So is the war in Afganistan over then?

[doodab]

Do they need to worry that the cost of throwing expensive missiles at stuff (as they are now doing in Libya) soon adds up to trillions of dollars?

It is arguably a positive thing. That money goes to the indigenous defence industries and results in jobs and technological progress. For example, some of the better known consequences of defence spending in the US and UK include the internet, carbon fibre, advances in aluminium and titanium alloys and techniques for machining them and so on.

[PAH]

Not to mention the Russian debacle.

They obviously watched Rambo III and thought it was going to be a piece of piss.

Do they need to worry that the cost of throwing expensive missiles at stuff (as they are now doing in Libya) soon adds up to trillions of dollars?

Especially if it's true that private investment in weapons suppliers is popular with the yank politicians.

[Moscow Mule]

Pakistan is too nuked up to have a proper war with, so it has to be Afghanistan.

We get to bomb Pakistan without really starting a war and killing all the nasties to make us feel safe in our beds.

[PAH]

The real reason the yanks have stuck it out in Afghanistan when it's been apparent Osama was more likely to be in Pakistan, or at least the mountain region seperating the two, is so Obama can strut around the White House like Tony Montana.

[AtW]

P.S. The Afghans "won" every war. If that's how you define winning.

Well, all invaders either died there or chosen to withdraw - even Alexander the Great failed to win that war.

[russell]

And the evidence that this is, or was, at all possible is, or was, what?

Sounded good at the time.

[Spacecadet]

The war was not just about catching Osama, it was about turning Afghanistan into a democratic country which would be less hospitable to terrorists.

And womans rights, although I think that was shelved

[Old Greg]

Remind me what the goal was there? Its been 10 years now.
Surely the best use of American resources is to support the nascent revolutions in the Arab world, rather than prosecute unwinnable wars?

Takes me back to those giddy optimistic days when it all started.

[amcdonald]

It ain't over until Hilary sings

[sasguru]

...it was about turning Afghanistan into a democratic country which would be less hospitable to terrorists.

And the evidence that this is, or was, at all possible is, or was, what?

[russell]

Remind me what the goal was there? Its been 10 years now.
Surely the best use of American resources is to support the nascent revolutions in the Arab world, rather than prosecute unwinnable wars?

The war was not just about catching Osama, it was about turning Afghanistan into a democratic country which would be less hospitable to terrorists.

[stek]

Wasn't Afghanistan originally some sort of British-created war-zone buffer to deter the Russian Empire (pre-Soviet Union) from taking what was rightfully ours - ie India?

And it's been ungovernable since.

[sasguru]

Remind me what the goal was there? Its been 10 years now.
Surely the best use of American resources is to support the nascent revolutions in the Arab world, rather than prosecute unwinnable wars?