Do you ever wonder what the hell are we doing in Afghanistan?U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday the United States could consider taking over NATO's command in southern Afghanistan, where some NATO allies have been reluctant to provide combat forces.
... The United States has 34,000 troops in Afghanistan under two commands.
About 16,000 soldiers under U.S. European Command serve as part of a 47,000-strong NATO force. A further 18,000 U.S. troops are in the country separately under U.S. Central Command.
We began an air bombardment of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 when the ruling Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden.
With our Air Force's precision aerial bombings and the Navy's cruise missiles, and with the anti-Taliban Afghan Northern Alliance, guided by U.S. Special Forces, the Taliban were immediately on the run.
A month into the invasion, in November of 2001, we deployed our first ground troops to Afghanistan - 1,000 Marines. Within another month we had defeated the Taliban and chased bin Laden and his last 2,000 al-Qaeda fighters to the mountain caves of Tora Bora.
Two short months into the invasion of Afghanistan 'we' had what we went there for, Osama bin Laden, trapped like a rat. - Lost at Tora Bora
I know, bin Laden escaped at Tora Bora, blah, blah, blah. Tommy Franks and George Bush blew it -- we know all that. But how did we go from kicking the Taliban and al-Qaeda's asses with the Northern Alliance and 1,000 U.S. Marines to where we're at now with 34,000 troops there?Why are we occupying and propping up Afghanistan? Why did we turn command over to N.A.T.O?
We should be there with only one mission to accomplish and we should be able to do that mission with the Air Force, the Navy and a couple of thousand troops. And when bin Laden and his gang are dead, we should get the hell out of there just like we should with Iraq.
