DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - An Un-winnable War?

**StitsVobsaith** · 07-08-2010, 09:08 PM

Actually no, I don't. But that's not the point and you know this.

You 'only' need kill 'enough' demonstrating a will to do so... the remaining will surrender. Then you will have won.

One wins a war when the other side no long can or will fight.

i know that you know this Tann... I'm just not so sure that Obama does.

I'm not sure you see this, but you have just described why the Afghan war is un-winnable from the US perspective anyway.
All the taliban has to do is kill enough American occupiers to demonstrate their will to continue killing American occupiers, and America will withdraw.

And it's far easier for them to kill that number of Americans to get us to give up and leave, than it is for us to kill enough Taliban for them to give up and accept the government we impose on them.

We can leave so easily, they can't leave, that means we can lose easily, they can't lose.

And to get more to the point, people care about money more than they care about lives.
The Taliban has a huge cost advantage in this war, we spend millions to counter what they can do for a few thousand, and they have been getting us to finance their effort.
At some point the cost of the war in dollars is going to become the reason for ending it.
Because when faced with a tax increase to pay for the war, most people will be able to write off the effort, rather than see it hit their wallet.

07-08-2010, 09:08 PM	#11
StitsVobsaith Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 537 Senior Member	Actually no, I don't. But that's not the point and you know this. You 'only' need kill 'enough' demonstrating a will to do so... the remaining will surrender. Then you will have won. One wins a war when the other side no long can or will fight. i know that you know this Tann... I'm just not so sure that Obama does. I'm not sure you see this, but you have just described why the Afghan war is un-winnable from the US perspective anyway. All the taliban has to do is kill enough American occupiers to demonstrate their will to continue killing American occupiers, and America will withdraw. And it's far easier for them to kill that number of Americans to get us to give up and leave, than it is for us to kill enough Taliban for them to give up and accept the government we impose on them. We can leave so easily, they can't leave, that means we can lose easily, they can't lose. And to get more to the point, people care about money more than they care about lives. The Taliban has a huge cost advantage in this war, we spend millions to counter what they can do for a few thousand, and they have been getting us to finance their effort. At some point the cost of the war in dollars is going to become the reason for ending it. Because when faced with a tax increase to pay for the war, most people will be able to write off the effort, rather than see it hit their wallet.
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