Hoping to be deployed there again. FYI "redeployed" means going back home from the theater of operations.
Afghanistan is a fascinating place, no doubt. I've always marveled at the pictures I've seen and the history I've read. Please don't interpret my post to mean that I don't support giving it a helping hand. 2024 is highly excessive in terms of our involvement though. One question though, are you looking to be redeployed there or hoping to not be deployed. Your post can be interpreted either way.
Afghanistan is gonna be the same 3rd century BC fuckhole it's always been, and always will be. The question has always been how many lives and how much money to throw away there. Of course certain entities and a select group of people and companies benefit massively from continued presence, and so long as their influence is stronger than the will to leave, it will remain so.
Finally Nebor starts to explain things, we are not in Afghanistan to win, we are in Afghanistan to pad the paychecks of American rip off artists who steal from the pockets of the American taxpayer.
As young American soldiers are sent off to die so our retired generals can keep a rotten payola system going.
It does much to explain another part of the Afghan problem.
But once you stop asking questions and learn to enjoy the raw simplicity of the lifestyle and country, and the frontiersmanship of the whole experience, it's somewhere between enjoyable and exhilarating. You just can't overthink what you're doing.
According to you everything I've ever said is disingenous or a lie, so don't start believing me now.
And you must be making a pretty penny on your defense investments too, right?
When I pointed out your hypocritical posts, you told me all your posts before you joined the Army were troll posts and weren't to be taking seriously.
So like 20,000 BS posts and 2000 honest posts?
But now a guy is supposed to believe what you say?
lol
I certainly don't take P&N seriously. And fortunately I'm not in a position to care whether you believe anything I say or not. If you want to think Afghanistan is a country of western minded people that are held back by poverty and their circumstances, go right ahead. I really don't care what you think.
Here's a picture of us handing out school supplies and toys. Or was it land mines and handguns? It's so hard to know what the truth is.
I know that Afghanistan had a thriving country in the '50s and even surpassed the US in terms of civil rights etc.
You can post all those pics you want, but I don't forget you posted how you and alot of others you work with think a puppys life is more worth more then those people.
I know that Afghanistan had a thriving country in the '50s and even surpassed the US in terms of civil rights etc.
War is to blame for Afghanistan today.
Some of the adults in that picture pushed down the kids and took their school supplies and stuffed animals. One of them spat on a female sailor that was with us. Puppies are never so cruel or ungrateful. :\
FWIW only small pockets of the country were "thriving" as you put it, and that was due to outside aid money from Europe, which built fantastic palaces and pushed a western lifestyle.
The majority of the citizens were still herding goats up and down mountainsides, just like today, oblivious to the goings ons in the major cities.
lol
We invaded their land and offered them candy and they arent grateful.
When you see who's really running things over there, it starts to make sense. The only people with real continuity are a few general officers (doing 2 year tours) and a ton of civilian "senior advisers" (some have been there for 9 years now) to our military. These are all ex-military people making a ton of cash working for companies like Dynacorp, MPRI, L3, etc. Since their pay scale works something like: Retired O-5 $300k\yr, Retired O-6 $450k\yr, Retired O-7+ $700k\yr+, they're heavily incentivized to keep the war going as long as possible. And since most of the military is rotating out every 6 to 12 months, the only people that really know what's going on are these contractors. And the senior military officers aren't going to rock the boat because they see themselves retiring from the military and taking one of those sweet contracting jobs themselves in the near future.
And if you dare to point out that you're duplicating efforts from years gone by, essentially working in circles to no avail, you'll be threatened (by a civilian!) with an early return to the US. Guess how I know. :\
But once you stop asking questions and learn to enjoy the raw simplicity of the lifestyle and country, and the frontiersmanship of the whole experience, it's somewhere between enjoyable and exhilarating. You just can't overthink what you're doing.
When you see who's really running things over there, it starts to make sense. The only people with real continuity are a few general officers (doing 2 year tours) and a ton of civilian "senior advisers" (some have been there for 9 years now) to our military. These are all ex-military people making a ton of cash working for companies like Dynacorp, MPRI, L3, etc. Since their pay scale works something like: Retired O-5 $300k\yr, Retired O-6 $450k\yr, Retired O-7+ $700k\yr+, they're heavily incentivized to keep the war going as long as possible. And since most of the military is rotating out every 6 to 12 months, the only people that really know what's going on are these contractors. And the senior military officers aren't going to rock the boat because they see themselves retiring from the military and taking one of those sweet contracting jobs themselves in the near future.
And if you dare to point out that you're duplicating efforts from years gone by, essentially working in circles to no avail, you'll be threatened (by a civilian!) with an early return to the US. Guess how I know. :\
But once you stop asking questions and learn to enjoy the raw simplicity of the lifestyle and country, and the frontiersmanship of the whole experience, it's somewhere between enjoyable and exhilarating. You just can't overthink what you're doing.
The biggest mistake Nebor could possibly make comes spilling off his lips as he says, "The majority of the citizens were still herding goats up and down mountainsides, just like today, oblivious to the goings ons in the major cities."
What a damn fool you are Nebor, if those goat herders have no better expectations that living like their fathers, and thus happy, why should we judge them negatively for that?
But that is so not the point, any people in rural areas still can't avoid the effects of larger events. And when all that Nato brings them is chaos and lack of a government that acts in their interests, and forces them to live inside a shooting gallery, they will not look at Nato as a liberator.
And as bad as the Taliban is, the USA and Nato are now viewed as even Uglier.
That is why we lost in Vietnam and losing in Afghanistan, setting up Turd governments on our side with a top up strategy is worth nothing when the majority of the Afghan people are far more important and the Taliban has a more effective bottom up strategy.
Thank you for an honest and sobering response.
Until the status quo government ends in this country we must never leave Afghanistan. Its a combination of peak oil, peak resources, money printing, world currency reserve, and a welfare jobs program for this countries low caste people. We must never leave.
When we do leave though, its going a catastrophic collapse of America as a superpower. It won't be a bad thing at all. I pity those who will realize that these choice wars were never about winning or loosing. Just a simple wealth transfer that seems to only make America a poorer nation overall. Despite the movies, the bravado, the culture...Americans are not good at war.
Instead we're giving every village a computer, realizing they don't have electricity, building a power plant, and then realizing that they entirely lack the ability to operate or maintain a power plant.
Not enough jobs in the US if those soldiers come home. Unemployment rate would be even higher and that would make politicians look bad.