The Afghanistan War: Absurdity or Necessity?

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Alex

Ignoring the question of Al Qaeda (and I think I've been pretty consistent that "war" against Al Qaeda is a pretty meaningless concept), having displaced the Taliban from their position of power, accepting that their return to power would be a human rights catastrophe, what responsibility do we have to do our best to prevent that happening before leaving?

As Colin Powell said it, "you break it you buy it." Regardless of how justified the initial war was, and how successfully accomplished the initial goals have been I'd argue we have a responsibility to not say "ok, Taliban, it's all yours so long as you don't let Al Qaeda come back; enjoy the complete dehumanization of half your population!"

But are we fighting for human rights or fighting against terrorism?

I have a problem with how women are treated in a lot of the Middle Eastern countries. But I have an even bigger issue with us trying to implement our system of leadership all over the world (without being asked to help).

Just because it's right for us, and how we think it's how the world should work doesn't mean it's right for the world and it's not our place to go "oh, we don't like how you treat your [demographic] so we're going to go to war with you until you change your ways.

The goals of this war (and Iraq) have been lost. They both need to be redefined, and worked towards. Regardless, I don't think we should be pulling out of either place without some sort of stable government in place.