What good did the Afganistan surge do? Anyone?

[cali]

How is Afghanistan better for it? And yes, that includes women. How is the U.S. better or safer? Who benefited?

It was stupid- at best.

[Lasher]

1. It made Dick Cheney richer.

[hobbit709]

2. That's about it.

[think]

3. Absolutely nothing.

You have to be committed like the Republicans to stay there forever no matter the cost and then you'll have successfully brought democracy to the people....

[SkatmanRoth]

4. The Afghanistan surge did something for these companies

Lockheed Martin
Boeing
Raytheon
General Dynamics
Northrop Grumman
United Technologies
L-3 Communications
SAIC
Huntington Ingalls Industries
Honeywell
Rolls-Royce
Booz Allen Hamilton
Textron
Exelis
GE
Oshkosh
CSC
URS
DynCorp
ATK
CACI
Harris
Hewlett-Packard
Rockwell Collins
Bechtel
ManTech
General Atomics

When it comes to riding the gravy train, General Atomics does not have a first class seat; they have a private rail car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper

[cali]

5. thanks for that list

[theHandpuppet]

13. +1000

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

[L0oniX]

17. ^^^^this^^^^

[woo me with science]

20. ^^^^^This is the correct answer.^^^^^^

Blood for money. Enough is enough.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. It funded the exit strategies for several "campaign donors" and increased the liquidity

for a couple of drug cartels. It gave a huge boost to the recruiting efforts of a multitude of terrorist organizations.

Oh wait, I've got it!..

It is making Wall Street parasites a shit-ton of money. Yeah, that's the right answer.

[cali]

8. Hi, ET

yep, yep and yep.

I'm appalled at the mindless adoration and support for the President.

[cali]

7. Come all ye defenders, come all ye supporters sans reservations

explain to to me why this was anything but a terrible decision- oh and the outcome was utterly predictable.

[L0oniX]

16. I'm still trying to figure out how Al-Qaeda morphed in to the Taliban.

[WinkyDink]

9. The poppy fields are flourishing now.

[CFLDem]

10. It kept a bunch of people employed for a while.

But otherwise not much militarily. Kind if hard to eliminate the Taliban if we allows them to hide over the border in Pakistan.

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. But what of the surging freedom that has spread across the land?

They just can't see a good thing when it's bombing them...

Next thing, you'll be posting some negative hater crap about the Pakistanis objecting to our liberty missiles...

There's just no pleasing you racist haters.

[cali]

12. I know, right? I must be a racist to criticize the surge.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. It was a PR stunt that flopped.

[L0oniX]

15. MIC stock holders are happy.

[MineralMan]

18. Nothing we have done in Afghanistan has benefited anyone

in that country. In fact, I would venture to say that nothing our military has done anywhere in the Middle East has proven to be beneficial to the people living there.

I oppose all meddling in the Middle East by the United States, other than economic sanctions when truly needed.

I have held that opinion since the mid 1960s, beginning in 1967.

We have no business meddling in Middle Eastern governments.

It's not just the surge, cali.

[cali]

21. You are absolutely right, MM. It's not just the surge.

[bobduca]

19. Diverted yet more money to the military industrial complex

ie. It was a continuation of the original goal, and a gift to the Pentagon before pulling US troops back to permanent in-country bases.