I'm beginning to think that negotiating a treaty with the Taliban is a piece of cake compared to establishing peace in the S2 OT forum.
Practical realities override preferences. You may want to buy a mid-life crisis sports car, but realize that the reality is that you need that money for your mortgage. Not buying the car doesn't mean you didn't want it.
More from the previous link: Democratic hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have savaged the Bush administration’s record in Iraq and have promised to begin bringing home U.S. troops as soon as they take office. But neither candidate has repudiated the larger idea of nation building — that U.S. security interests demand an active program to shore up governments and “build capacity” in failed or failing states around the world. Mr. Obama has promised to create his own “civilian corps” to operate in “post-conflict, humanitarian and stabilization efforts around the globe.” A campaign position paper states: “Barack Obama believes that strengthening weak states at risk of collapse, economic meltdown or public health crises strengthens America’s security. Obama will double U.S. spending on foreign aid to $50 billion a year by 2012.” Susan Rice, a top State Department official in the Clinton administration and now a senior foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, recently proposed a greatly expanded effort by civilian U.S. government agencies to help the military “revive fragile and war-torn states.” “Beyond boots on the ground, we need the wingtips and Birkenstocks of diplomatic and development professionals,” she wrote in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post.
Either spend the money on the 26,000 contractors in Afghanistan rebuilding the country, or you don't. They never had a country, to speak of, in the first place. Nothing to actually "rebuild." Bill Clinton went about nation building in Kosovo. McCain supported the idea. The only candidate in 2012 who opposed nation building for real was Ron Paul, of course.
So, Obama came into office with the idea of improving Afghanistan, but ended up fighting the war there instead. Trump came into office with the idea of withdrawing entirely from Afghanistan, but ended up fighting the war there instead. You can't always get what you want... unless what you want is war. barfo
One of us said he wanted this war over yesterday. What does that say about you? Obama came into office wanting to massively spend on nation building. Not just in Afghanistan. Hundreds of $billions.
It would go a long ways towards peace talks at S2 if some stopped referring to posters as your kind.... a very divisive opening to a post...
How's that 17 years of prospects for peace in Afghanistan working out? I doubted any real positive outcome from day 1, and have said so all along. 17 years aren't enough. Or something.
It's not that weird. Talking to you is the closest he'll come to his three-way with KellyAnne Conway and Sarah Palin.
That three-way would be barfo's dream. He's obsessed with them both, in a seemingly sexual way. Like the kid pulling on the little girl's pig tails.
