>>
>>They did not catch him at the end, they don't hv democracy there
>>and it seem that they are gonna stay there longer then Soviets,
>>ripping the same benefits/accomplishments.
>
>I supported (past tense) that war. I have real trouble with it now, based on actions/revelations by the U.S. government.

I can understand that. I remember beginning of Yugoslav war.
Media campaighn was outrageous. Pictures of dead people, burned houses everywhere... And of course everybody else did this to us, while *we* did nothing to nobody.
As for Afganistan war, thanx to the fact that Taliban regime was so
doomed, convincing world went easier then it normally should.
But invasion as such was still wrong thing to do.
They could hv done it with limited agenda (catching OBL), send limited troops, hitting selected targets, rather then full size invasion.
If it succed succed, if not go home, they wld not hv to stay there.
Now (as Collin Powel said for Iraq) situation is that ;
'Since you broke it you own it'
And as you said, they hv to stay there for as long as it takes
for these two countries to be back on their two feet.



>But, in the cases of BOTH the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war, I do believe that U.S. and U.K. troops (specifically, and not necessarily *any* other country's troops) HAVE TO STAY THERE UNTIL THERE IS PEACE AND SECURITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THOSE COUNTRIES **AND** THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE IS RETURNED TO AT LEAST PRE-WAR STATUS.
>I don't care if "democracy" is established there or not - mainly because the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and many other countries have shown complete disregard for "democracy" when it doesn't go their way (i.e. Palestine).
>I don't care if Iraq (or Afghanistan, for that matter) becomes a puppet of Iran.
>
>I realized too late that we (the 'west') were being primed by the media for war with Afghanistan and that I fell for it. While there were definitely other ways to get Bin Laden, we were also frequently reminded that the Taliban was evil. We saw lots of women in burkhas, some women being killed in stadiums, schools with no girls in them, destruction of ancient religious (others') by them, etc etc etc. I had no problem with getting the Taliban out of power after all that propaganda did its work in my head.
>
>I think too that the U.S. (and the U.K. to a lesser extent) are in for a very long engagement in both countries. Especially in Afgahnistan, where there is little but poppies to make an "economy" with. Iraq's oil **may** let the people get some of the $$$ from it, perhaps placating them sufficiently to let order be re-established.