Easy Street
Like what you have to say about early days in Afghanistan. My take on this misadventure is that if we'd applied a fraction of the resources we threw at Iraq in 03 to Afghanistan, we my be looking at a more benign scenario. We are operating against a resurgent Taliban, whereas if we'd been a bit more serious about fostering and bolstering the Afghan central government and security forces in the early days, we may have been better placed to walk away from a reasonably stable situation.
Like many on here I was involved in the move into Iraq. I wasn't too bothered about the morality of it as we were resolving a situation that we'd left festering since 91. However, even at the time, before we became aware of dodgy dossiers, I just didn't see the hurry. It's interesting to ruminate on what might have been if we'd just sat on Saddam and let the whole thing play out. Maybe the Arab Spring would have emerged first in Baghdad. Certainly, the horrible sectarian, low-level civil war that blew-up in the aftermath of the invasion was always on the cards. It might have been better for all of us if we'd allowed them to get there on their own. The current emerging sectarian civil war in Syria bears all the hallmarks. There are many festering internal conflicts in these countries that we would do well to stay clear of.
As for Afghanistan, I hope we disengage from Afghanistan leaving some semblance of a stable government that can show some persistence. He may be a bit unstable but I hope that Karzai or his successor doesn't meet the same end as poor old Najibullah...