ISIS and Afghan Taliban

[Montmorency]

The immorality and irresponsibility of the American strategy of withdrawal isn't in the precise timetable or in airstrikes or whatever (let's be frank, a hundred tons or two of aerial munitions can't affect the Taliban's operational progress anymore). It's in the failure to extract asylum seekers aggressively, beforehand.

Bring Afghans stateside by the tens of thousands and sort them out here, with full financial support, as we should have been doing since February (practically speaking). We owe even more as a responsible party, but it's never too late to step up.

Spmetla, I think after all the military misadventures of the United States aimed at statebuilding, in all parts of the world, we can conclusively affirm that military occupations can't reasonably create stable conditions from underlying instability. If anything, it only aggravates the situation, doesn't it? Soldiers can't build governments, and governments can't administer jurisdictions that are gripped by insurgency. If America can't prop up even Cuba or Haiti, maybe it should realize that it spends money only to create more problems in these circumstances. (Which isn't to say that there's nothing America could or should do, but American hard power has a terribly-ignoble record... Stick to core competencies.)


Two different maps of current dispositions.