The real problem is that America is only going halfway on this. Had their original goal been to transform Afghanistan, it would have taken 10x as much man power as they currently have.
America's predicament in 2001 was that if it didn't defend itself, then it would appear weak and be the target of more attacks. Either it could invade another country or defend its walls better. Instead of focusing on one to do well, America choose to do both and have done both poorly.
If the original goal had been to transform the culture of Afghanistan, they should have gone in the way the old European powers, or old Roman powers used to colonize things. Brute force, followed by mass destruction of all villages and executing of men and raping of the women. The soldiers who then invade are then paid to live there with their war brides as they rebuild the country. Spain transformed an entire continent, as did Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan using these methods. Every great military success has been done this way.
The alternative to invading and raping Afghanistan would have been to simply build the walls higher at home, such as with the TSA at airports, heavily securing all borders, and intense monitoring of communications at home to spot terrorism.
These defensive measures were mostly unconstitutional, so instead the plan was to invade. But after the invasion, Americans believed they could "reason" and "spread democracy" to a backwards Islamic culture rooted in violence and barbarism. You cannot peacefully transform such animals. It would take generations, at a bare minimum, to do it peacefully. Thus if America was serious about transforming Afghanistan they should have just gone in with a full scale conquest, but of course they would be detested by the international community for doing so.
So ultimately there was no good way for America to answer this, and Bin Laden knew this when he was devising 9/11. Bin Laden's stated purpose of 9/11 was to make America go bankrupt. Now, it appears that with the NSA becoming omnipotent but with open borders, it seems that America is transforming into a dystopian police state where native citizens are viewed as more dangerous than illegal immigrants.
To me, more than anything, these events demonstrate how incapable democracy is of handling external threats. This is why, historically, most democracies have barley lasted more than a few hundred years. And it is during wartime that democracies are the most useless, as there is no time for hesitation when battling a dangerous enemy. Consider Ancient Greece that fell apart during the Peloponnesian war, or how the Ancient Romans would institute a Dictator during periods of great wars, such as against Hannibal.
If America was truly serious about handling this Islamic threat they would have needed to install a lot more power into the president's wartime powers against Islam. But because it's a democracy that cannot settle matters quickly or efficiently, we got this half-assed shit we currently have in Afghanistan. Democracy is great for handling day to day affairs of the city, but it's worthless for maintaining empires.
America's predicament in 2001 was that if it didn't defend itself, then it would appear weak and be the target of more attacks. Either it could invade another country or defend its walls better. Instead of focusing on one to do well, America choose to do both and have done both poorly.
If the original goal had been to transform the culture of Afghanistan, they should have gone in the way the old European powers, or old Roman powers used to colonize things. Brute force, followed by mass destruction of all villages and executing of men and raping of the women. The soldiers who then invade are then paid to live there with their war brides as they rebuild the country. Spain transformed an entire continent, as did Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan using these methods. Every great military success has been done this way.
The alternative to invading and raping Afghanistan would have been to simply build the walls higher at home, such as with the TSA at airports, heavily securing all borders, and intense monitoring of communications at home to spot terrorism.
These defensive measures were mostly unconstitutional, so instead the plan was to invade. But after the invasion, Americans believed they could "reason" and "spread democracy" to a backwards Islamic culture rooted in violence and barbarism. You cannot peacefully transform such animals. It would take generations, at a bare minimum, to do it peacefully. Thus if America was serious about transforming Afghanistan they should have just gone in with a full scale conquest, but of course they would be detested by the international community for doing so.
So ultimately there was no good way for America to answer this, and Bin Laden knew this when he was devising 9/11. Bin Laden's stated purpose of 9/11 was to make America go bankrupt. Now, it appears that with the NSA becoming omnipotent but with open borders, it seems that America is transforming into a dystopian police state where native citizens are viewed as more dangerous than illegal immigrants.
To me, more than anything, these events demonstrate how incapable democracy is of handling external threats. This is why, historically, most democracies have barley lasted more than a few hundred years. And it is during wartime that democracies are the most useless, as there is no time for hesitation when battling a dangerous enemy. Consider Ancient Greece that fell apart during the Peloponnesian war, or how the Ancient Romans would institute a Dictator during periods of great wars, such as against Hannibal.
If America was truly serious about handling this Islamic threat they would have needed to install a lot more power into the president's wartime powers against Islam. But because it's a democracy that cannot settle matters quickly or efficiently, we got this half-assed shit we currently have in Afghanistan. Democracy is great for handling day to day affairs of the city, but it's worthless for maintaining empires.
Contributor at Return of Kings. I got banned from twatter, which is run by little bitches and weaklings. You can follow me on Gab.
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