In Afghanistan and Iraq, we were trying to take, clear and hold enough territory to control the nation but never put even half the forces on the ground required to actually do so. We engaged in half-baked nation-building, and then under Obama they, and other places we operate, were seen as opportunities to support Marxist/Socialist organizations and to bring 'Progress' and leftist forms of 'democracy' to those nations. Meaning feminism, gay rights, minority privileges and a very 'social' focus in general. We turned Kabul into our ideal of what Afghan could look like at a cost of billions. All wiped away in a week...
One should see Afghanistan and Iraq as the most ridiculously administered wars in the history of human civilization. In both cases, our immediate objectives were readily achieved. Letting Bin Laden escape into Pakistan was a political decision, not a military shortcoming. But neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are actually nations, lol - this is the first mistake Westerners make. Iraq was held together by Saddam's horrific terror campaign of political oppression and Afghanistan has never been 'held together' at all. Our attempts to 'nation-build' were non-starters. Comparing them to Japan or Germany is to show one knows nothing about Iraq or Afghanistan. Their own govts couldn't build functional, governable nations. Sigh...
Put it this way. If had put 500k troops and armor etc on the ground in Afghanistan we could have set up 'safe zones' and then proceeded to gain control of the 70% of the country we'd need to the entire country. The Afghans are not magical, the 'graveyard of empires stuff' is hype and nonsense. Look at the Brits and USSR experience, they were defeated due to their own mistakes. Brits never had enough force, neither did the USSR. The USSR made the additional mistake of mass slaughtering many, many Afghani innocents from heli gunships and armored vehicles etc. This unified otherwise competing war lords and tribes. Feeding an insurgency is never a smart idea. The U.S. has a viable counter insurgency doctrine that works when it's implemented, and worked in the areas it was tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. But we never had the territorial control required so the bad guys could just relocate to where ever we were not.
It's all so stupid. Talk to anyone deployed there, it was ridiculous. And cost us trillions. For what? To give Iraq to Iran and Afghanistan to the Taliban. Govts have been overthrown and leaders hung from lampposts for far less. The real problem with the U.S. is that the majority of people have already been subverted and don't realize it. They have no independent thoughts and don't even realize they are self-governing.
Rather, they just 'hate' the horrible, racist baddies and stupid conspiracy types and the icky woman haters and homo/transphobes etc. They have been convinced they are on the right side of history and do not question their dear leaders. We have not been a self-governing nation since WWI, and certainly not since WWII. In fact, I believe it's the mythology of WWII that convinced Americans it was okay for us to become an empire, as long as we don't call it an empire. As for WWII, who do you think 'won' it? Easy: The Soviets got Eastern Europe and parts of Japan and China, and Mao got China. The commies won WWII, but shhhhhhhh, you aren't supposed to notice this. Gen MacArthur has been slimed and unfairly destroyed reputationally by 'historians' cuz he had the gall to notice this...
In Afghanistan and Iraq, we were trying to take, clear and hold enough territory to control the nation but never put even half the forces on the ground required to actually do so. We engaged in half-baked nation-building, and then under Obama they, and other places we operate, were seen as opportunities to support Marxist/Socialist organizations and to bring 'Progress' and leftist forms of 'democracy' to those nations. Meaning feminism, gay rights, minority privileges and a very 'social' focus in general. We turned Kabul into our ideal of what Afghan could look like at a cost of billions. All wiped away in a week...
One should see Afghanistan and Iraq as the most ridiculously administered wars in the history of human civilization. In both cases, our immediate objectives were readily achieved. Letting Bin Laden escape into Pakistan was a political decision, not a military shortcoming. But neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are actually nations, lol - this is the first mistake Westerners make. Iraq was held together by Saddam's horrific terror campaign of political oppression and Afghanistan has never been 'held together' at all. Our attempts to 'nation-build' were non-starters. Comparing them to Japan or Germany is to show one knows nothing about Iraq or Afghanistan. Their own govts couldn't build functional, governable nations. Sigh...
Put it this way. If had put 500k troops and armor etc on the ground in Afghanistan we could have set up 'safe zones' and then proceeded to gain control of the 70% of the country we'd need to the entire country. The Afghans are not magical, the 'graveyard of empires stuff' is hype and nonsense. Look at the Brits and USSR experience, they were defeated due to their own mistakes. Brits never had enough force, neither did the USSR. The USSR made the additional mistake of mass slaughtering many, many Afghani innocents from heli gunships and armored vehicles etc. This unified otherwise competing war lords and tribes. Feeding an insurgency is never a smart idea. The U.S. has a viable counter insurgency doctrine that works when it's implemented, and worked in the areas it was tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. But we never had the territorial control required so the bad guys could just relocate to where ever we were not.
It's all so stupid. Talk to anyone deployed there, it was ridiculous. And cost us trillions. For what? To give Iraq to Iran and Afghanistan to the Taliban. Govts have been overthrown and leaders hung from lampposts for far less. The real problem with the U.S. is that the majority of people have already been subverted and don't realize it. They have no independent thoughts and don't even realize they are self-governing.
Rather, they just 'hate' the horrible, racist baddies and stupid conspiracy types and the icky woman haters and homo/transphobes etc. They have been convinced they are on the right side of history and do not question their dear leaders. We have not been a self-governing nation since WWI, and certainly not since WWII. In fact, I believe it's the mythology of WWII that convinced Americans it was okay for us to become an empire, as long as we don't call it an empire. As for WWII, who do you think 'won' it? Easy: The Soviets got Eastern Europe and parts of Japan and China, and Mao got China. The commies won WWII, but shhhhhhhh, you aren't supposed to notice this. Gen MacArthur has been slimed and unfairly destroyed reputationally by 'historians' cuz he had the gall to notice this...
Enough from me. Have a nice day.