Reply #2: It wasn't squandered, it was stolen. Like in Iraq. Karzai's goverment is

[acmavm]

not in control of anything. The 'war' in Afganistan is an absolute farce. And it gets much less funding than the 'war' in Iraq.

I'm not pointing out anything that will strike anyone as being 'news'. We have multi-national forces in Afganistan and the place is as big a mess as it was right after we first went in their to run the Taliban crazies out. And guess what? The Taliban is making a comeback with support of the people because we screwed up our chance at helping them. We backed thug warlords and paid them off by the shitload. We indiscriminately kill innocent civilians (like someplace else I could name) and then act like its their fault. We treat them arrogantly and disdainfully and then we don't understand why they don't greet us with hugs and kisses.

What the hell does anyone expect? We successfully occupied Germany and Japan only because the US treated the people with respect and helped them get back on their feet. That's how we gained their support (no occupation can succeed without the support of the people). In Afganistan and Iraq we went in swaggering and blustering and bombing, supporting the war lords, and let bin Laden walk out of Tora Bora unscathed (which was a BIIIIGGGG mistake).

What does anyone expect? The Russians tried to warn the US friggin' clown government that this would happen. The biggest irony is that when the Russians were fighting the Afganis, we were helping them resist. Well, we don't even have that problem and we still can't subdue the population. What does that tell you?