How the fuck has the Afghanistan war been going on for 15 years?

>average 4chan user is younger than 9/11

>>31612648
90% of /k/ probably was too young to know what was going on or wasn't born yet.

>>31612640
it's because it's afghanistan. there's no winning there. there's only getting tired of the bullshit and going home. tribals aren't like other parts of the world so they'll never fight for a country. they'll fight against what they view as an invader or for their tribe but they could give a rats ass about the country. you're stuck there forever if you're trying to "win"

>graduated 2004
>all them recruiter calls
>told them i couldn't run for shit because my legs are fucked
>kind of regret not going anyway, at least to be a pog or some shit because i'm really good at pog work
>still can't run for shit

If you've got the war, we've got the time

t. Afghan

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>>31612648
>>31612652
I'm old enough to remember.

>I still have nightmares

You can't think of it as a normal war, not even like Vietnam. Like Iraq the war part was over pretty quickly, everything since then has basically been "go here and kill any terrorists that pop up, for the next forever years".

Afghanistan is one of largest lithium deposited and gold, and many of other resources.

Opium production too.

It's fucking sandniggers that keep annoying us, they need to be removed so we can mine and invest into that country.

There was an anon who made a real great post on why Afghanistan is a fucking bitch to invade and hold, unfortunately forgot to cap it. Basically it makes the point that most of Afghanistan is literally medieval in terms of politics, culture, and thinking and that our constant attempts to use "modern" solutions to these things don't work out. Most Afghans don't give a goddamn who rules in Kabul, they'll listen to their tribal leaders and the local strongman. The Taliban to the Pashtun represent a much more local and familiar form of leadership than the corrupt fucksticks in Kabul, hence why they're popular in predominantly Pashtun regions. Doesn't help that the Pakis have basically no control over the border and most of the region that borders Afghanistan giving the Taliban breathing space. Either way, the situation is fucked because if the Taliban do take Kabul, most of the northern Tajiks and Uzbeks will probably break off and do another Northern Alliance type thing to resist the Pashtun Taliban while the Hazaras will cry to Iran for help. Meanwhile aside from some ME countries no one would recognize a Taliban-lead Afghan government, which means that they'd either implode eventually or suck in another attempt by some country to stabilize the situation. To put it shortly, Afghanistan is fucked.

>>31612688
China pls go

They call it 'The Graveyard of Empires" for a reason

>>31612652
>Born 92, be military childfag
>living on military base overseas
>wake up in middle of the night hearing my mom crying over tv footage of towers
>fuck that, go back to sleep
>next day whole base on lock down can't do shit
>the rest of the month there are snipers on rooftops and .50 cal mgs set up at the gates
>mfw terrorists completed their mission by terrifying the military into scaring the shit out of the civies and children on the base.

>>31612690
Didn't Iran almost invade Afghanistan in the late-90's after the Taliban slaughtered a bunch of their diplomats and allies?

What would a punitive Iranian mission into Afghanistan look like? I doubt they'd go in looking to "hold and build;" they'd just want to slaughter a bunch of enemies and leave.

>>31612691
I'm not chinese. I'm just saying in facts.

>>31612688
and also It's too good business for Military Complex.

>>31612672
I was about 7 and thought it was a Japanese Kamikaze attack

>>31612825
>2014 was 2 years ago

>>31612716
For a second I thought you were born 92 years old.

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>>31612829
2014 was 15 years ago

>>31612945
>10 years ago was 20 years ago

>>31612740
>Didn't Iran almost invade Afghanistan in the late-90's
That they did, came damn close to doing it to. There's a reason they initially supported us going into Afghanistan and partially assisted us by whipping up the Shia's in A-stan against the Taliban (wasn't hard to do, Taliban are hardcore sunni).

In a hypothetical scenario where the Taliban gain Kabul and attempt to set up a central government, I could see the Iranians moving to possibly protect the Hazaras (Afghanistan's largest Shia minority). Iran does do a pretty decent job of securing their border with Afghanistan, but they haven't done a protracted land offensive in a long time. You could sort of count their current involvement in Iraq, but it's rather small in comparison to what Iran would have to do in order to move and secure chunks of Afghanistan. I could see the Russians lending a slight helping hand since a Taliban government in Afghanistan will almost assuredly lend assistance to any Chechen mujahideen still alive. China may also try and help since the Taliban would likely help the Uighur muzzies. I believe this support would be mostly logistical plus the eventual airstrike, I don't see them repeating previous mistakes and attempting a large scale occupation.

>>31612716
>if sensible security is enacted the terrorists win!
That's not the goal of terrorism you retarded millenial, a win for terrorists is embedding themselves into a culture and taking it over via threats of violence like in Europe.

>>31612640
Because we no longer live in an age of conquest unfortunately.

If the US really wanted to, we could have just wiped out those Tusken raiders a long time ago and and sent in the 'corporations man' to strip mine the place.

However, we actually have to give a fuck about the those silly, superstitious nit-wits we call nationals.

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>>31612945

>>31612640
It's still going on? I thought it was over, just "training" the locals.

I'm the opposite of the Vietnamese guy who lived in the hills for years because he didn't know the war was over. I came back home and forgot it's still happening.

>>31613324
>Vietnamese guy
*Japanese guy

>>31613344
One man's nip is another man's gook.

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>>31612640
they didn't listen

>>31612640
What do you mean I though bush declared mission accomplished in like 03?

>>31612640
>What did the US/NATO do wrong to turn this mission into such an endless debacle?
Started a war in Iraq. Everything was under control until that sucked away all the resources and manpower that were needed to finish the job.

But Afghanistan wasn't profitable enough at the time, so they had to go after Iraq for made-up reasons.

>>31613434
>But Afghanistan wasn't profitable enough at the time, so they had to go after Iraq for made-up reasons.
Do people in the current year still believe Iraq was started over oil? We didn't get the oil. China did. Iraq gave them all of the production contracts. This was known as far back as 2005.

We went into Iraq because neocons and Israel told us to. The same neocons who've now surrounded Hillary and are telling her to attack Russia. But they have America's best interests in mind, ofc

>>31613208
B-but guns r scary.

Everyone seems to forget when ussr tried a-stan

>>31613571

I mean op did specify US/nato

Because Afghanistan has been in more or less constant war since the 1978 revolution. The fact the USA intervened in 2001 just meant that now Washington felt responsible for the multi-generational shit-show.

>>31613610
Yes op did. But we arent the first to be there way to long. We should learn from ussr mistakes. Finish. Then leave

>>31612640
>What did US/NATO do wrong by invading the place called the Graveyard of Empires
Wow I wonder.

Realistically though it's all grand chessboard stuff that has almost nothing to do with the stated goals of the invasion. I don't think anyone actually wanted to invade Afghanistan, they wanted to go kill Saddam for daring to question the Petrodollar, but got roped into Afghanistan because of 9/11.

>>31612640
Pakistan. Really it's because of Pakistan.

>>31613398
>Afghanistan
>asia

another victim of American 'education'

>>31613807
>europoor 'education'
Okay, if it's not in Asia, what continent is it in?

>>31612640
We tried to treat these people like people. The idea we could win their hearts and minds was flawed from the beginning. These people hate the west and fundamentally believe we are evil they are our opposite in every way. The only way to win this was utter extermination something most westerners don't have the balls to do. Had we carpet bombed ever city and exterminated them bu the millions men women and children this would have ended years ago.

>>31613693
It's similar to killing roaches...when you turn on the light they just run for cover...into neughboring countries.

>>31613862
Petraeus identified our support of Israel as an obstacle to winning the hearts and minds of anyone else in the middle east, given how arabs feel about israel.

>>31612640
Rules of engagement constantly changing, pulling troops for political reasons, sending the guard in, not just nuking something.

Nukes should not be used lightly but if it will get emperial Japan to settle the fuck down and have a seat, imagine the effect it would have on a bunch of cave dwelling sand monkeys.

>>31613237
>silly, superstitious nit-wits
oh, puhhleeeeeeeeeez pls pls pls tell the class what belief system you subscribe to and why being christian affords you the right to criticize those who buy into a different fairy tale. bored of lobbing mud at the other flavors of the /k/hristian /k/oolaid already?

>>31612640
>Modern wars aren't supposed to celebrate their crystal fucking anniversaries.
I'm sure that's true, in your head at least.

Read "forever war" and you will know why nobody can win in Afghanistan.

>>31612640
Obama

>>31612825
>w-we won!

>>31614983
Wut

>>31613324
20 Americans dead this year in Afghanistan and 4 plane crashes sound like training?

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>>31613807
contemplate suicide

>>31613807
>Just went full retard

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>>31613807

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>>31614818
It was a reference to this great man in pic related.

If we subscribed to his mindset, it really wouldn't matter what '/k/oolaid' you drink.

I have to strap my fedora on tight when I say that I don't much care for any fairy tale; the point is our military might vast outweighs that shithole's capabilities.

>>31612654
This. The only way to pacify the place is to exterminate tribals and put power in the hands of the urban population. This is roman tier shit. Round up the rural barbarians who refuse to assimilate

Pakistan continues to support the Taliban and offer them a safe space to attacks.

At least now we got the ANA doing most of the bleeding.

>>31615396
>20 dead
Hate to sound like an edgy dick, but that's literally nothing. Besides how many are from accidents and not from enemy action? The first death in 1991 was like a forklift accident or some shit like that.

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>>31616518
>edgy
>reply with byzmuth
youre either choosing between sying that the US forces are clumsy and incompetent or that ragtag shepards with half a century old equipment kill them while randomly shooting in the general direction as is the parctice in the arab world

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>>31612640
>How the fuck has the Afghanistan war been going on for 15 years?

we haven't yet achieved an acceptable level of female empowerment.

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=9F74C7ED-3CF8-4A8A-91BC-F7F417D8BFF8

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/feinstein-in-the-news?ID=829e9940-e915-4f86-888f-29ed8ce8ff50

>>31617190
>What are ieds
>What are Green on blue
>What is a false dihcomey
I can't help that you're retarded

>>31617233
fuck ya they make better senators

she is able to calm down the peasants way more than a man could - so she can make a billion off of USPS

women kick ass at this shit, all you gotta do is love the minorities and little people, and they close their minds and open their wallets

take notes of this. remember the policy of the rich liberal - this is how to excel in life.

love everything, and suck the government money right up.

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>>31617467
did i hurt your feelings?

>>31612640
I'm sorry, is heroin not profitable any more?

>>31617727
Except the guy in that pic is clearly British.

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>>31617727
>someone out there actually made that pic
>someone out there actually posted it unironically

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>>31612640
Well there has been conflict like this since like the 70's with russia and the united states just pouring gas onto that particular dumpster fire. There will never not be war and violence in that area, the population has nothing but their religion and so long as people try to live there they will continue to be violent.

>>31612640
While "shit" is still going on, the basic understanding of what we considered the Afghan and Iraq wars to be tells us that those "wars" have been over for years now. The Iraq war is over and has been replaced with a cloudy arms length air strikes and shit against I.S.I.S., and the Afghan war has basically transitioned into a phase of "keep a few thousand troops there forever" just like Germany and Japan to make sure things don't get fucked up again.

If we invaded Afghanistan and were able to kill bin laden and complete other objectives I think we would have been out of there before 2010... but of course we were manipulated by the Bush administration and our thirst for revenge was co-opted into some bullshit war with Iraq, which of course drained the fuck out of the resources for Afghanistan, drew our attention away from Bin-laden which helped him escape, and created a whole new mess of fucked objectives like finding Saddam and hunting for WMDs that didn't exist. Just like what happened to the Soviets in the 80s, Afghanistan is just a clusterfuck of tribes and stupid hajjis and you'll never be able to outlast them on their own turf.

We are still there, but I wouldn't even call it a war anymore. Think about it, when's the last time you saw a headline news story featuring war tapes discussing American casualties? as soon as the media and the public doesn't give a shit anymore, it can hardly be taken seriously as a "war". sorry for the rant

>>31612688
This, when I was in country we would escort this geologist around to drop these hidden cameras (they looked like rocks) in random parts of the country. At the time it made little sense to me. My thinking was that they wanted to build new bases and wanted to see if there was any troop or civilian movement. Why a geologist? Again I figured he had something to do with base construction (where to dig and such). Then I got home in mid 2010 and read an article on how they found a trillion dollars of minerals in Afghanistan. Suddenly our geologist made sense, as did the Dyncorp contractor (nice guy btw) who told me they were training local security guards. My guess is they don't want to leave Afghanistan for a while, till they get a lot of that sweet lithium out of the ground or they have competent security to avoid losing control of the mines.

>>31618125
well this is great news

i thought it was all a loss. i'm glad we got something out of it. america fuck ya

>>31612640
>what is the military industrial complex for 5000!

>>31612654
>>31612690
This, a medieval mindset demands a medieval strategy. Doesn't just mean public executions and threatening your enemies families but also intermarrying in the community and having a local representative live there for a long time.

>>31618165
Yeah but the only real benefit you'll see as an average citizen is paying less for anything that has a lithium battery.

>>31618219
i dunno about that

food commodity prices have gone down.. food prices have not

most likely that gain will just stay in the business.

>>31612660
>Fat lazy pog wannabes

Never change /K/

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The Taliban aren't the Nazis. They don't have an established hierarchy or political arm that works on their behalf. They're a transnational ideology tied to the land they fight from.

Over there, its the end of the world. There aren't any trains, airports, highways, or even radio in that mountain range. They're fighting just a few miles from the ultimate high-ground, the Khyber pass. Like the only way to beat them would be to displace them, and take over all their lands, in the most remote inaccessible region of the world.

>>31618890
>in the most remote inaccessible region of the world.
But this is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkhoyansk_Range