Only one president has had the courage to do the right thing in Afghanistan.

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37. The Collapse of an Empire

After 20 years, a trillion dollars, and 2,500 American troops killed, this is what we get.
Is there any better example of the bloated military establishment than what we see in this horrendous aftermath?
A guerilla force a fraction of the size of its' opponents was able to hang on for 20 years and wait until the USA finally pulled out, after enduring two decades of hellfire.
Is anyone worried yet about the real strength of our military forces?
The fact is, our military rank and file has become a prop for the military-industrial complex, as warned by one of the last of the great American Generals, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address as President. Eisenhower correctly warned us about the complex as it had "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
So now we have a self-serving complex that eats a sizable portion of the nation's budget but can't manage to carry out its' mission in places like Vietnam and Afghanistan - as flawed as those missions are conceived.
This isn't post WW2 Europe anymore and we can't expect to prop up puppet governments and install faux-democracies in places whose people do not recognize nor understand Western-style governments. Hell, even in the USA we have a significant portion of our population that doesn't recognize nor understand our own government anymore!
So along with our deteriorating infrastructure (due to get a band-aid soon), our failing education systems, our increasing morbidity, and our seemingly unbridgeable political/socio chasm, we can all stop chanting USA, USA and realize that we no longer need a military that insists on fighting wars like we did 80 years ago, albeit with shinier toys.
New ships? They're blown out of the water by someone sitting a few thousand miles away staring at a computer screen.
New planes? For what purpose? To kill civilians? The enemy of today is rarely affected by mass bombing campaigns.
More "boots on the ground"? Again, for what purpose? To spread "democracy"?!! Yeah, they'll listen to us.
No, what the complex needs is more and more of our tax dollars to blow up. Because that makes us all feel like we're getting our money's worth.
None of this screed should suggest I'm in favor a bunch of homicidal fanatics taking control of anything, let alone a country, but it should be evident by now that we're hopelessly unable to stop it.