US Army sergeant held for civilian shootings in Afghanistan.

We didn't go in force immediately -- and Bush was criticized for it.

The initial force was a small number of special forces and CIA paramilitary officers, working with the Northern Alliance.

The press was quick to make Vietnam analogies, and predicted Mazar-i-Sharif would would be difficult to take. Instead, it took days.

Removing Mullah Omar and Taliban rule, was quite quick, and relatively easy.

The nation building -- that comes with the "you broke it, you bought it" mantra -- has been the difficult part.

But, let's not forget that the vast majority of Democrats supported the war in Afghanistan. Even as they criticized the war in Iraq, they spoke in positive terms of our involvement in Afghanistan. It was the good war. The right war.

Of course, that's mostly because casualties were relatively low in Afghanistan, as Jihadists made Iraq their battleground.

 

Ah, this is just the article I was thinking about -- quagmire!

But, it was dead wrong at the time.

Do I get credit if I predict the Cubs will win the World Series, and they do -- in 2022?

 

DEAL!

 

We had 20,000 troops in Afghanistan by 2004.

afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/22/chart-u-s-troop-levels-over-the-years/


Not sure how you figure Johnny was "dead wrong at the time."

 

We should have kept the levels around 25,000 max.

 

We were warned at every step in Afghanistan. The same people howling politics to get us out now were the ones howling patriotism to get us in then.

 

I'm one of those people. At the time it was the right thing to do. I started 'howling" in 2008 when we went from 25,000 troops to the current levels of 100,000.

 

It was never the right thing to go into Afghanistan in force.

 

How are you defining "going into Afghanistan in force"?

 

Anything bigger than Seal Team 6.

 

This graph makes it fairly clear that the only result of the surge is more US Soldiers killed:

 

And who was asking for a 'surge?'

www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/asia/01iht-military.4.16620651.html