Why we're in Afghanistan.

I think any warfare between major industralized nations would just be world ending nuclear warfare.

We're in Iraq and Afgahnastan to cheat the taxpayers out of money for major industries such as oil, plastics, firearms etc....

 

So its all about attack China? Even though China is our largest trading partner?

And what about leaving Afghanistan makes it imperialistic? Perhaps you mean neo-colonial, but imperialistic is just the wrong word.

But there is no oil in Afghanistan.

 

First, there's no point trying to maintain a troop presence near China. The American military simply isn't large enough to occupy China, or even a large-ish portion of China, for any amount of time. A traditional troop-based conflict with China can really only end with our asses getting kicked to shit. If we're going to attack China, we'll do it via nuclear warfare.

Second, Afghanistan shares only a tiny tiny tiny section of border with China. The costs of subduing Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires, to gain such a small entry point would be difficult to justify, to say the least. It would make more sense to go with a country that's not historically been known as an utter nightmare to subdue, anyway, that's also along the Chinese border.

Third, overland troop movement in Afghanistan would be a goddamn nightmare. The Sino-Afghan border is right along the Afghan-Pakistan border, which is where the Tribal Area is, which is where the British Empire just stopped trying to govern the people and granted them semi-autonomy on paper and full autonomy in reality. Law doesn't exist there, but there is a Kalashnikov in every home, and the people there are notoriously resentful of foreigners and even moreso of foreign troops. If American troops were to try to move troops and equipment through that area they'd be under fire the whole time.

Fourth, if the whole point of going to Afghanistan was to sneakily set up a point of entry to the Chinese mainland, why did we kick the Taliban out, and then promptly turn our attentions to Iraq for the next however many years, leaving Afghanistan woefully understaffed? Iraq, as you will notice, shares zero miles of border with China, being separated as it is by the sprawling country of Iran and all of Afghanistan.

It just doesn't make sense.

 

Well I lol'd when I saw the OP, as if America is going to invade China. That would be like the UK invading the US. US population approximately 307 million and an active standing army of 1.473 million. The Chinese population is approximately 1.338 billion and an active standing army of 2.255million (including reserves and the like, US goes up to 3.385 million and China 7.024 million.)

The main reason for the Afghanistan war was in fact oil, just in the form of the proposed Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline plans for which were drawn up in '95 by CenGas a coalition of Oil companys headed by Unocal (now a part of the Chevron corperation Chevron Corporation Home - Human Energy.)
Things fell apart in '98 when the US government no longer recognised the Taliban as a valid government and Unocal pulled out of the coalition.
Plans to build the pipeline restarted in 2002 and are still ongoing.

BBC NEWS | Business | Afghan pipeline given go-ahead

 

we might not be there if we focused all our resources and military might there in the first place.

its hard to believe that with our technology we can't spot a group of induviduals walking across a desert in a country the size of one of our states, when we can make out license plates with sattelites. Osama should've been caught by now.

 

The US administration does not want to catch Osama or destroy AQ..
If they did then it would be harder to convince the average american that all these wars are necessary..
The US war machine is a massive industry now and needs to be at war to generate money..

 

Or if the west haden't involved themselves in interventionist policys in those countrys to the detriment of the civil populations since the 50's they wouldn't hate use so much and so support terrorism.
There is no point in catching osama because that would be like killing satan, no more enemy of good, no more war on terror and how is that going to be helpful?

At the end of the day the installed democracys we are making HAVE to work, if they don't and the next regieme allies itself with a China that is realising it's international strength western oil supplies could be put in jepordy.
Africa is a prime example of where the west walked out china walked in and are now considered the most reliable partner for economic expansion across the continent. The thought that the same could happen in the oil rich middle east is among the factors that lead to the war in the first place i think.

 

Hey man, not to be too critical but where exactly did you learn history? Kennedy placed troops in the Czech Republic? First, at the time it was Czechoslovakia. Second, it was a part of the Soviet bloc and a member of the Warsaw Pact. Third, it was governed by a Soviet puppet government.

The Cuban Missile Crises had nothing to do with Czechs. It was a simple power play by the Soviets to do 2 things. One, ensure the Castro regime survived. Two, apply pressure on the US. If you read Khrushchev Remembers (Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet leader at the time) he stated his reasons very clearly. The US had Minutemen ICBM missiles and putting short and medium range missiles in Cuba was a quick way to counter our ICBM's.

As sikander already noted, the Afghan-China border is very small but its also in an area where the terrain is very mountainous and lacks roads. Our relationship with China is symbiotic. They need our markets and we need their cheap products.

The reason we're in Afghanistan are twofold. First, to prevent an Al-Queda friendly government from returning to power. Second, to protect nuclear armed Pakistan. Here's a pretty good article about the mess we have in Afghanistan. http://www.salon.com/news/afghanist...nion/feature/2010/01/04/afghanistan_disasters

 

Actually, Czechoslovakia didn't change its name, it simply ceased to exist and was replaced by 2 separate countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (they called it the "velvet divorce"). (I spent several months in Czechoslovakia in the early 80's and when I came home, thru JFK, the immigration officer asked me to spell Czechoslovakia. I said f-u-c-k-y-o-u and he said "pass." What an asshole the guy was.)

No, Kennedy did not put missiles there. It was a Soviet puppet regime. You're probably thinking about the old Jupiter missiles in Turkey. They were installed in the 1950's and Kennedy actually ordered them removed in 1961 as they were obsolete once we had ICBM's. He agreed to remove them in a deal with Khrushchev to end the Cuban Missile Crises. Khrushchev was unaware that we would have removed them anyway.

Keep reading and keep asking questions. Your personal theory was a great start.

 

If all we wanted was bases why couldn't we just set them up in other surrounding countries? We have a military presence in over 100 countries on Earth, and we sure as hell didn't need to invade all those countries to get permission to set up a base there.

 

Finally! Someone who knows what theyre talking about and has common sense.



And the Trans Afghanistan pipeline would benefit India and SE Asia.

 

100,000 troops and another 100,000 mercs (I mean contractors) VS 10,000,000 Chinese soldiers... hmmm

 

Okay I have good second hand knowlege of the dangers of a nuclear war and I feel like sharing them after this post.

A relative of mine worked(s) at the Cheyenne Mountain complex where they operate Satellite missile defense systems.

I was having a discussion with him about China and possibilities of nuclear war (I talk about that kind of stuff when im stoned). When I brought it up he spent the next 30 minutes telling me about how good our defense system is. He said that with the technology we have we can destroy a nuclear missile launched at us from anywhere on the planet VERY VERY quickly. He said they could destroy it so quickly that if it were to detonate where they disable the missile it would kill the people who launched it.

So there is no need to worry about a nuclear war any time soon unless the bombs are transported on the ground and not delivered by a missile.

 

Aren't we still developing this technology?

By what means is this accomplished?

 

no doubt in my mind they can do that. US military technology is the best of the best unlimited funds, resources... but as far as we're concerned its probably still 'in development'


anyway as far as afghanistan, we're there because they attacked our towers... i think