Wouldn't a permanent base in Afghanistan be a better solution like German, Japan or Italy than abandoning them altogether?
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ANSWERS: 3
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Abandoning would be the result of being unable to defend such a base. You don't abandon a military base unless you HAVE to do so - whether for financial reasons, political reasons or military (strategic) reasons. In this case, the reasons are strategic. In Germany and Japan we have the situation of very stable governments supporting the existence of the bases, said bases being entirely in "friendly" territory. In Afghanistan we have the situation of bases being swiftly surrounded (isolated) by enemy-held territory. Unless we begin - very quickly - an operation designed to recapture said territory, the best strategy is to retreat...temporarily.
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Beat Covid, Avoid Republicans We still have a base in a very hostile Cuba. -
www.bible-reviews.com I *did* think of Guantanamo when I was writing my answer. #1 - Not VERY hostile (although formerly they were pretty hostile) #2 - NOT surrounded by enemy territory (see: naval access) #3 (and most importantly) - Cuba is not a significant military threat to that base. That is: the base is, strategically speaking, "safe" from Cuban forces. *IF* Cuban forces of sufficient strength to overrun the base were to attempt to invade the base, there IS a readily-available exit and likely it WOULD be used. -
www.bible-reviews.com *** PS *** I retract one point in my original answer. It seems that we retreated for purely political reasons rather than strategic or financial reasons. Biden wanted to "end the war in Afghanistan"...and because of that, we almost inevitably will be fighting a second full-fledged war in Afghanistan within 10 years.
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That still puts our military into the job of being the sheriff in a foreign nation. We spent 20 years there and we all saw the results of that time and expense with the fall of Afghani forces in most cases without even a fight. I am not a fan of Biden, but I agree with him that if they won't fight for their own nation against extremists, why should we?
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The idea was to get out of Afghanistan and weaponize the Taliban so that they could stabilize the Middle East.
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