GO TO YOUR GAWD LIKE A SOLDIER OF THE QUEEN!

Thank you, Dr Venturini, for your insightful analysis.

For me, at least FOUR big lessons here:

(i) all wars have unintended ( invariably negative) consequences;

(ii) the gift of “democracy” cannot be imposed by force;

(iii) cultural transformation of a traditional society to accept our values is the impossible dream/fatal conceit of armchair generals, politicians, etc; and

(iv) if national foreign policy is driven by so-called “ethical/moral” considerations (as are all crusades, especially the first) one ends up in a mess. If Afghanistan, then why not Somalia, or any number of other countries?

Bismark got in right when he refused to "sort out" the Balkans of his day. “I shall remember them in my prayers,” he said, “but will not leave the bones of a single grenadier in the Balkans.”

Rudyard Kipling’s (satirical/not patriotic?) poem, The Young British Soldier, got it right too, especially its last verse:

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier _of_ the Queen!

Magna est veritas et (hopefully) praevalebit.

Alice

"Which domestic attack?"
How about 911, London Bombings, both Bali attacks, and virtually every single attack by an Islamist on a Western country were all citizens, legal EU passport card holders, or permitted residents of that very country they attacked, and were permitted by the government to actually be there. None of them have actually snuck in.

"Why not just stay there forever and deny the terrorists a place to train and hang out bothering the locals." Yes because they cannot possibly, say, use a different country- one where the people are actually moderates. And you make it sound like all terrorism in the world comes from just this one country and they're going to stay and fight to the last man- which is completely wrong. And personally, that is not worth the life of our soldiers and the instability for the rest of the world as the Islamists missing their utopia try to recreate it elsewhere.

And who's applying obsolete war standards here? Your approach is to assume we are up against a nation whom we will simply defeat and the problem will be solved.

You clearly are the one who does not understand how this process actually works.

You of course realize that Al Queda were responsible for 911, but the other attacks were organized by completely different Islamists?
Or do you believe that they're all a single organization that will fall apart if Bin Laden dies?

Heh,heh,rpg-I'm sure you know all about war-does rpg stand for 'rocket propelled grenade'?Any wonder you want this unwinnable war to go on. What makes you think that the American Alliance can win when no other power has EVER won a war in Afghanistan. Based on your predictions the Alliance will cease when they have all exhausted their treasuries-great deal for everyone.
Whats with the paranoia about terrorists? Get over it. The Taliban had the place running suitably for the locals and would continue to do so if your warmongers got out from a place they had no right to be in the first place.

"Ive studied war professionally.."
So you are a soldier rpg . Forgive me , but you analyse & think like one too .
Have you ever heard of the old saying -
To a man with a hammer in his hand , everything looks like a nail ?
Youe posts sound like extracts from a vintage John Wane movie fantasy.

If an incompetant and egotistical world power not only forcefully occupied your home country based on impulse for benevolent, deluded, and unjust reasons, but also continued to murder tens of thousands of your fellow civilians… I certainly hope you would be a “terrorist” too.

The illusion that we are conducting a war on terror in Afghanistan is what prevents us from getting out.
As what should now be obvious (but clearly isn't as far as our political leaders are concerned.) is that the terrorism that they are fighting is not located in a place. For those who doubt this consider where the people are coming from who either commit or have been prevented from committing terrorists acts. These people neither take their orders from some sort of central command nor are linked to a particular place.
Meanwhile we are sending our young men and women to their graves in a futile war.