Afghanistan

 Foreign policy and geopolitics can be a messy business. It is more messy the more one injects ones nose into someone else's business. 

Nation building; more bluntly, empire expansion is costly, and often will fail unless the conquered culture truly accepts its conquered state. Afghanistan is a recent example of this. Trillions of American dollars have been spent on creating and nurturing a democracy. Conspiracy theorist ideas aside, what has happened there is an embarrassment. The majority of Americans, I believe, do feel as though we couldn't be there forever. Pulling out of the country should have been the goal all along, and one should strongly reflect on future occupations of foreign soils after this debacle. I have stated before that we should have never occupied Afghanistan at any point. Leaving is a good idea; how we leave matters.

For some reason (maybe nuclear) we, as a country, love Pakistan and there are credible sources who say that most of the problems there are caused by Pakistani support. It is a mess we do not need, to be frank. The situation that we have created can't be abandoned either. It appears that abandonment is exactly what happened. 

American personnel was left extremely vulnerable. Military assets, that we are paying for,  was left behind. An exit strategy would be difficult, there is no doubt. Twenty years of occupation and this is what our country's leaders came up with? The greatest military and intelligence in the world, and this was the end result? Please, slow down and critically think; draw back from the emotion. Take a deep breath and think about this.

It is tragic. It is sad. It is shameful.