As many in US have maintained for a long time, the war in Afghanistan lost any meaning after the first year. If the objective was to unseat the Taliban government, that was accomplished. Al-Qaeda was probably no longer there by the time US invaded, and only few rag-tag camps were still there. That was not problem. The more one thinks of it, occupation of Afghanistan had only one objective: occupying Afghanistan. And staying there. The way it looks, it was just the matter of finding some enemies to fight, keep on renaming them, and in the absence of enemy, dump some ammunition on those barren mountains, hoping to find someone or something. Reminds me od famous Kissinger phrase, as he looked forward to expending the war into Cambodia: "We shall use everything that flies to hit everything that moves". Describes Afghanistan, pretty much. Naturally, as wedding parties and funerals are routinelly attacked, chances are that some will fight back. What a relief! Now, we have the insurgency! There has never been any demonstrated intention that major towns outside Kabul be all pacified. Which local clan rules them, is actually of no consequence. For as long as the new plans are made, new strategies, new commanders. Everything is covered except the basics: who is the enemy, where is the enemy, how strong is the enemy, and why are they the enemy? In fact, there is no enemy. Individual acts of resistance here and there is hardly the reason to stay indefinitely. What many have started to think is that the purpose is to stay. To build bases, military airports, roads and other infrastructure for a permanent occupation. The fortress Afghanistan is there to stay. In fact, suggestions are flying about 10-20 years, or so. In short, endless. Given the hardships at home, this is starting to look like a weird plan. Just like the "withdrawal" from Iraq. Still waiting....

Let us not forget 911!!! We really don't want to be there or stay there. We didn't want that war but it was forced on us; we were attacked! Our focus on Iraq while the Taliban built up its forces was a mistake and now we have to go back in force. Bob DeLoyd

As Dr Phares said, it is only when the international community support the civil society of Afghanistan, women, students, labor, intellectuals, that the Taliban would be defeated. I don't believe that any country is just a place where things can't be resolved. Afghanistan's problem is the Jihadist ideology. Once defeated, the country will become a central asian country with normal problems. We must proceed one thing at a time. First contain the Taliban, then empower civil society, then have the Afghani take responsibility for themselves.

Afghanistan is now and is going to be the forward base from which the USA can continue to encircle Russia in order to put pressures on Russia to do the bidding of the old really evil empire,the US government! The USA has no friends, only interests which do not include their own citizens.

Now, the more I hear about us having to increase forces and "finish the job", the more I feel insulted. That is, whatever intelligence we are still permitted to have, feels violated. Who exactly is the enemy? Where is the enemy located? What are their numbers? Where are their war facilities, such as munition storage facilities, energy storage, command and control? Where do they get the weapons from? And how are those weapons transported? Forget weapons, let's talk just about trucks and other army-moving gear? How about food transportation? What roads they control that we do not control? What towns/villages they control that we cannot get into? Afghanistan is not a jungle, and nothing can be hidden in barren mountains. Forget those caves! After all, someone will have to come out of the cave eventually! Afghanistan is nothing but a polygon for large scale military exercise, using rugged terrain, and hoping for a few insurgents to pop up and fight. Who are the "insugents"? Usually the relatives of the dead, finding a way to pay back. The payback is usually in the form of roadside bombs or an ambush in a canyon. These are the deads of a handfull of people, if that. And before the chopper arrives, they are back hearding goats. Such insurgency, even if it consists of a larger group of locals trying to pinprick the mighty military, does not consitute a war. The next step is to build massive bases, so that we can stay forever. Who needs this, and who profits? I am sure somebody does.

911 - we hear it, the justification for everything, but that is what it is meant to be. Some say concocted by the Americans themselves, some say, if not concocted, at least known about and allowed to happen. But if you ignore these conspiracy theories altogether, there is no doubt that invading countries, because of terrorist attrocities, is and will always be disproportionate and illegal. This is obvious, so there really has to be another end game here. Al-Qaeda the enemy, suddenly morphed into Taliban the enemy, and as Bianca says, kill enough wedding guests, and surely you will get another enemy. All very convenient; like NATO, when your enemy dissapears, to justify your existence, you better find another enemy. So what is the real end game, well it is simple, to build a presence in this area militarily, as support for Israel against Iran, as a launching pad agianst Russia, and a launching pad against China. This is what the US and NATO are doing there, to build up bases with a London trained puppet government in Kabul. It won't be long before Russa and China see US and NATO trained Terrorists, made in Afghanistan in their midst. For Russia in all this, the game is simple, keep Afghanistan in a status quo. Keep it burning up NATO and the US, whilst at the same time not allowing it to become stable enough to be used as a military US/NATO platfom. With these forces at work, can you ever see a stable Afghanistan? The destiny of Afghanistan is to be an unuseable strategic asset, in constant war, until people stop trying to realise the asset value.

The domination of the Drug Trade - that is the trade in Opiates. As Afghanistan has little mineral wealth for the USA to be fighting to gain control of and plunder in the name of "Free Trade Capitalism" - why else would it be there? The production of Opiates from the widespread cultivating of poppies is just about the main income source for a great number of working people there - it [the USA] has declared. Who besides Big Business Capitalism could benefit from such an important crop? Who now is screeching about the War on Drugs?? Is it the Bush Cheney Rumsfield Dempsey Bin Laden dynasties - the principle owners of Roche [Switzerland] - the makers of worldwide stockpiled Tamiflu where the re-invention of a killer disease was the ruse to persuade the world to use so that they could reap the ultimate benefits of that harvest?? How are to reap the benefit of the Opiate harvest?? Would they stoop so low as to sell it illicitly? Its production has been declared illicit for decades. Perhaps the stockpiles of unsold Opiate derivatives will be auctioned to the highest bidder for them all to return a profit in such recessionary times!! ///snowyone.

July 25, 2009, 16:51, GW wrote > Afghanistan is now and is going to be the forward base from which the USA can continue to encircle Russia in order to put pressures on Russia to do the bidding of the old really evil empire,the US government! > The USA has no friends, only interests which do not include their own citizens. well USA has no friends??? Umm lets see: Mexico, Canada(North America), Brazil, whole of Europe, Commonwealth countries, Japan, Saudi Arabia and so it goes on. (along with Nato, UN or watever) Also the US-Russian relationship has gone slightly back on track and they really dont want to encircle russia, because really what is the point?? they have nukes. Any country that has nukes could end the world so why would they invade because if russia was about to lose they would just fire off all their nukes = end of world as all countries would then shoot back. I dont agree with my government for going to iraq (UK) but do with afghanistan. This is where as im sure you know all the training camps were for terrorists and also on border of pakistan and these need to be taken out. Also the taleban use Sharia law to extremes and sometimes kill innocent people and generally gave the Afghani people hell. There are many video documentries were afghani citizens praise international forces for helping them get a better way of life. I agree that one of the reasons BUSH went to iraq was to maybe get oil/profit. Also if they help Israel attack Iran it would be a suitable platform to launch strikes from. Means Iran is split fighting on different fronts. I just wish their corrupt president would be removed from power. It isnt just governments from across world saying it but huge numbers of people in Iran also. It is supposed to be a democracy.

Its a war the russians couldent win and its a war nato cant win. How is it that a few men with aka s in hills can hold of the might of the world. If history has tort us anythink this is a country that will not surrender a race of people who have been fighting non stop for hundreds of years. Stop sending young men to be slaughtered in are names its moraley wrong. Nothink but misrey can come from it.

(Part 1) Well, many of you hit on key points, but missed the TRUE reason we (USA) are there and will be a VERY long time to come IF your various peoples do not seek that actual truth which is quite simply natural gas and maybe a little oil. Primary reason is the gas. Unocal has been drooling over those untapped gas supplies for years and after the negotiations between them and the Taliban, who were okay at the time as long as they seemed cooperative, decided against making the deal. The very next day after the failed negotiations, Sept 10th, 2001, our CIA sent their invasion plans to the White House for approval. One little problem, we had no LEGAL cause for such an action, not to mention him being out of town on a bogus photo-op trip in Florida which served no purpose other than to insure he was not able to interfere. Enter the G.W. Bush's wicked 'problem-solver', V.P. Dick Cheney. He scoops up the plan and being a loyal corp lapdog for big oil, he begins a series of events by taking the initiative to insure that there will be a valid 'reason' for invasion/occupation as he literally conducts a horrifically  orchestrated "symphony of destruction" that was literally decades in the making. As the "acting commander-in-chief" he assumed total control of the national defense network and played it and its participants like a master conductor would if performing at a world-class venue. He and his other leading 'Death Merchants', some of whom include Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Richard Pearl, all comprise what I have dubbed the "Legion of Doom", which has several other key members, like Kissinger, G.H.W. Bush (Pops), and Armitage to name just a few, were all 'players' in one way or another in the monstrously horrific events of Sept. 11th, 2001.