Question: What does "winning" look like in Afghanistan??

[Algernon Moncrieff]

W started the war based on the Taliban harboring Bin Laden and being accessories before the fact to 9-11.

Obama continued the war.

Trump inherited the war.

It is now Fall 2018. We are 17 years into this.

What next? Is there a winning scenario? What is It?

[csziggy]

1. There is no way to win

Alexander the Great's expansion of his empire stopped in Afghanistan. The Russians and the British came to a stalemate there. There is no way to win.

[vlyons]

2. depends on your viewpoint

From an Afghani's, it looks like the back-end of the last tank crossing the border out of the country. From the America viewpoint, it looks like our puppet in charge, all opposition dead in graves, and we control the silk road between the Mediterranean and India and Mongolia. Rockets and warheads pointed at China.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

4. Increasingly it reminds me of 'Nam

Unclear endgame and an opponent that doesn't go away.

[Iggo]

3. Getting out when you realize the futility of it.

Anything beyond that is losing.

[KWR65]

5. This is what victory in Afghanistan Looks Like

The USSR last tanks leave Afghanistan in victory.



No foreign power has been able to rule over or change Afganistan politics in 1000 years.

[EX500rider]

6. "No foreign power has been able to rule over or change Afghanistan politics in 1000 years."

Not quite that long, the Mongols and Mughal's both managed it with some very heavy handed policies. ie putting everybody to the sword who got in their way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasions_of_Afghanistan#Mongol_Empire