I would have thought the best way to create a generation of potential terrorists was by assisting in making an unprovoked invasion of their country, destroying its functioning political and economic systems, killing hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants, and then expecting them to welcome you with open arms and expressions of joy.

But I don't have a PhD in politics, so what do I know?

But I don't have a PhD in politics, so what do I know?
Jon J,
You have a clear mind with a sober view, something you can't have with a PhD.

Thanks for reminding me how useless PhDs are. I will ask Graham to remove the reference immediately so you guys can focus on the argument rather than be distracted.

I think throwing off at an author because he has a PhD is pretty close to flaming. I can't see anything wrong with having a PhD, and being proud of having earned one from a non-academic start in life seems quite understandable.

Flaming is certainly not a sign of intelligence.

But as the author has responded I am going to leave these derogatory comments here, but will not allow anymore flaming or deviation in this direction from the topic.

It is true though that the Nato and allied forces, including our particularly kind and well-meaning Australian troops, are seen as an occupying force by most in Afghanistan. It would take several generations and a lot of luck to ever change this perception. Point blank, our troops need to be there, but they should be removed from virtually all contact with the local population and if possible stationed at bases over the border in a more friendly country such as Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan. From there allied troops and air support should only be involved when called in by Afghan Government forces to provide aid when they strike a situation involving heavy opposition. After 9 years of training if Afghan police and military forces are not capable of managing the day-to-day security operations for the country then they never will. Removing foreign forces from the country to fortified bases out-of-country will lower local tensions and remove most objections to the war against the most evil group in history (and mark my words, the Taliban is the most evil group on the planet - knocking Stalian and his crowd into second place, no easy feat since Stalin made the Nazis look like an association of Sunday School teachers).

To the people in Afghanistan we in the West are aliens and unbelievers and will never be trusted or accepted fully. You can build them as many schools and hospitals as you care to, but it only takes one incident or accident involving a westerner to bring it all undone again.

Only Afghan police and troops are qualified to assess who is friend and who is foe. We should remain out-of-area and when asked for assistance should respond with overwhelming firepower. At present whenever our troops undertake patrols they are sitting ducks for an enemy who can hide amongst the general population until they are ready to strike. This war, like Vietnam, needs to be fought differently. Forget hearts and minds, just hammer the Taliban and Al Queda when they break cover…

Finally, Russia has pledged greater assistance in the war against the Taliban.

Actually Chris there may be a good chance that leaving Afghanistan would actually take pressure off Pakistan and motivate the Taliban who fled the country to return and try to retake it;

As of now, they choose between fighting the US army and try to reclaim Afghanistan, or the Pakistan Army and annex parts of Pakistan; if the US army left, they would likely flee Pakistan to attack the weaker opposition of Afghanistan- giving Pakistan and numerous bordering countries a chance to strengthen their borders.

Personally I consider Afghanistan a loosing battle- there has been no success at all in transforming Afghanistan into a moderate, unified democracy- just a tribal squabble for institutional dominance pretending to be such.

The terrorists may use Afghanistan as a base again, but they were doing that with Pakistan anyway- and if I were to choose between the two (knowing that Taliban strength holding the Pakistani one will be compromised trying to get Afghanistan)- I would rather the lawless, tribal and fundamentally religious nation that we can threaten with a return of our fighter jets if another terrorist attack is launched, than the slightly more moderate, mostly-unified country that we cannot attack due to needing their alliance, and also holds possession of nuclear missile silos.

It may sound callous, but so is our attempts to invade and hold it- knowing the consequences of this action.