Hulk:

I agree to a degree, lol, remember before afghan was ‘invaded’ by the US and international armies the Taliban was in power they controlled the country so they could walk around and plan big attacks without fear of, well, anything but now they are hiding in fear fighting for their own lives in their own country so they cannot plan big attacks in ‘western’ countries and probably don’t have the resources to do so.

I think it would have been inevitable that another hit on the US or UK, France or Germany whoever it may have been, I don’t know for sure, obviously, but it may have been 1 year, 2 years or 20 years. Hopefully now the risk has been significantly reduced.

You say huge armies cannot stop individuals, true but the 9/11 attacks were done by a massive network of terrorist cells, huge armies can make them go defensive instead of looking to attack, that’s my point more.

Don’t get me started on Pakistan! I think they have as much to blame in all this (harbouring terrorists etc, I know its tough terrain in the mountains) but we are so afraid of the ‘nuclear problem’ to talk harshly to them…oh there I go….lol.

What if we found WMD’s or a nuclear armament program in operation in Iraq, would people be so quick to slag the governments about the war. I think not but you would say that was not point number 1 on the sheet to invade Iraq. Am I right?

To SGater:

I share your pessimism about pulling out.  But since the track record in Afghanistan shows the utter futility of continuing, getting out would at least clear the picture for a while. 

You ask what if more terror attacks occur?  And what if they don’t?  I believe it’s been proven adequately that huge armies CANNOT stop individual terrorists. 

The bombings continue in the so-called “stable” Iraq.  They will almost certainly continue when the US leaves. 

Iraq was an adventure that should never have been taken.  Afghanistan was at least (at the beginning) done smartly and with a smaller footprint.  Maybe going back to a tiny US presence would be a return to a more intelligent approach. 

It would at least encourage the “bugs” to come out of the woodwork (aka Pakistan).

I know but you would be more angry at your government if more terrorist attacks too place, how ever big or small they were.

At least the attacks are in Afgan (at the moment) with people who are trained to deal with the attacks not in US & UK where civilians get targeted.

We should just all get on!

The Afghans are like every other country America has graced with its presence, they want us to leave.

I want us to quit paying for overseas adventurism and spend our money in the U.S.

I’m worried that when we pull out that the whole thing will start up again and we will have taken 10,000 steps back.