The US was correct in invading Afghanistan, as we had to dismantle Al Queda and extinguish Bin Ladin.
But Bin Ladin, ultimately, wasn’t in Afghanistan and I’m not sure that we had a realistic plan of what to put in place once Al Queda had been disrupted. We should have just left then.
It seems to me that the US simply thought that things would work itself out there eventually, and that just shoveling money to support various governments would solve the problem.
Well, that didn’t work.
So after decades of involvement, hundreds of soldiers’ deaths, and billions of dollars being spent, I think we are basically back to where we were in the beginning.
There simply are no good options other than to accept that we cannot control what a bunch of Afghans want and deal with their decisions accordingly.
But I do think that legalizing drugs would be a good first step in reducing the Taliban’s income stream and, by extension, power.
And I really do wish that we had spent the billions on health care, education, and infrastructure here than over there.
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