US and allied forces should retreat from Afghanistan immediately.

Co-Existence with totalitarian regimes is not tolerable! It is not. There are no troops in N. Korea, there are troops in Afghanistan, the claim that to fight dictatorship and keep oneself free of hypocrisy then one should commit to all out-war against every neglectful and shameful regimes is outrageously overstated. It is a childish defence; you cannot solve the world's ills with one democratic sweep of ICBMs, but where there is a presence, in Afghanistan, then good can come from it. America would suffer terribly from a withdrawal, the hatred it feels from fellow Western countries is based on the fact it has interventionist policies, well imagine how that hate would be ramped up by withdrawal; 'not only did America invade where it liked but after messing up the country they just got tired and left.' That would be disastrous for the one superpower to lose its moral authority even further during a time when the World's economies are looking towards it. The anti-war claim that if those of us who wish democracy and peace and stability and a future in Afghanistan rather than a return to darkness we should do the same everywhere injustice stands is pathetic. Why? It is not reasonable, it is not do-able it is not workable. Within the bounds of reality all injustice cannot be righted at once yet Afghanistan has the ability; the endo-skeleton of society to be built on. Why abandon the progress made? In fact the progress made through the construction towards a semblance of infrastructure would at the use of the enemy, making him more effective at carrying out heinous crimes against people. Freedom isn't some difficult, wishy-washy term which is hard to define in generalities. This isn't a philosophical debate. It is obvious to see that what we have in the West is freedom compared to that of pre-war Afghanistan. It is slightly disingenuous to start questioning what freedom even is, it diverts attention from the suffering Afghans In 1788 Muslims from the Barbary States attacked, tortured and enslaved European and American sailors, Jefferson met their representatives in London and was told the motive was the Koran gave permission to do so to infidels.[1] The fundamentalists who ran pre-war Afghanistan hate us, do not get this wrong, they hate us and believe it is intrinsic to their existence to hate us. There is no co-operation, no quarter, no middle-ground, no negotiation terms as with ETA or the IRA, they are the true definition of an enemy. They want the Western way of life destroyed, they will not rest until it has been done, now why have the attacks been so few and far between? So poorly designed? Because our soldiers are in the lion's den and our special forces are hunting them and forcing them to run, not to sit and plan and calculate. 'If you wanted the peasants to follow a more western, modern way of life, convincing them of that requires communication. In addition to the soldiers not speaking the native language, they kill them.' Sorry but wrong. If you want peasants to follow a modern way of life then you emancipate women, allow them to control their own birth rate, allow them to work and have choice of sexual and domestic partners. [2] This can be done by having soldiers there to stop the Taliban from reclaiming power, to stop the warlords from pushing them down, as they would! Those in unofficial power do anything to stop people rising in society, to challenge or weaken their position. The article in the Independent does little to support the idea of Warlords being given sanctioned power, it fact points out their violent methods. You're conclusion of how to restore Afghanistan is happening, it's the monsters of the enemy who are making it so difficult, the troops need to remain in order to continue progress. The war in Afghanistan started in pursuit of a noble cause; retribution for 9/11. Killing Osama Bin Laden, decapitating his organisation. The fallout of the war has meant that troops are in the country, Somalia or Nigeria were not responsible for 9/11 nor 7/7 nor all the attempted bombings since. The troops went for a noble cause and now should stay and repair the damages of war and improve the situation from what it was. It also means that the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq could stop the spread of possible Revolutionary Guard revolution dangerously spreading from Iran. It also has become a policy of containment. The soldiers there are becoming increasing skilled at their role which suggest if a country requests intervention then they would excel in its provision. Afghanistan is our problem, even if you don't agree with those who took us there, it is not a problem to be shaken off and ignored, leaving allows the fascists and sadists to reclaim their lost land and re-enslave its innocent majority. Leaving prematurely allows Afghanistan to become the melting pot from which all manner of hate can be forged against the West. The opium crop can be used once again for funding and would propel enemies of the West to another threat level, as more advanced weapons would become affordable. It is for our safety, but also our fellow human beings, the liberals and the progressives of the country who would wish a chance to live as we do at home, but could possibly not have this dream met as the liberals and progressive in the West feel progress is only for themselves not for the Middle-East. Such a stance is cowardly, introspective and selfish. 1 http://www.jcs-group.com... 2 http://en.wikipedia.org...