Reply #8: it worked well enough...

[shaayecanaan]

the Soviet Union suffered its Vietnam. Afghanistan is neither here nor there. Even if carpet Afghanistan with garrisons, there are plenty of other hiding places in Central Asia with no effective government control if you are seeking a safe haven from somebody.

The entire American involvement in Afghanistan is an idiocy. There was never a functional state in Afghanistan and unless the Americans are prepared to stay fifty years and sped upwards of several trillion dollars there never will be. Like the Israelis in Lebanon, the US will stay there, even for twenty years or more, dying occasionally, until it decides one day it has corpses enough and goes home.