Politics

[Cobraroll]

Well, Afghanistan was pretty much Al-Qaeda's playground before 2001. There was extreme oppression of civilians, human rights were completely overlooked, and the Taliban government supported and funded training for the 9/11 terrorists, among others. Extremists from all over the region went to Afghanistan to learn to make and use bombs, then went to some foreign place to "fight for the cause" (which usually involved blowing somebody up in Israel). I don't know how many refugees from Afghanistan and Somalia ever make it to America, but over here we've had them coming for some years, and the stories they tell are never pretty. There's a reason why NATO spent billions to remove them from power.

On the other hand, Afghanistan isn't exactly easy to govern. There has never been a proper national identity, and much of the population is illiterate. It took NATO several years of trying and failing before a basic structure was built.

As for Iraq, well, it was a mess. They didn't have nuclear weapons, it turned out, but there was quite a bit of biological and chemical nastiness in Saddam's storages. And the biggest mistake the US did was apparently to dissolve the Iraqi armed forces after the invasion. Suddenly you have thousands of unemployed young men with weapons training, and with a deep hate for the Americans who took away their jobs and some of their friends (war isn't pretty in that regard). The militias that were formed have troubled the troops in the country ever since. Meanwhile, the Iraqi had to build a new army from the ground up, establish a new command structure, and trying to keep down all the disgruntled factions that were held in check when Saddam ruled.
The war in Iraq ended up breaking the country, removing one of Israel's enemies, which by the way also was one of Iran's enemies (the two Ira-countries have a history of fighting each other for some reason). And a lot of oil ended up in American hands. Among other things.

[MaestroUGC]

War is pointless but unfortuantely it eventually becomes unavoidable, it should just be the absolute last option when all diplomacy fails. That said, war should be as fast and effective as possible, to minimize needless casualties and keep expenses down to a minimum. The longer a war drags on (like Iraq), the more it becomes pointless, with the price tag increasing exponentially with every passing day.

[spitllama]

I can't tell if these are responses to my post or just generic discussions on war.

I was mainly trying to figure out why we boast about how our soldiers are protecting our freedom and security... in other nations. I don't see how that's appropriate justification. Pursuing our nation's self-interest is of course another point, but you also don't hear anyone saying that. It's always "they're our knights in shining armor and they protect my freedoms and yah!"

[Yugi]

I find that normally, in the middle of a war, America drops out, leaving other countries stuck in the middle of the battlefield, and the death toll rises.
Just some food for thought.

[SuperFireKirby]

Nah man, it's usually the other way around. We join the war half-way into it and fuck everyone's shit up until the end.

[Bubbles]

Thats exactly what I thought when I went through basic US History XD

[MaestroUGC]

It's because we are the rich, successful younger brother that thinks his success gives him the right to get in everybody's business to try and "improve" their lives.

Nevermind that we've been cheating on our wife and embezzling money like a cheap crack addict trying to pay for our next fix, and have shot ourselves in the foot with this last war and are bleeding out like a french whore on Bastille Day.

[Bubbles]

I wouldn't necessarily say "rich"

But good metaphor

[MaestroUGC]

Oh we have money, we just spend it very poorly.

[SuperFireKirby]

It's because we are the rich, successful younger brother that thinks his success gives him the right to get in everybody's business to try and "improve" their lives.

Nevermind that we've been cheating on our wife and embezzling money like a cheap crack addict trying to pay for our next fix, and have shot ourselves in the foot with this last war and a bleeding out like a french whore on Bastille Day.

You have won. But God, how I wish what you're saying wasn't true.

[Bubbles]

Oh we have money, we just spend it very poorly.

I was thinking about that today. If the government just took one single day and collected $3 or so from everyone in the country and tried not to spend any money at all just on that one day, that would give them almost a billion dollars. I just dont get how they could possibly spend that much money a day, since Im sure they take more than $3 a person for whatever they do

[MaestroUGC]

Well war is expensive, and we've been at war for 10 years now. That's why whenever war breaks out, you should try to move fast and hard to bring the conflict to a speedy close.

[spitllama]

Or just not get involved in the first place

[MaestroUGC]

That's ideal, but let's face it, human nature won't be changing any time soon.

[spitllama]

Anarchists scare the crap out of me. How can anyone believe that human nature is well and good enough to respect others' rights?