Our situation in Afghanistan just took a really dramatic downturn:
KABUL—Afghanistan’s fraying ties with the U.S. hit a new low on Sunday, as President Hamid Karzai said before meeting the new U.S. defense secretary that the Taliban kill Afghan civilians “in the service of America.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is visiting Kabul to discuss ways of ending America’s longest foreign war. On Saturday, Mr. Hagel’s first full day in Afghanistan, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 18 people outside the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul and in the eastern province of Khost.
In a televised speech Sunday, the Afghan president said the U.S. doesn’t really see the Taliban as an enemy, doesn’t want to leave the country after the coalition’s mandate ends at the end of 2014, and is engaged in negotiations with Taliban leaders behind his back.
“Taliban are every day in talks with America, but in Kabul and Khost they set off bombs to show strength to America,” Mr. Karzai said. “The bombs that went off in Kabul and Khost yesterday were not a show of power to America, but were in service to America… It was in the service of foreigners not withdrawing from Afghanistan.”…
I don’t even know what to say about this (gimme time; I’m thinking), but I thought y’all might…
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Time to come home.
How many more American lives and how many billions of tax dollars will we expend on trying to “fix” Afghanistan? The return on investment has been negative. But we knew that going in.
Not sure what you mean by that, Doug. Are you suggesting we should not have gone into Afghanistan after 9/11?
Define “gone into”. What did we accomplish? Our blunt force approach to terrorism has been a failure when you look at the cost/benefit.
Well, we haven’t had any terrorist attacks on US soil in almost 12 years. I doubt that anyone thought that would be the case on Sept 12, 2001. And that’s something.
We were a couple deadbolts on airplane cockpit doors away from avoiding 9/11. Now we spend trillions to try and prevent the next one — which will happen whenever those who want it to make it happen.