Reply #22: They have already transitioned

[Inuca]

to more modest goals in Afghanistan, though still kind of fuzzy. I am sure they are too smart and, as you said, pragmatic, to realize that it makes no sense to aim for a western style democracy, but at the same time I think they are in a catch 22 situation in the sense that the country HAS to be transformed somehow, especially with the ready to explode Pakistan (SCARY!!) next door.

There was some ex-colonel I have never heard of before yesterday, I think that on Rachel's show, not sure, very lucid and very eye-opening in his assessment. He was saying that most likely what will happen in the area is that once we are out, the situation will revert to what it was before, the traditions and the anti-west attitudes are too strong. Nothing really new, but the way he put it was like a cold shower.