Afghanistan

 Some people are objecting to the fact that we left Afghanistan with the situation unresolved.  After 20 years its pretty clear we don't know how to resolve the issue.  In fact what exactly is the issue?

Afghanistan is essentially an Islamic State.  It is also famously a place that resists central authority and even more so foreign invaders.

To a large extent they have been able to maintain their independence thanks to their geography.  Whie in a central location they are landlocked and mountainous.  

Nominally they were part of a number of great empires but never really.  The tribes in the mountains weren't worth the effort of true subjugation but were also not strong enough to pose much of a threat.  So they were left alone to herd goats, grow poppies and provide fighters.

The British wanted to subdue them but never could really.  Then the Russians tried.  While the country is fairly easy to occupy, it is very hard to hold because of the mountains, the porous borders and their tactic which reminds my of Ali's rope a dope, you can't really hit them because they aren't where you think they are.

When the Russians were there we supplied them with munitions and training sites.  Once the Russians left they allowed terrorists to use the sites and particularly Al Quaeda.  Some of the terrorists on 9/11 were trained at these sites so it became our first order of business to eliminate them.  We did that rather quickly but then were in Afghanistan for the long haul.

We installed a weak but corrupt central Government, spent billions training a military and lost lives to modernize a country that just wants to be left alone generally.  It all collapsed rather quickly.

We have the ability to monitor significant terrorist activity and destroy it without being in the country.  The politics in this country lead to attacks on the current administration for leaving although the previous administration wanted out also.

In a number of years the country will fade into the list of Stans in that part of the world and be hard to locate for most Americans.

We probably could have left much sooner and have less casualties.  

We should have.