What is Reddit's opinion of To Afghanistan and Back?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Again, define "weak enough". Osama Bin Laden tried for years to motivate young Arabs to his cause and failed. But when the US placed sanctions on Iraq (intervention) and hundreds of thousands died, he suddenly found more support. He found more support with the US's blind support for Israel's government and the Palestinian oppression.

Al Qaeda numbered in the dozens, maybe low hundreds prior to September 11th. He found a weak point and exploited it, motivating his followers due to US interventionism. The US over response meant more recruits and support from local people. Every drone, every civilian killed, puts dozens of people in his camp forever.

If you want to stop recruitment, you withdraw the troops, stop the drone attacks and work with local governments. Early during the Bush Iraq War, the Iranians offered to help and the Taliban offered to serve up Bin Laden on a platter. But the Bushies, in their arrogance, refused. That wasn't the plan. A Clean Break was the plan. After September 11th, George W found himself with a mandate to do anything and had foolishly put the Neocons in his group of advisers. The Neocons created the false intel, pushed the war. Israel's government couldn't follow a Clean Break. It's military just wasn't large enough, but the US could be pushed into it, with the right set of circumstances. September 11th afforded the Neocons that opportunity.

"You are correct that they want to change the status quo in the Middle east. They want to overthrow the governments of the middle east and replace them with Wahhabi theocratic tyrannies."

Which cannot last. They are unsustainable without a country like the US to arm them and prop them up. Let them build whatever, but they are doomed. They will be overthrown.

"I am arguing that we need to prevent that and that we can prevent that."

No. You are volunteering my fellow citizens lives and their livelihood to save the world. Do it yourself. Organize volunteers, take your money and good luck. If, in fact, you actually believe in your cause. The rest of us will stay here and wait for the dust to settle. And we'll open the doors to people who'd like to live here in peace. If you want to fight along side religious fanatics, that's your call. Don't force my fellow citizens to do so. It's immoral.

"By any measure the only al Qaeda virtually no longer exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That used to be its base of support."

The Taliban were sympathetic to Al Qaeda and let them stay there. They also stayed in Hamburg Germany and Florida, it doesn't mean that those areas gave them a "base of support". You're talking about rebels that lived in caves. Rebels that, btw, the Taliban offered to give up.

"It is true that 'al qaeda' has grown in Syria and Iraq, but that is a serrate issue."

Al Qaeda is stateless. It's divided into cells. It's absolutely NOT a separate issue. It's exactly the point. Al Qaeda has grown.

"that phenomenon was not connected to the US intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That was related to the war on Saddam in 2003 (unrelated to al Qaeda and terrorism) and related to the Syrian Civil War (a Sunni-Shia-Kurd war where ISIS and al Nusra-al Qaeda have thrived) which was also unrelated to the USA."

Stateless actors do not care about borders. If the US didn't destabilize Iraq, Al Qaeda wouldn't be there. Even Neocons admit that. The ranks of Al Qaeda were swelled by Sunnis with no power in the new Shia puppet government. Totally and directly related.

The US is supplying Syrian rebels weapons to topple Assad. Several of those rebel groups have openly allied with ISIS, who are armed with many US weapons. Mostly from Iraqis who fled their posts or joined up. Those weapons are real and they came from the USA. Related just a bit I think.

You have to stop watching CNN and cable TV news if you want information about what's going on.

"the democratic government controls the vast majority of people and territory."

Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan and their "elections". They don't control much. Harmid Karsai's nickname was "The Mayor of Kabul" because he didn't really control anything outside the city. You are absolutely wrong on this. Go to Afghanistan and see for yourself, like Ted Rall did. Again, good luck with that.

"Afghanistan is corrupt, but it has just had a successful peaceful transfer of power from one democratic civilian government to another. It has the support of every country on earth. It has an army comprised of several hundred thousand people. Today the US military no longer takes part in active military campaigns and the Afghan military is holding its own. It is much more powerful militarily than the Taliban, and roughly 80% of the Afghan people support the government and oppose the Taliban."

Absolutely wrong. Every word of it. You simply cannot get accurate information from the Western media on this topic. Either you work for the State Department or you are being willfully ignorant of other news sources. Maybe start with something like Vice. I simply don't have enough time to educate you on how incredibly wrong your information is. It would require dozens of links and quite frankly, I've spent too much time on this already. Educate yourself.

"Drone strikes haven't done anything to destabilize Pakistan. They have decimated both the Taliban and al Qaeda and are keeping the Pakistani government together. Pakistan was an unstable country long before the USA ever got involve there."

Same on Pakistan. Go there if you don't believe me.

"They have completely failed in every respect. And they have not succeeded in draining the US economically at all. The costs of these wars is not very high when you compare it to GDP and our historical military expenditure, and thats including the high costs of the Iraq war, which had nothing to do with al Qaeda or terrorism."

And I would have to teach you economics. Look, the GDP is calculated to INCLUDE government spending, so do the twisted math yourself. The GDP is only that high because the government counts it's spending as GROWTH. It's not. Every weapon is a loss. The US dollar has been hollowed out by the Federal Reserve, which keeps putting more money on the books to prop up banks and sell dollars to China. This pays the bills, but devalues the rest of the money already in circulation. At this point, we have no other way to pay the bills. Eventually, the dollar will tank and a lot of that will be for wars we couldn't afford in the first place.

"It was the USSR's Vietnam."

Thanks. I was waiting for that media sound bite. Yeah, it was, but the USSR was doomed to collapse because Communism doesn't work.

"It is the duty of every nation to defend helpless people against aggressors."

No, it's the duty of a nation to defend it's own people. If those people get together and vote to help another nation, then that's one thing. The US helped the Mujahideen in secret. And if you want to be a citizen of the UN, go for it. I live in the US. I like the rules here (well, the ones we're supposed to use). The UN is just another tool for powerful countries to boss smaller countries around. Last time I checked, the US spent almost as much as the entire WORLD on the military. It's not like we need a collective bargaining agreement with anyone.

A) Declare war or yeah, stand by. B) Weapons from US via CIA, already linked in previous thread. C) Then why not debate it in Congress and declare war? If you're so sure of your righteousness, no doubt most Americans would stand with you.