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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   27522 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 6, 2023

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While the Taliban's K/D ratio was atrocious, they were effective at:

  • Incurring massive economic & social costs to America
  • Recouping power immediately after the occupation ended

Did we learn any lessons? Survey says no. But I feel like America lost the war in Afghanistan for all intents and purposes.

Incurring massive economic & social costs to America

Not really. $100 billion per year = about $300 bucks per American, or

Recouping power immediately after the occupation ended

Yes, but the key there is "after the occupation ended."

Did we learn any lessons?

Well, in order to learn lessons, we have to understand what actually happened, it seems to me

Ehh capitalizing it over the course of a 20 year conflict is a bit of a slight of hand. I didn't want to pay $300/year || $6,000 in taxes to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan. You've also got 6,000 Americans killed (ARV of $7.5m apiece) which isn't factored into those costs, much less the QALY's of the wounded.

Even if you exclude casualty values, ~$45k per enemy combatant is expensive, and this is assuming no value for the civilians we killed.

This was one of the most expensive mistakes in US history by almost any metric. It's annoying that it was so obvious for so long, and the only person with the balls to actually stop the madness was Joe fucking Biden.

and the only person with the balls to actually stop the madness was Joe fucking Biden.

No, the only one with the balls to try and start the process of stopping was Trump. The only one who didn't have a choice in the matter was Biden. And also Biden doesn't choose what he's having for breakfast, so you can't really imply he's even a conscious agent anymore.

Biden was the only person in Obama's administration who was pushing to ramp down the war.

I'm not a fan of the guy, I don't think anyone with more than a couple brain cells to rub together could be. This presidency has been a disaster, including the pull out. But I won't avoid giving credit where it's due.

I didn't want to pay either; nevertheless, there is no way that the costs can be described as "massive."

~$45k per enemy combatant is expensive,

But relatively cheap for educating millions of Afghan girls. If you are going to weigh costs and benefits, you have to include all of them.

Why do I care about the education of afghan girls? It’s not going to do them, or anyone else, any good.

There is tons of economic research that says otherwise.

Was the increase in the education of Afghan girls worth the increase in sexual abuse of Afghan boys?

Probably? I'd assume so given most common values, unless the figures are grossly lopsided.

I would be extremely surprised if it was not worth it.

I don't know. That's the point: All costs and benefits have to be included.

Actually trump was withdrawing, he just didn’t finish the job before he lost an election.

I know that, and he does get partial credit.

Ehh it had largely stopped by the time Trump came into place. Trump even had a planned exit. Biden to his credit continued with the exit but kind of fucked it up.

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