Nation building in a savage construction site

You cannot build a democracy when you don't even have the basic building blocks of civil society

Rampant corruption in Afghanistan

I think it has become painfully clear that things will not change in Afghanistan. The Afghans, for the most part, have no interest in fighting the Taliban. They are profiting from our largess, but not doing anything to prepare for self-rule and maintaining security. The Taliban will be back in power within a week of when we leave. This effort at nation building will, unfortunately, go down as an act of pure folly. We have to realize that certain conditions must be in place for nation building to be successful. We are trying to apply the lessons of WWII to a completely different situation. Germany and Japan were both modern societies when we went to war with them. Post-war transition to constitutional government was not a huge leap for either of those countries. That cannot be said of most of today's trouble spots. Countries like Iraq and Afghanistan have no history of rule of law. Expecting that they can overcome a history of tyrannical rule and tribal warfare in a few years, a decade or even a century is foolish. We would have to occupy Afghanistan for the next hundred years, forcing them to abandon their culture and accept ours if we are to bring them into the twenty first century. That is obviously not going to happen. so why should we stay? It makes me sick every time a brave American is killed in this futile effort. We should disengage now and abandon the Powell Doctrine forever. Punishment can teach lessons just as well as hundreds of billions in economic assistance and redevelopment. Why must we be expected to fix nations that attack us? From now on we should just give them a good swift dose of shock and awe and let them mull over their transgressions while they try to recover on their own. Unless there is a very compelling national interest requiring us to occupy and rebuild we should not do so.


Afghan parliament upholds child marriage, sex slavery and criminal charges for rape victims

GTFO!.................Yes.  We absolutely should get the f*ck out.