Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Here is the problem with your theory.
As is well known, although certain countries have attempted to go in and take these groups out, they have never been allowed to finish the job.
Political pressure from various sources always leads to exiting the situation before any sort of true difference is made. It happened in Iraq, it happened in Afghanistan and it has been occurring in the area around Israel for decades.
I agree that it's certainly not appealing to go back to a ground war, but there is no other better option that has ever been proposed. Its the one thing that radical militants count on. they know that at some point troops will be pulled out and they can go right back in to fill the vloid.
Not once has a NATO nor UN mission been allowed to stay and fight to the point that there is a surrender at which point real diplomacy MIGHT have a chance to make a difference.
The only other option, and I don't think anyone has the appetite for it either, is to just abandon the area completely and in unison and leave them to their own devices and see what happens. Though we all know the likely outcome of such an action and it is not pretty.
It's a screwed up situation for sure with multiple influences on it through the years but the one thing facing us right now is a growing number of affiliated radicals who are getting more widespread with one goal in mind and that's to kill you, me and anyone not embracing their ideals.
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What exactly does "finishing the job" entail?
People have been saying this kind of thing since the Vietnam war. You simply can't conflate insurgencies or terrorist groups with traditional nation states and the types of tactics that work against them. Unless "finishing the job" looks like carpet bombing the country into a parking lot, or entangling our forces into a protracted war that will see many, many times more people killed than the odd terrorist attack, that really isn't the issue. Western forces were in Afghanistan for a decade and a half; should they have stayed there for 30 years?