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**logpogingg** · 08-08-2010, 11:28 AM

After 9/11 the world was largely united behind us. Even many Moslum and Arab nations supported our invasion of Afghanistan to topple the fanatical Taliban government that had allowed al Qaeda to organize within its borders.

Ideally, we would have routed the Taliban and created the space for some other government to take its place. Then gotten out.
That was the rational thing to do.

Instead, the US went off on a bizarre crusade in Iraq while putting the Afghan war on hold. Invading Iraq for reasons that turned out to be entirely bogus turned all that international goodwill into antipathy against all things American. It also allowed bin Laden to escape and for the Taliban to reorganize.

American foreign policy following 9/11 could hardly have been more disasterous to American interests.

In 2009 Obama came into office trying to turn this disaster around. After much internal debate (documented in detail in Jonathan Alter's The Promise) Obama decided to try a last-ditch effort to establish a viable security situation in Afghanistan that would be able to withstand the Taliban after we pulled out. The US military agreed that the summer of 2011 would be a realistic deadline to get this done.

08-08-2010, 11:28 AM	#23
logpogingg Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 455 Senior Member	After 9/11 the world was largely united behind us. Even many Moslum and Arab nations supported our invasion of Afghanistan to topple the fanatical Taliban government that had allowed al Qaeda to organize within its borders. Ideally, we would have routed the Taliban and created the space for some other government to take its place. Then gotten out. That was the rational thing to do. Instead, the US went off on a bizarre crusade in Iraq while putting the Afghan war on hold. Invading Iraq for reasons that turned out to be entirely bogus turned all that international goodwill into antipathy against all things American. It also allowed bin Laden to escape and for the Taliban to reorganize. American foreign policy following 9/11 could hardly have been more disasterous to American interests. In 2009 Obama came into office trying to turn this disaster around. After much internal debate (documented in detail in Jonathan Alter's The Promise) Obama decided to try a last-ditch effort to establish a viable security situation in Afghanistan that would be able to withstand the Taliban after we pulled out. The US military agreed that the summer of 2011 would be a realistic deadline to get this done.
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