United States signs peace deal with Taliban

[IRfly]

I’m sure there are afghans who understand the peaceful transfer of power and democratic institutions.

They just all are about to get beheaded by the dude wiping his ass with his left hand while wearing flip flops and carrying a 50 year old Kalashnikov.

Too bad we didn't get him his visa ?

 

[IKE]

It’s not a function of race. Afghans aren’t a race anyhow. It’s a function of culture. Culture can and should be critiqued. There are aspects of white, black Latino and Asian cultures that should be examined. Unfortunately, that gets confused for racism.

Afghanistan is a shithole country with a garbage culture. How’s that?

My mind immediately went to a culture of people or a particular country’s citizenry, not an ethnic group. Really easy to not read that as racist.

Give me a fucking break.

Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aymāq, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashai, Nuristani, Gujjar, Arab, Brahui, Pamiri, doesn’t matter what race. That country is an unmitigated shithole that only understands power through force and/or money.
They just don’t get the concept of a peaceful transfer of power based on a representative vote of their citizens.
They get tribalism and warlords....

You're all right; my post was stupid. Please accept my apologies, but also please allow me to deflect the blame to an earlier decision of mine: choosing to follow the Politics Thunderdome (PNA Edition) thread. It really wrecked my post interpreting defaults.

 

[bubblehead]

Gotta admire that 2300-year home winning streak, tho...

Our leaders seem to forget this fact... If the Russians could not do it, I have no clue why we thought we could.

 

[JTS11]

Well...that lasted long

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1234461943165079552

 

[Brett327]

Shocking.

 

[Griz882]

Unprecedented.

 

[IKE]

The Naval War College standard line is that historically we haven't always been great at wrapping up hostilities- certainly not at the end of messy conflicts (WWII and the Axis unconditional surrender is considered to be a clean example; the messy examples are pretty obvious).

So we'll see how this attempt plays out.

Medieval civilizations eventually move out of their dark ages. Dark ages are, well, they're backward and ultimately unsustainable...

I'm continually amazed at the amount of post conflict planning the allies did during WWII, and while it resulted in sustained cessation of hostilities, the Allies have maintained enormous garrisons in Axis nations to this day - albeit to counter cold war threats.

With chaos being the one constant in the international order, sustained peace is hard.

I've been meaning to read this. Maybe now that I'm post-DH I'll find the time.

Nothing Less than Victory by John Lewis

The goal of war is to defeat the enemy's will to fight. But how this can be accomplished is a thorny issue. Nothing Less than Victory provocatively shows that aggressive, strategic military offenses can win wars and establish lasting peace, while defensive maneuvers have often led to prolonged carnage, indecision, and stalemate. Taking an ambitious and sweeping look at six major wars, from antiquity to World War II, John David Lewis shows how victorious military commanders have achieved long-term peace by identifying the core of the enemy's ideological, political, and social support for a war, fiercely striking at this objective, and demanding that the enemy acknowledges its defeat.

 

[nittany03]

. . . victorious military commanders have achieved long-term peace by identifying the core of the enemy's ideological, political, and social support for a war, fiercely striking at this objective, and demanding that the enemy acknowledges its defeat.

Wow . . . it's like they found . . . I don't know what you could call it. A "center of gravity" or something.

(Takes War College hat back off)

 

[Pags]

Wow . . . it's like they found . . . I don't know what you could call it. A "center of gravity" or something.

(Takes War College hat back off)

Unless it's a NWC textbook written by a Russian fawning over the Prussian General Staff then I don't want to read it.

 

[HSMPBR]

U.S. Launches 'Defensive Strike' At Taliban As Fragile Afghan Peace Deal Teeters

The strike followed President Trump's call with the Taliban, during which he says they agreed "we don't want violence." Still, the group has led a wave of attacks since signing the landmark deal.

www.npr.org

 

[sevenhelmet]

I think they just wanted to party in Doha. Now that it's over, back to business as usual.