[uniacid]

$2 Trillion or so, also we have to admit the failure was the US changing its role there from hunting Bin Laden and the Taliban to "Nation building" with an obviously corrupt Govt that has always been there.

It shouldn't be a surprise since you need a society that wants to actually break from the same continued cycle, unfortunately Afghanistan isn't it due to many reasons.

[dragonwriter]

> we have to admit the failure was the US changing its role there from hunting Bin Laden and the Taliban to "Nation building"

The cause of the failure was when, in 2003, the US decided to focus on an entirely unnecessary war of choice (aggression, really) in Iraq (and a whole bunch of propaganda own-goals scored in that war that affected the US particularly in the Islamic world reinforced that.) Nation building was always an element of fighting the Taliban, not mission drift, since having something stable and broadly supported in place was the key to prevent a resurgence.

[throwaway894345]

I don’t have a strong opinion, but “nation building” always sounds like this horrible thing and I don’t quite understand why. Charitably, bringing democracy to corrupt, oppressed countries seems eminently desirable. Maybe nation building has a bad rep because it’s immensely difficult and we always fail at it (presumably it takes many decades and we always think it will take 5 years?). Genuinely trying to understand.

[temp8964]

OMG! corrupt corrupt corrupt ! I can't believe how many times the US supported local governments have been accused of being corrupt!

Kuomintang' China, South Korea, South Vietnam, Iraq, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. You name it! Every single local government supported by the U.S. was and is being accused of being corrupt. You know what? They are all corrupt judged by the western standard. Corruption is the norm in the countries need U.S. support. If, for God's sake, they can build a government which is not corrupt (like a consituational republic???), what kind of society would that be? Why would they even need U.S. support in the first place?

And you know what? Corruption is not a choice of the central government. It is not like the central government can choose being corrupt or not. It is a reflection of the society it is in.

It is just shameful that because of this extremely naive accusation, the U.S. government made countless foreign police mistakes.

[dragonwriter]

> Corruption is not a choice of the central government.

Often, it is.

> It is not like the central government can choose being corrupt or not.

Sure it is. It can also choose how much energy to devote to rooting out corruption at lower levels, but in many of the cases at issue it was the very top leaders that were deeply corrupt, so corruption was, in fact, a very direct choice of the central government.

[oldway]

It's trying to install a puppet regime which ruled for the last 30 years and looted the country in Ethiopia which is hated by 90% of the country. The attitude for the US has changed in a country of more that 100 mil people.

[est31]

The price tag sounds impressive at first but note that most of it never leaves american hands. Instead it is paid to contractors in key congressional districts.

[iav]

While that might be true, that's kind of saying that if I go around breaking windows, I'm helping the economy as people are going to go out and spend money to buy new windows. Our society produces a limited amount of goods and services, and any allocation to one project means we have a little bit less for everything else. Whether the beneficiary is American or not isn't really relevant as it doesn't change the end result that everyone else has to tighten their belts to make room for the war.

[ASalazarMX]

> the US changing its role there [..] to "Nation building"

You must mean "installing puppet government". The Taliban were before, the puppet government lasted two decades, and now the Taliban are back. If it had been done with more diplomacy it might have succeded, but after the Twin Towers attack there was a push to overreact, and to profit from the sudden political capital.

[jscheel]

$2 trillion that was paid for with debt. Estimates peg it at $6.5 trillion after interest.

[petre]

So now the US weapons supplied to the Afghan army fell into the hands of the Taliban?

[ruined]

yes. there are photos going around of rooms full of weaponry seized, and they are already patrolling in humvees and mraps. there are even some videos of probably ANA defects piloting American helicopters for the Taliban.

https://instagram.com/p/CSj-3bgsxKQ

this is absolutely astonishing to me. im honestly surprised the us didn't conduct airstrikes on the vacated armories and hangars. they just got a leg up from antique firearms and fertilizer bombs into modern weaponry and air force.

i expect all of this to show up in Iraq, Syria, etc

[beerandt]

We'll start bombing what we left behind as soon as the retreat/ evacuation is over. Maybe sooner.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Someone already gave them a supply of Stinger missiles.

[busymom0]

They are leaving behind several fully functioning military equipment which are now under Taliban's control. Basically a gift to them.