re: #463 KGxvi

One of the reasons we have been “fighting” a “war” in Afghanistan for almost 17 years is because, as a nation, we gave up on nation building. We forgot the lesson of World War I. We left Germany after that first year, saddled with brutal treaty terms and ended up fighting the same war 20 years later. After World War II we invested in (West) Germany, in Italy, in Japan, and we haven’t had to fight a war there for 75 years.

We need to remember that fighting a war, dropping bombs, isn’t the end, it is merely the beginning. A war is a generational commitment - either a generation of dead young men, or a generation of diplomatic and economic aid to build a more peaceful world.

Can I add that it is also a very profitable business and that has as much to do with the 17 years as anything.

I think a former general that was a decent Republican president addressed that fear.