"But West ‘much better off’ five years after defeat of the Taliban."

OK. Taliban is gone, bin Laden is in Pakistan. Why is the US over there? To try to quell the hatred that has stemmed from the US being over there and slaughtering them? Doing the same thing over and over thinking the results will be different?

What's the endgame? After all, the insurgency is stronger now than ever, carrying the fight even to the capital city. Will it be any better in 5 more years? 10? Or will they be stronger, after having bled lives and treasury from the US and NATO?

History - Afghanistan and invaders

The Afghanis kicked the shit out of the Brits, kicked the shit out of the Soviets, and after 5 years are still kicking the shit out of the world's mightiest military power. (Think of it - the US can't subdue this pile of rocks and hillbillys. What good is military power when it's misused this way? And spare us the NATO nonsense.)

Another historical parallel.

Vietnam - kicked the shit out of the Chinese, kicked the shit out of the French, kicked the living, dying and all other shit out of the Americans. (And own one heck of lot of very nice facilities, courtesy Uncle Sam.)

There should be a lesson there on fighting guerilla wars in foreign lands against strong reslilient people defending their own homes who can live without air conditioning, computers and telephone calls home. Fighting wars against people who are at home and want you to go home. Folks have adapted for thousands of years to living there. And defending it from invaders.

Arf