> From the research I have done, the majority of
Afghans want peace to the point where they would
accept a Taliban strict rule of law over the
continued war. Its confusing, but it just shows the
war really needs to end.

As I looked at US efforts at essentially 'nation
building', often on the other side of the world, to
try to contribute to US national security, I came up
with a simple observation:

In a country with a government and economy that
function at all, there has to be and is a 'culture'
with social structures, education, economic
activity, leadership, laws, government, usually
religion, etc. While such a culture has to exist,
it may be very different from that in the US.

In Afghanistan and much of the Muslim world, the
'culture' is heavily just Islam: Islam controls
social structures, e.g., sex, marriage, child
rearing, the role of family, etc. Islam also
controls most of education, much of the economic
activity, essentially all the laws, the police, the
justice system, the government, the foreign policy,
and, of course, religion. We can toss in
architecture, what people eat, and what they wear.
Basically from how people dress, eat, work, etc.,
its all Islam. So, in an Islamic country, take away
Islam, and there's no culture at all and, then, just
chaos, e.g., criminals, gangs, civil war, etc. Net,
in an Islamic country, for a government leader can
have an Islamic king (e.g., Kuwait), Islamic strong
man dictator (Saddam, Assad), or Islamic cleric
(Iran). That's about it.

One can try to set up a Western, secular government
in an Islamic country, but the leader will have no
cultural foundation to stand on and, thus, will be
trying to sell pie in the sky. Meanwhile the
clerics will be working 24 x 7 to get their people
up on their hind legs against the guy, and too soon
he will lose, maybe his head.

For anything like US democracy, laws, police,
secular government, freedom of religion, etc., just
f'get about it. We need to understand: In the US,
our 'culture' of democracy is much more than just
our Constitution and elections. Instead, in
addition, nearly all of us have 'bought into' a
'social contract' where we believe in, invest in,
and trust in our democracy. So for most significant
transgressions against the 'culture', the voters get
indignant, outraged, incensed, infuriated, and up on
their hind legs and vote! E.g., each member of the
House has to stand for election each two years,
which is darned short, and keeps him on a very short
leash, and if he messes up then likely he's out'a
there. To borrow from a Bond movie, getting caught
in a motel room with a cheerleader does nicely.

Really the Islamic countries are about 500 years
behind the history of Western Europe, e.g., when
Western Europe was fighting wars of religion and
starting to develop respect for humanism, individual
freedom, secular government, and democracy. Moving
ahead 500 years is not easy. The rivers of Europe
ran red with blood for hundreds of years before we
got to 'Western Civilization'. Europe has been the
most effectively bloody place on the planet until
finally it started to learn to live in peace,
recently, hopefully.

Net, Afghanistan is going to be an Islamic country,
some version of an Islamic country, but still an
Islamic country, likely run by a king, strong man,
or cleric. Sorry 'bout that. We won't like such a
'culture': Some of the men use boys for sex. They
marry off their daughters at age 7 or 13 or some
such. They refuse to educate females. They use
Islamic laws and justice. Islam runs essentially
everything.

That's just the way it is. That's the reality. We
need to face the reality. We don't like it. We see
it as a 500 year out of date sh!tpit, and we are
correct. Right, it sucks. We know that.

Then, facing that reality, we can look for how to
get what we need, e.g., US national security, that
is, to keep Afghanistan from being the base of
operations of another 9/11 attack on the US.

Okay, then, that's what we really need, our real
'bottom line': Keep Afghanistan from being the base
of operations of another 9/11 attack on the US. We
need little or nothing more than that from
Afghanistan. Can we get that? Sure. How? Two
steps. Step 1. Put in place a bunch of INTEL. Step
2. Leave. [It took the US 12 years to figure this
out?] If our INTEL tells us that they are starting
to attack the US again, then level them, appropriate
places plus some for good measure, from the air.
Done.

What will happen after we leave? Mostly we don't
give a sh!t. But I'd put my money on a government
run by an Islamic cleric, e.g., the Taliban.

Now, US military, welcome home. Well done.

Yes, we can be sure that the Muslim clerics will get
their people up on their hind legs shouting "Death
to America". Sounds like a declaration of war to me
for which some USAF guy in a container room in
Nevada should push a button on a drone control and
stop that stuff. But if all they do is shout, then
we don't always have to push the button.

England was long smart enough to work effectively in
that part of the world, in Egypt, Palestine, Syria,
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan, India,
Burma, Singapore, etc., without getting all bent out
of shape trying to bring English culture to those
places.

The US needs to quit being so darned simplistic,
wise up, learn from the English 150 years ago,
update the lessons a little, use our drones, INTEL,
etc., do the smart things, and quit bleeding the US
white on absurd foreign adventures from just totally
unrealistic, head in the sand, simplistic foreign
policy nonsense. We will not get what we have
wanted in Afghanistan. Instead we will wise up and
get what we can and need or just go broke on
nonsense.

What's it going to be US, wise up or go broke?