red coats.

We had lofty goals---but those goals were not overwhelmingly supported by the general population---case in point, our stated plan to end the opium production. To them, that isn't a deadly drug--it is a livelihood. I don't want to simplify the challenge and I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but we need to rethink these kinds of engagements. They aren't wars, we should not be "nation building"---and any action like this needs predefined goals and limits. Get in, get out.

[Mike]

We have the same thoughts on this.

[CactusCurt]

I don't mean to disparage our military, but it seems we have not learned how to fight an enemy that has no "structure", no supply lines, no visible physical presence and can disappear into the non-combatant population at will. We surely never figured that out in Vietnam and I don't see any clear indication we have learned to do it now.

Some of our warriers might disagree with you. They know how to win but are restrained.

[Mike]

Some of our warriers might disagree with you. They know how to win but are restrained.

An excellent point!

[Dave Grubb]

The warriors can't be separated from their commanders---and that goes all the way up the line.

That reminds me of South Korea in the early 60's. The US kept the ROK army from heading north by only giving them one day's gasoline "ration" a day.

[mgrist]

Didn't we end this war in the last administration and in the administration before that? Seems I have heard that ending the war crap a dozen times and we're still there. Is that like when we ended it but left a couple of thousand men to teach the Afgans how to fight, or contractors to build stuff and other contractors to protect them? I'll believe it when I see it.
I wonder how many billions of dollars the newest government will get to divide up amongst themselves?

[Phillbo]

Making deals with terrorist..... Does not sit well with me. Lets just pull out and let them implode.