Any DUers still believe invading and occupying Afghanistan was a good idea?

[NNN0LHI]

Before the invasion we had passionate and outspoken group of DUers who were really promoting the idea of invading Afghanistan. One of the most popular reasons given back then to invade was to save Afghan women from being forced to wear burkas.

Just curious if anyone here still feels that way?

Don

[get the red out]

1. No

I changed, fairly quickly. Sorry I was an idiot.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. Bush Threw Away A Chance To Stabilize The And Trash The Taliban.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. still? how about never. and still never.

[arikara]

4. Never did, never will

invasions and war are NEVER the best option.

[cynatnite]

5. I supported going after the terrorists and taking down the Taliban govt supporting them...

bush's Iraq war destroyed any real attempt at progress in that nation. Now, we've got a mess of a situation there with our troops dying daily. Even worse, the citizens of that country have not been helped in any way. Women will continue to be treated like dogs.

It doesn't matter what we do at this point, it's a lost war and we should leave. It hurts to say that, but our presence there is not saving anyone.

[Flashmann]

6. I never believed

invading or occupying Afghanistan was a good idea,from day one.....

[SheilaT]

7. Whaddya mean "still"? I knew it was a huge mistake

from the beginning and have been angry for a decade that so many people were bamboozled into thinking it was a good idea.

[steve2470]

8. No nt

[panader0]

9. I suspect that few of those who promoted the invasion

won't be posting in this thread.
Bring the troops home today.

[Plucketeer]

10. Like so many, I was for this action at first.

If we'd gone in - pursued Bin Laden - and then got back out after a year, I'd still hold a positive view of it. But when we decided we'd try to change a stone-age culture - one that didn't WANT change - that's when it went grossly stupid. I can sorta understand Obama trying to put a pretty "bow" on it, but it's only because he's got professional fighting men (and leftover Rethugs) advising him to do so. It's easy to get "starry-eyed" in a room full of generals all vying to put a stamp of "mission accomplished" to the file that's gonna be their legacy. Meanwhile, American kids die on the premise of promoting freedom and equality. Truly disgusting.

[getting old in mke]

28. +1

[liberal_at_heart]

11. I have always believed the initial attack was justified

The whole world was on our side for the inital attack by the way. It wasn't until we invaded Iraq that we lost the world's support. I don't believe we should have stayed in Afghanistan. We should have left after destroying the Al Queda training camps.

[Edweird]

12. OBL should have been taken out a long time ago. No need to invade or occupy.

Invading Afghanistan was unnecessary and invading Iraq was stupidity. I at least can see the rationale behind the invasion of Afghanistan even if I don't agree with it. Iraq, however, doesn't make any sense.

[former-republican]

15. I couldn't agree more with your post.

[ieoeja]

13. Yes. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

36. I admire your honesty

And you must have your reasons for feeling this way and I respect that.

Don

[Blue_Tires]

14. I would if I was a Pentagon-connected military contractor

[Johonny]

19. nah even then it depends

a lot of military contractors are seeing their budgets get eaten up by other contractors. It really depends if your are in the boots on the round side of military contracting. I rising tide doesn't even lift all military contractors.

[sibelian]

16. I never did.

There was never any way to justify it that didn't ignore the risk that everybody was just being lied to again.

[99Forever]

17. Bad idea then...

.. worse idea now.

But the Generals MUST have somewhere to play with their billion$ toys and use up that ammo while it's still minty fresh.

[McCamy Taylor]

18. I still care about those poor women. But the occupation is just helping the Taliban.

We should have cleaned out the Taliban, set up a democratic government and left. Unfortunately, US business interests really want that pipeline.

[truebrit71]

20. Not any more. That is where the fight SHOULD have been focused...

...before they got pulled out to go to bomb and then re-build Iraq with our tax dollars...

Now we're in a no-win situation and we need to either go full-bore and eradicate the Taliban, or declare victory and GTFO....(at this point I'd go with the latter)...

[Poll_Blind]

21. We lost the war in Afghanistan on September 9th, 2001, when this man was assassinated:

We lost that war a month before it started and we've been losing it ever since.

PB

[ieoeja]

22. We probably should have used our forces to support his replacement.

On the other hand, we did have OBL and who knows how many more at Tora Bora. Had we just done that, we probably could have relegated ourselves to supplying the Taliban's enemies as we had the Soviet backed regime's enemies before.

[frylock]

23. i was against that shit from jump, and i'm not shy about letting people know that

[mythology]

24. The execution as implented by Bush, no

As a general idea of creating a better government given that the existing one supported overt terrorism, sure.

[CabCurious]

32. They aren't a unified nation. They aren't trying to be.

We cannot help them create a better government when we declared a large section of the nation "the enemy."

Ten years with zero political progress.

At least in Iraq, there was constant pressure from within towards reconciliation and some kind of unity government. They actually had political progress, even through the bloody period.

[byeya]

25. Bad idea turned into a worse result. Bring the troops home

and let them become civilians.

[Lebam in LA]

26. Didn't support it back then

and never will

[KG]

27. I never believed the absurd notion that an operation as complex a 9/11 (official version) was

conceived and controlled from a cave in the mountains of one of the most backward countries on the planet.

[Blue State Bandit]

29. Never did. I thought we should have gone to Pakistan w/ India...

and Iran (Khatami) and level the ISI.

[Jazzgirl]

30. I thought both Iraq and Afghanistan were big mistakes.

They drove the Russians out and they'll drive us out too unless the MIC wins and goes for never ending war there. It was too stupid for words and I never thought either invasion made sense.

[CabCurious]

31. Invading to track down and kill OBL? Yes. Fighting the taliban and occupying the nation? No.

In 2001, we had a very small footprint in the nation. We forced a new government and cornered Al Qaeda inside a mountain.

We should have been out by 2002.

[spin]

33. Our military has recently done an excellent job of initially winning a conflict. ...

The problem is that afterward we try to "win hearts and minds" often with unsatisfactory results. We also try to impose democracy on nations that have no experience with it.

I favor never getting into a war unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. After we have destroyed our opponents military and much of his governmental infrastructure, we should simply leave with a warning that if necessary we WILL return. Of course we should always do our best to avoid unnecessary collateral damage.

Our nation may not be loved but we will be respected.

[Brewinblue]

34. Horrible idea then.

Worse idea now.

[Robb]

35. I thought it was a war started for natural gas.

This might surprise some of the newer DUers who've cast me as a warmonger, but that was my position in 2001. Then Bush et al lost sight of the "prize" and headed to Iraq, and the only possible rationale for the war went to China via a pipe through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

I was optimistic in the spring of 2010, but the "nation-building" isn't going particularly swimmingly.