Reply #23: I agree with this

[TayTay]

I believe this will become a military operation again. The goal will become a fight against those who wish to harm the interests of the US.

I do not think the military can solve the humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan that led so many to embrace the Taliban. We can use the resources of our State Dept and of global NGO's to fight that and have a much, much smaller force for security for those entities. Beyond that, America does not have the power to affect social or political change in that country. That is up to the Afghanis. The money we spend to do this type of job with our military is, im my opinion, money poured down a rathole, never to be seen again.

The saddest moments in that hearing involved hearing the soldiers testify that they wanted to help the Afghani people rebuild their lives, schools, health care, et al. This is a noble and laudatory goal. And one we are totally unable to achieve in any measurable way at all.

Americans still thrill to hear JFK's call from 1961: " Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." This is the problem itself. This is undoable. It did not work in Vietnam or any other place. It is a fantasy and we have to abandon it for our own good and the good of the world.