Does anyome changed their mind about the Afghan War?

I wasn't in favour of invasion originally because I feared it would end up like this at some point. We stride in telling a country how it should be run etc. We lead to the deaths of thousands of the countrymen, women and children and then give a lot of freedom to some only now for what?

So all we wanted was the terrorist training bases gone? How's that taken 20 years and so many deaths? And now what will be the cost once 1st Sept comes around?

So no I didn't think it would ever work as we never really listen to the people of the country we just try to sell them UK/USA version of "freedom".

Overall - it is just so so sad

I was never for that war, especially considering the Taliban offered to give us Osama if we showed them some evidence that he was behind the attacks.

9/11 made Americans fucking crazy, it was incredible to observe up close. It was a wild time, felt like people needed to have a war somewhere, and it didn't even matter why, or what for. People got used to being super safe, I guess, so the event was a total shock.

Anyway, at the time I was still deciding whether to become an American citizen or not - maybe that made me somewhat detached, because the attacks did not have a particularly strong personal effect on me. It seemed like everyone else totally lost their minds.

Yes.

In 2001 I thought Bush did the right thing invading Afghanistan and going directly after Bin Laden. And I thought the CIA was doing a great job trading suitcases of money for tribal loyalty to go after the fanatics.

I was shocked, at the end of 2001, when Bin Laden escaped thru Tora Bora. I was even more shocked when Bush changed directions, pulled troops out of Afghanistan, and focused on Iraq.

Afghanistan on the back burner in 2003, leaving the job undone, was the huge mistake in my view. Any decisions about Afghanistan should have been made in those first 5 years. Kicking the can down the road only continued the mistake.

Update Since Bush didn't pull us out, Obama should have grasped the nettle. Since Obama didn't grasp the nettle, Trump should have. Finally Biden did. I do wonder what the Joint Chiefs told Obama & Trump about our situation there.

All along, this has been my opinion:

1. We should not have invaded Afghanistan. There were better ways to deal with with the threat against the USA.

2. But we did invade, so trying to fix what we broke became a moral imperative.

3. But try as we may, we cannot fix what was broken, and had nothing to do with our invasion, and by that I mean society, so we should stop our attempt to build a nation in our image.

4. But we did exactly that, and that earned us another decade in Afghanistan as we tried to salvage our investment.

5. And 20 years later, it's time to leave. It's going to be messy and there is no possible way to prevent the chaos, no matter how much planning is done. It's like major surgery, there will be loss of blood, and post-op consequences, no matter how skilled the surgical team might be.

I have not changed my mind about any of this.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were doomed to failure. The war in Afghanistan at least had a defensible basis at the beginning because that is where bin Laden was, and as you note, many people supported it. But he quickly moved to Pakistan so the original reasoning was no longer valid. Just as the Soviet war against Afghanistan was doomed to failure, so was ours. The Bush Administration lied about both wars, and the US people were misled. It cost us a trillion dollars and many lives.

I never thought invading Afganistan was a good idea.

But it didn't seem like as bad an idea as Iraq.

Funny thing is, I don't feel like I was lied to as badly with Afghanistan as I was with Iraq.

WMD and oil aside, I guess I just didn't buy anyone saying that Afganistan was not going to be a quagmire.

I'm glad we're getting out.

I only wish someone would have given more thought to getting civilians out before the military.

I thoroughly supported the war and it was the right thing to do. What I don’t understand is why pulling out is needed. The fact is the war had been won long ago. We’ve kept 80,000 troops in Japan and 60,000 in after WWII and 30,000 in S. Korea since the Korean War. Why the need to get 4,000 out of Afghanistan who’s presence kept the taliban at bay and the nation secure?

In the aftermath of 9/11, it was difficult to not support the initial invasion. Hindsight is dangerous. Based on the temporary unity that was evident nationwide in the US in 2001, I don’t believe most people who claim they didn’t support this initially.

With that, the doubling down along with nation building is nothing I ever supported. Pouring billions into trillions of dollars was never going to pay off.

We should have been much more strategic in this and done a better job at sharing the responsibility for cleaning up years of meddling in the Middle East with NATO partners.

If we really wanted to build up Afghanistan, then we should have established trade routes with value on both sides. But the US hasn’t done that in a century, paving the way for China.

I support pulling out. I’m not thrilled with how it’s been done.

I say
War-huh!
What is good for
Absolutely nothing

As a Canadian I am glad I could stop checking to see if people I went to school with are coming home in boxes back in 2014.

No.

I still think it was the right thing to do. We were attacked by a terrorist group harbored and supported in that nation.

As I've said, I do not thing we did enough to pave the road to a more democratic Afghanistan by pushing women's rights. Nor do I feel we did enough to rout the Taliban in the first place.

No. the botched withdrawal doesn't change the benefits of going to Afghanistan in the first place.

I was never in favour and never supported it.. it was a bad move and the mess that has been left behind now just proves it.

I was against it then and remain so today. Bush and the Deep State wanted a war and they got two. Both have been disasters.

Eh, I go back and forth about whethter or not invading in the first place was a good idea, but I've always thought it was stupid to remain after more than a few years. The basic idea of just dropping in and kicking a government's ass when they attack us (through proxies or otherwise) is decent in itself because it discourages countries from attacking us. Probably killed a lot of Al-Qaeda operatives, which is nice. But obviously, there are costs to war, and these days I tend to think we're better off just improving security moving forwards and putting most of our focus into more boring but more important killers like heart disease.

I remember the atmosphere after 9/11 and everyone was looking for a target of revenge. Iraq didn’t make any sense, because those WMDs never appeared but we knew Afghanistan’s Taliban and Pakistan were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and willing to hide him from us. So going into Afghanistan to get him made some sense. But we should’ve been out of there, especially after Bin Laden was killed. And we have no excuse for the lost lives in Iraq.

Personally I am glad that our involvement after so long is hopefully in its last days and we’re out.
Technically it was not a war as it was not a declared war. It was approved as a military action and sadly dragged on far too long.
Too many other factors played into our going into Afghanistan and it took a heavy toll. IMO.
Hopefully come 31 Aug we finally walk away for good.

Well, USA will be back there within 10 years time 😂

It seem so long ago, but the original reason why we invaded Afghanistan is because they were hosting and supporting Osama Bin Laden and his Al Queda network. It was from Afghanistan he planned, coordinated and executed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It seems he escaped into Pakistan not long after so we probably should have wrapped up our involvement there in 2004 at the latest.

What’s the point of a ginormous military if you aren’t going to use it after 9.11?

If we aren’t going to have any more Vietnams, Iraqs, or Afghanistans, let’s spend that money in a more productive way.

I’m sick of this losing stuff.

I thought we went there for the right reasons
But we stayed way too long and had no real strategy
I feel like I was sold a false bill of goods on this one

Wasn't for supporting the Afghan government after 9-11

Wasn't for supporting Bin Laden in 1978.

Going after him in Pakistan was totally necessary though.

Biden was for it.now he isn't

At one point in time Afghanistan was a nice place to live and foreigners vacationed there. It’s the terror cells that keep popping up because they want women home and covered up. They can’t live like decent and kind human beings. They do not play nice and can’t be rationed with. I do think we need to be there in some capacity. If nothing else for women and children’s safety.

Had we known that a spineless boob would endanger thousands of Americans, rearm a terrorist faction with millions of dollars worth of our weapons, tech, and equipment plus allow China into the middle east...we should have stayed with a much more ramped up objective of destroying the enemy when we had a president that wasnt such a boob.

I miss my Donny 😩

Bush should’ve pulled tf out when he declared mission accomplished..

My opinion is unchanged; I always thought it was a stupid idea.

Although by the time I was old enough to actually have a good grasp on what happened and what was going on I guess that was already readily apparent to anyone who isn't a Jingo.

Not at all. I supported it at the start, and stopped when the objective changed and we forgot why we were there. I support ending the war, but this is the stupidest and most deadly way possible

Nope. Was in the streets protesting at 19 and I still think it was a stupid idea.

I never did think it was a good idea.

I think we should have helped the endangered people get out….and let the dangerous people go ahead and kill each other.

I didn’t change my mind, but recognize leaving was going to happen at some point. A former CIA intelligence analyst was opining that the Soviets basically destroyed the country and it was wildly naive of the US to think they could really bring it back.

We need something long term there. We couldn’t just be attacked and not to do anything. I think both the USA and Afghanistan don’t have their crap together.