He's probably shaking his head because Iraq and 9/11 have nothing to do with each other AND because Osama is dead and Al Qaeda are in shambles. The insurgency now as it stands is (inadvertently, of course) a US creation.
If you want to help the Iraqis and Afghans create stable government and bring the order of law to their lands, that's great! But don't try to tether it to 2001 and don't try to pretend you're making US soil significantly safer.
In the part he quoted from my post, I never even mentioned Iraq. If you read it again, I mentioned Afghanistan, Yemen, and Mali. Both of you seemed to have misread what I wrote.
And so what if Osama is dead? We got our revenge yes, but Al-Qaeda is alive, especially in Yemen and Mali. Even though they were pretty much demolished in Afghanistan, they are still out there. You can't leave any left or they will multiply and take advantage of the uneducated kids of the Middle East.
My aspiration is to see the Afghan forces take over, not have us in that godforsaken ****hole forever. That's what I want to assist with.
Unless I join Xc or Triple Canopy, there isn't anything I can do in Iraq. You can't say that our action hasn't been crippling terrorism and insurgency. They are on the verge of giving up the fight at this point based on leaked interviews with Talib leaders.
And it is completely tethered to 2001. The Taliban sheltered Al-Qaeda, and they were behind 9/11. Not to mention that women are totally screwed under Talib rule. You can't
not feel sympathy towards them.
As an analogy: why build a wall far away from a smelly disgusting bacteria and insect infested cesspool of water when you could just take care of the issue yourself? Afghanistan is a cesspool of uneducated kids that need to be educated so that they don't get taken advantage of by insurgents and terrorists looking for fighters and suicide bombers.
