There are 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a number that may drop to 13,000, according to recent Pentagon testimony.
Contrast that with Iraq and troop level.. Full attention mean IMHO, lots more troop when it was warranted, while the world opinion was solidly behind US.. Finishing the job in terms of Taliban as well as spending the money in reconstruction of Afghanistan.. We would have come a long ways with a lot of positive impression out of such an exercise.. As things stand, I am not sure US even coughed up any serious money to rebuild Afghanistan. We don't even know where Bin Laden and other senior kooks are.. Before the mayhem, Iraq which had a lousy dictator that was contained, was 'secular' and militarily was broken down after 10 years of containment.. What ever the morality of that containment since biggest group to suffer was civilians and children.. Saddam was busy writing novels, building palaces and monuments for himself..
Unless of course one feels that thousands of death, Iraq coming under Iran influence (if you don't understand sunni shia dynamics, you can't appreciate this) and a haven for every kamakazee who wants to die and take a lot more with him is an improvement.. Oh incidentally, bad as Saddam was and unhappy as even the Shias were, there was no one blowing them self up or any one else for that matter.. |
