Quote Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY View Post
I think the people who are not learning is the likes of yourself

So we had to be seen to be doing something ?

And doing something stopped terrorist attacks ?

Well our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan didn't stop terrorist attacks did it ?

Do you think dropping , in your case , two nuclear bombs on Afghanistan will stop terrorist attacks ?

Why is it that many criminals have lots and lots of convictions by the time they are middle aged?

Punishment hasn't stopped them , has it ?
Actually, whatever else it achieved, the invasion of Afghanistan almost certainly prevented the kind of mass-scale organised terrorist attacks against the west as we saw on 9/11.

Prior to the war Al Qaeda had a base to prepare and fund such attacks. After it, they didn't. The US had to do something and the west rightly fell in behind the US.

Thats not to say other mistakes werent made, but you cant guarantee how these things will turn out, and you cant guarantee that a pacifist approach would have ended better.

What if we didnt go to war? What if Al Qaeda planned another attack and London was next? What if they struck a deal with China on resources and the islamo-fascist Taliban of the early 2000s became established and grew? What is the whole middle east fell? What of the generation or two of Afghan women who have received an education in the last two decades?

We only know the rights and wrongs of the Afghanistan war because thats what happened. We dont know what would have happened if it didnt occur. Things may have turned out far far worse.

Thats the issue with people like Corbyn. They can stay out of everything and take no responsibility, but then by default you take responsibility for the atrocities occuring when you dont act.

For me, on balance, Iraq was a political error. Afghanistan wasn't. The withdrawal was clearly botched, but the war itself was justified given that the Taliban did not hand over those who planned and committed 9/11. The US had no choice