Quote from trefoil:
From our (US) POV it's a good argument, and it's probably right. We have no business still being in Afghanistan anyway.
Unfortunately, it loses a bit of credibility when one of the people advancing it calls the Afghans "a bunch of fucking savages." Especially when I can guarantee you that wasn't the tune he was whistling in the 80's when we were supplying the mujahadeen against the Russians.
You conveniently leave out the part where the russians invaded Afghanistan because they had nothing but contempt for the Obama of that time, jimmy Carter. We were doing the afhgans a favor by helping them throw out an invader.
Later of course, we let things get out of hand under another weak president, Bill Clinton, when the taliban, a creation of pakistan's intelligence service, took over. Clinton passed up a golden oportunity to take out OBL, whne Special Forces operators literally had him in their sights, because there were women and children present at his terrorist camp.
We used to understand that in war, only one thing matters, winning. How many women and children did we kill in WW II with bombing of cities and fire bombing? The victors get to sort out who was a war criminal and who was a hero. That's why there is a monument to Lincoln and he wasn't hanged with Gen. Sherman as war criminals. That's why FDR and Churchill are venerated and weren't hanged after WW II.
Of course, this soldier transgressed, but our leaders have made far bigger errors by putting our troops in such an impossible situation and saddling them with rules of engagement designed to limit criticism from Karzai instead of fulfilling a commander's first duty, which is to protect his troops.