Tom, let’s be clear about why the United States is bogged down in Afghanistan

[TomSea]

Tom, let’s be clear about why the United States is bogged down in Afghanistan
By “Marty Martel”
Best Defense guest columnist

Here’s the answer in one word: Pakistan.

It is not, as Tom asserted the other day, because the U.S. military shifted from a small, special forces approach, to a large conventional approach. It is much more because the U.S. permitted the Pakistani government to relocate Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda to safe havens in North Waziristan and Baluchistan. That in turn has led to this never ending Afghan war and the suffering of its people.

...

Why do American presidents permit this situation to go on? Partly because they buy into the fiction that they must support Pakistan, lest its nuclear weapons fall into the hands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. In other words, Pakistan is using its nuclear weapons to blackmail the United States and the United States has gladly fallen for it.

Continued: http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/26/tom-lets-be-clear-about-why-the-united-states-is-bogged-down-in-afghanistan/

[endicom]

Why do American presidents permit this situation to go on? Partly because they buy into the fiction that they must support Pakistan, lest its nuclear weapons fall into the hands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. In other words, Pakistan is using its nuclear weapons to blackmail the United States and the United States has gladly fallen for it.

Afghanistan is landlocked. We resupply at the mercy of Pakistan and Russia. Dubya didn't know what he was doing.