I am very biased on this issue, so, take my answer with a grain of salt. As I have stated before, I only write based on my personal experiences, because anything else is just conjecture and cannot be backed up. I have been here 3 years, the first 18 months in Kandahar and Helmand. I spent a lot of time on the failed drug trade. An interdiction and destroy policy that through the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) agency, (an arm of the state department) wasted 8 Billion dollars of the taxpayer money.
Here is a typical example of the way things work here:
My unit had tracked down and identified a warlord who was selling/ smuggling massive amounts of drugs across the border into Iran. Long story short, we were told to back off, let him alone, because he “supports us”. “Go find another one who doesn’t and take him out”
Thats the way it works here, it depends on what team you play for that week. and the sides switch all the time. Lies rule the day.
I hate ISIS, I have seen what they do first hand, so, I will kill them any chance I get. However, what happens if we stay here? the Afghan government only controls 60 percent of the country on a good day, ANA / ANP are rife with ISIS/ Taliban and those that aren’t, will take a bribe from anyone to change sides.
Ok, we leave. The Afghans will do nothing and ISIS/ ISIS-K will take over large sections of the country. So what? If we had a strong government that cared anything about our country, we would say “fuck that” and unleash the MOAB’s. There are ways to destroy your enemies, we just dont do it.
The biggest change we can make is CUT THE MONEY OFF. Do you know that all the money the USG gives to Afghanistan, we have no control over? It goes into a general government fund and the Afghans can decide where it goes. pure insanity. The only thing Afghans understand is money.
Cut the money off, take contol of our OWN MONEY and that doesnt help change the culture of the Afghan government, pull out.
IMHO it is a waste of lives and money. leave.