Reply #2: Call it the "Butch Cassidy" doctrine [View All]

[gratuitous]

Anyone who recalls the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" will remember that whenever someone got fed up with the outlaws' presence and wanted them to leave, Robert Redford (who played Butch or Sundance, I don't remember which) would advise them to "Ask us to stay." After a little back and forth, in which the person would protest, "But I don't want you to stay," Redford would repeat the advice, "Ask us to stay." Finally, the person would say, "Hey fellers, can you stay a while?" At which point, Paul Newman would get up from whatever he was doing and say, "Oh, we have to be going." And off they'd go.

Our military mission in Afghanistan has reached the same absurd point. Only when the Afghans want us to stay could we possibly see our way clear to leaving. The folks who live there, unlike us, have a pretty good memory. They and their ancestors have seen occupying armies roll across the land only to leave quite meekly after spending themselves in their inhospitable landscape. The U.S. has been there nearly 10 years, which is about as long as anyone has lasted there. We've wasted our troops, spent our resources, and are no closer to "winning" (whatever that might be) than we were the first day the tanks rolled into the country.

But the U.S. is exceptional! So look for us to keep flailing away for another five years at least, because we in thrall, heeding the dubious wisdom of the stupidest people our society can push forward to advocate for the short-sighted profits of the greediest bastards this planet has ever produced.