Quote:
Originally Posted by TarJak
Whilst I agree with much of what the author says in this text I feel he chickened out badly in simply saying that America is there simply because they are. I still stand by my statement that America (and therefore all it's allies including Australia who is as trapped as the NATO allies), is there simply as a salve to the American people after 9/11.
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I do not think he wants to argue with that, however, he is seeing things from the presnt perspective, and the forseeable future. 9/11 triggering the launch in Afghanistan is quite some time ago now, in the beginning it was a purely American mission, and America even denied NATO assistance by allies. then there started a separate NATO/euzropean mission, separate to the american one.Then both missions more or less were amalgated together, and turned into a mainly american mssion with some NATO assistance.
the original goals of the missions are almost obsolete, and the situation on location, while not having generally improved, has chnaged, and some things became better, some things chnaged between better and worse repeatelsdy, and much became different but stayed bad.
Now, 8 years after the war was launched, any link between current mission planning and 9/11 as the cause of war, at best compares to lip confessions. We are since long at a stage were we wish we could bail out and just do not see how to do it without loosing too much face. So, from a present perpsetcive, we are indeed there "just by habit":america is there becasue it is there, and European allies allowed to get trapped there becasue they thoight they must folow the ameircan example and their overly ambitious, world-improving, political under-acchievers.
It's 2010 now , not 2002. The nature of opposition has changed, too. You may stillö use the same names, and still the way the war is fought by them and the sociologicaol and cultural comnstealltion forming the allience of different enemies and threats, has chnaged.
Or to put it simple: Afghanistan once was about 9/11, in the early phase - today, it has almost nothing to do with it anymore.