Quagmire

This is an incredible piece of reporting by the Washington Post about Afghanistan.

In the fall of 2001, there was no question that we should have invaded Afghanistan.  And there is still no question that we should have invaded, at least in my mind.  Al Qaeda was there; the Taliban was protecting them.  We then decided to shift resources to Iraq in 2002-3. That allowed Al Qaeda to regroup in various safe havens.  We also had zero plans for solving the myriad problems that Afghanistan posed.  The same was proved true in Iraq.

Bush erred in losing focus.  Obama erred in staying after bin Laden was killed.  And we are still there, we have no plan and there is no "winning" that is possible.

Trump's erratic impulsivity could be the only thing to pull us out. It would create horrors in Afghanistan, but there are horrors enough already. 

We've spent almost a trillion dollars on nothing. It's well past time to leave that country.