>>>No one has ever won in Afghanistan. No one. Not Alexander the Great, the Brits or the Russians. Why should we be any different?
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>>All true. This is a bit different, though, since we have not been trying to "win," only preserve order. We are not at war with the whole country, only the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. How do you win against a loose organization of non-government forces?
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>>My personal opinion is we should get out completely as soon as possible. The government is corrupt and they are one of the leading suppliers of heroin in the world. We're trying to help Karzai because? I say carpet bomb the poppy fields and head on home. If a few bombs were to accidentally fall on the presidential palace that might not be a bad thing, either.
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>I think you'll find the Russians and the UK where trying to restore "order" and prop up their friends.
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>And why carpet bomb the poppy fields. Buy the crop at a decent price and burn it or make something useful from it. Why not carpet bomb the consumers of the product.
>If I was an afghan farmer and I could make money from poppies I'd plant poppies.

I can understand the POV of the farmers. Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most illiterate nations on earth. It's not like they can run over to the Afghan Small Business Administration and open a store. That doesn't mean we have to go along with heroin production.

Agreed completely about consumers sharing the blame. That is one of my problems with the "war on drugs" in Mexico. If Americans didn't buy it they wouldn't grow it.