Originally posted by JohnInIndy But RML, Obama said all throughout his campaign Afghanistan is where we needed to be not Iraq. You mean He was wrong?
He wasn't wrong for the circumstances he inherited, which doesn't make it cheap.
What really should have been the focus while Bush was avoiding American casualties to keep people fired up for his Iraq thing, and shifting resources to the invasion he wanted, was getting in, stomping the crap out of Al Qaeda, etc, and in the process, well, the Taliban came down in Kabul and any other mission was doable before it became an extended occupation. Then we *would* have been in and out instead of having messed around being targets while it became about America, not the terrorists or the Taliban.
Iraq's been the lion's share of expenses, and Afghanistan became a still-expensive near-morass in the process. If *that* had been done right in the first place, it wouldn't be taking so much doing all along.
My assessments of what is actually accomplishable there, particularly if it's not being funded so the big corporations can take more of their defense budget profits away... Have been declining somewhat, admittedly.
It *is* where the focus should be, and should have been, ...whether or not that focus says 'Stay' anymore is a different matter.