I wonder what would happen if we called the Afghans' bluff and just said "fuck it, we're outta here" and were gone in 30 days.
What do you think? What would happen if we just stopped all operations not directly related to packing up and leaving, and were out in 30 days?
By: Brant
..our clients would pack and run for Pakistan. The rest would shrug and prepare for their new masters.
ReplyDeleteI've been pondering that for years now....
ReplyDeleteDon't even bother packing up. Blow it all in place and jump on every airframe available.
I don't see any hope in that illiterate, money pit of a hell-hole.
What Anonymous said. Whoever could get out, has already gotten out or will get out to a prepared bolt-hole - probably by air, with pallets of cash.
ReplyDeleteThe question that will need to be settled is who the new masters would be. Would Pakistan encourage continued division and internal warfare in Afghanistan, by backing one group, then another? Or would they try to back one group to the exclusion of others and lay proxy claim to the larger part of the country?
I think we're all agreed the ANSF would fall apart even faster than they did when the USSR left.
I guess it depends on how the world tells the story. The Russians 'failed' too, didn't they? They left behind a stable government in a peaceful country until the mooj-turned-taliban invaded and over-ran the country, and suddenly the Russians had failed.
ReplyDeleteIf we leave and the Taliban take over in 18 months, we failed. If we leave and the Taliban get hammered over the next 2 years, did we succeed? What if the government more-or-less survives for 15 years before the next coup? what if the next coup/revolution isn't Taliban-sponsored? What if it's Iranian-sponsored? Did we fail? Was it worth it to get out?
Mike P