The United States will have a military presence in Afghanistan for decades, maybe generations. We still have troops in Germany, Japan, and South Korea after over fifty years.

We can hope that for most of that time, the major fighting will have ended, but that's hard to predict.

We're dealing with a different enemy here. This enemy is a loosely affiliated band of rebels who use asymmetric warfare (ie. roadside bombs, terrorism, etc).

The Japanese and German soldiers gave up when their government surrendered. In this case, there is no clear leadership who can give that order.

I predict that our troops will take casualties for as long as we're over there.

I agree, wellis, it's a different kind of enemy for the reasons you gave, but we cannot forget the religious overtones here. The Germans and Japanese were not fighting for their God like the jihadis are. I find it hard to believe that they would surrender their arms even if there was a commanding general who could give the order.

I think Obama is going to stand up to the U.S. military soon and start getting our troops out of there.

He's just too much of a pragmatist and a student of history to allow this quagmire to continue to spiral downwards indefinitely.

I hope you're right desmonde, but if Obama pulled out, the Republicans would accuse him of losing the war and hammer him relentlessly for it.

Obama is no saint, but I think when it comes to war, he will do what's right and not what is politically advantageous.

hi desmonde,when will the war end we are losing so many men just fighting afgan people and get all the men quickly out of war i hope you agree with me



From PM4208