Afghanistan Megathread

[Baler]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Obama was the last president to invade Afghanistan and increase military presence. Lets be 100% clear, if it were not for trump Biden would cruise through his temporary position without even mentioning Afghanistan.

I dont know if Hillary would have got us out, somehow I doubt it but I am positive her supporters would disagree.

My argument stands: By today's standards, a Democrat is more like GW Bush than a republican.

imagine the taliban and hillary on the phone, lol.

Historically political parties values have changed multiple times. So it's not impossible for it to happen again. People don't like change so it takes time for change to happen.

Which is interesting because america's attempt at nation building in afghan was doomed from the start. Throw in changes to the political parties, I can't imagine any way it would have worked out.

[Horza]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My argument stands: By today's standards, a Democrat is more like GW Bush than a republican.

My argument: words have meanings and that matters even if you're retarded.

- the antifa army

[JurisDictum]

My understanding is the modern military industrial complex has decided it matters to keep US military deaths low. Deaths turn people against war. But they still are not sold on the idea that the US cares about foreign deaths, or generally wasteful military ventures.

So they are hoping calling it quits in Afghanistan will be enough. It was the one where we didn't really have any fighters out there that wanted to side with us. They did it for money and would try find a way out the entire time. You had one case of a guy signing up thousands of soldiers on paper, collecting their pay, and then hops the border to Pakistan -- there were no solders.

Iraq and Syria unfortunately -- we can get groups that actually represent a part of the population to fight our side of the cause. So the our defense industry and foreign policy establishment is no where near throwing in the towel.

But then there is a more macro historical view that demonstrates that failing empires tend to overextend leading up to their collapse. It is a way to try to deal with the illegitimacy back home brought on by an increasingly parasitic elite. We won't just disappear, but we may very well find that in a couple hundred years that America is no longer considered the world's only super power. If that is the case, Afghanistan might be marked as the Stalingrad of American Imperialism.

[Jibartik]

Originally Posted by JurisDictum [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My understanding is the modern military industrial complex has decided it matters to keep US military deaths low. Deaths turn people against war. But they still are not sold on the idea that the US cares about foreign deaths, or generally wasteful military ventures.

I wish I could find the video but putin said his style of governance was to make people comfortable, and if they are comfortable you can get away with anything, but it has to be the majority that are comfortable so you can only get away with what the majority is comfortable with.

Basically he was saying, keep people just comfortable enough that they dont rebel and to min max that as best as you can.

Our acceptance of the non stop military strikes, border clashes, and violence as just a way of life so long as my Disney+ subscription remains uninterrupted is all too apparent IMO.

I cant count the times Ive said, "oh god this is going to start world war 3" and then we just go on with our lives like it never happened.

[Trexller]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I cant count the times Ive said, "oh god this is going to start world war 3" and then we just go on with our lives like it never happened.

Heres one way I look at the world, when trying to think about what may come to pass.

If it's gonna be bad for the 1% in some way, loss of money, power, whatever etc, then it's not gonna happen.

Seriously look at whatever doomsday event and think about whether or not its gonna be bad for the top of the ruling classes, if its pretty bad for them, you're good, gonna be fine.

[Jibartik]

Originally Posted by Trexller [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Heres one way I look at the world, when trying to think about what may come to pass.

If it's gonna be bad for the 1% in some way, loss of money, power, whatever etc, then it's not gonna happen.

Seriously look at whatever doomsday event and think about whether or not its gonna be bad for the top of the ruling classes, if its pretty bad for them, you're good, gonna be fine.

I’m just saying that I was raised under the impression that if you’re a country and are shooting missiles or blowing up boats and things in other countries that’s an act of war but apparently that is not an act of war at all anymore, it’s just a way of life.

That’s a good little system you have though… like a canary in a coal mine would you think the 1% buying up giant islands is a sign that the canary might be dying?

[Trexller]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I’m just saying that I was raised under the impression that if you’re a country and are shooting missiles or blowing up boats and things in other countries that’s an act of war but apparently that is not an act of war at all anymore, it’s just a way of life.

I agree the 1% will remain and so do they.

Yeah it's always better to be launching missiles than receiving them.

And if you don't launch them on the reg, someone is gonna try to pull something against you.

If you wanna be the big kid on the playground, you gotta fight to remain the big kid on the playground.

This is geopolitics 101, if you don't agree with this axiom, then you either have utopian delusions or no idea how things work on the world stage, or any idea of human history.

We humans have not actually done anything except fight each other. Everything we have from the water that flows into your house to that chair you're sitting in, is a result of wartime necessity.

There are concepts deeper than this, but those all fall under efforts to impress a mate.

Human beings truly don't do anything but fight or mate. literal and abstract.

[JurisDictum]

Originally Posted by Trexller [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah it's always better to be launching missiles than receiving them.

And if you don't launch them on the reg, someone is gonna try to pull something against you.

If you wanna be the big kid on the playground, you gotta fight to remain the big kid on the playground.

This is geopolitics 101, if you don't agree with this axiom, then you either have utopian delusions or no idea how things work on the world stage, or any idea of human history.

We humans have not actually done anything except fight each other. Everything we have from the water that flows into your house to that chair you're sitting in, is a result of wartime necessity.

There are concepts deeper than this, but those all fall under efforts to impress a mate.

Human beings truly don't do anything but fight or mate. literal and abstract.

Might have gone a tad on the over-reductive side toward the end eh?

If you want to be a giant bully -- then yes, you have to push people around to maintain your big and bad reputation. But a big guy that is chilling out with other big friends -- that isn't a great target for bullying.

In general -- as long as you defend yourself -- there isn't really a lot to this idea that stalking the playground stealing lunch money makes you less likely to get your ass kicked. If anything, a bunch of kids might gang up on you and jump you.

The problem with Afghanistan is that we didn't accept the Taliban surrender early on. We needed to send a message that we'll kill terrorists that carry out big attacks. But that's all we needed to do. The rest was just rationalizations thought up by the military industrial complex to keep the money flowing.

No one really gave a shit. So the only people that were people making bank of the conflict advised our representatives. They obviously are going to lead things a different direction than someone looking for a way to get out. We need to -- as a society -- keep much closer tabs on whats going with our tax-funded military. Otherwise you are leaving the fox to watch the hen house.

[Gravydoo II]

I thought kids in cages was the big issue..
Or was it inflation...?
Oh it was the 74,000 missing ballots in AZ!
No no... it was something else... The debt! Yeah the debt! Thats the big problem!
Hmmm... maybe it was something else.. Qanon?
oh wait, got it... all the thousands of cities the blm burned to the ground.. literally thousands of them.

[Mesocyclone]

Sad when you gotta cheat to beat Donald Trump.