Was western military intervention against Taliban and in Libya a mistake' Yes, admits Canadian general | Ottawa Citizen

That was clear to me from day one. I fully supported Canada supplying troops to go after Al Qaeda. But NATO took their eyes off the ball almost immediately, contracted out going after Bin Laden and wanted to set up their own little puppet govt. There were people here like Penetrator, who told me I didn't know what I was talking about, that Canada was doing great work in Astan, made it a better place. And now we're finally getting the brass admitting it was a big mistake. Seemed clear to me from the beginning.

And of course the US went right on and made the same mistake in Iraq, with much more dire consequences. Fraser says the West didn't make the same mistake in Syria. Seems to me we did, supporting the rebels, which just empowered ISIS. Never seem to learn.

If regime change isn't the goal, why did we support the original rebellion against Assad, and why aren't we doing everything possible to support Assad now?

Kind of simplistic, and basically a fantasy like a loon like Ramsey Clarke would have thought up. The Taliban weren't going to stand aside and let foreign troops wander all over Afghanistan looking for Al Qaeda. The two groups were walking in lockstep like the Italian fascists did with the Nazis, or the Chinese communists and North Koreans. Any degree of difference between the Taliban and AQ would have been so small as to be irrelevant. They both had to be removed and the argument should be on the wisdom of staying there so long after the US decided the still-alive Bin Laden was irrelevant and shifted focus to Iraq.

The United States isn't leaving Afghanistan anytime soon as for Libya Clinton and Obama own it.

I see the Taliban are finally getting the hang of this negotiating business. Somebody must have googled Vietnam:

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... n-by-force