leftists of America, what is your stand on America's role in Afghanistan? is it right time to withdraw troops?

Not from America but will answer anyway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUwQGmMSm0

US led forces should immediately withdraw.

There's no legitimate reason to stay there. Like the Iraq war the war in Afghanistan is wrong and should be ended

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Anl7W...

The war against Afghanistan is a classic resource war, all the rest is BS.

The original pretexts given for waging the war in Afghanistan have fallen by the wayside. The authorization of the use of military force legislation passed by the US Congress in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York City was predicated on the American military being used to hunt down those blamed for these atrocities—Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, a name that now goes virtually unmentioned in official Washington circles.

As for Bush’s purported desire to bring democracy to the Afghan people, Obama has explicitly rejected such a goal as unrealistic.

The only reason left for what is now clearly Obama’s war is the real and original one—the utilization of American military might to assert Washington’s dominance over the oil-rich and geo-strategically vital region of Central Asia.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/pers-j17...

Since early 2009, Barack Obama administration officials have been claiming that the predator attacks in Pakistan have killed nine of 20 top al Qaeda officials, but they have refused to disclose how many civilians have been killed in the strikes.

In April, The News, a newspaper in Lahore, Pakistan, published figures provided by Pakistani officials indicating that 687 civilians have been killed along with 14 al Qaeda leaders in some 60 drone strikes since January 2008—just over 50 civilians killed for every al Qaeda leader.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-9000519...

That's unacceptable.

Last week’s US bombing of ditched oil tankers near Kunduz, carried out at the behest of German troops, killed scores of civilians, underscoring the reality behind the official talk of “protecting” the Afghan people from the Taliban. The criminal character of the war was further exposed on Monday, when a Swedish aid agency revealed that US soldiers stormed a hospital it operates in east-central Afghanistan. The soldiers broke down doors and tied up hospital staff, the agency said. Soldiers demanded that the hospital inform them if those seeking treatment are insurgents, so they could deny them medical treatment.

A spokesman for the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, Anders Fange, called the raid “a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/afgh-s09...

But what about women's rights? The taliban?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsUg2...

Protecting Pakistani nukes from falling into the hands of terrorists?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/World/US/P...

Like I said at the beginning all lies and spin to justify a classic resource war that's devastating the lives of the local population

Can anyone knowing the real facts justify any of it?

Of course, I can only speak for myself but, since the troops are already there, I'd like to see them stay there long enough to provide security for humanitarian aid organizations, legitimate building contractors and other N.G.O.s so that some of the damage to the nation that's been done over the past eight years might be repaired.

Unfortunately, what I see as the most pressing threats to our species and our planet are so much bigger and broader than the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan that I'm not really sure it would make much difference when or whether U.S. troops stay or leave.

As I see it, the global economy and the global environment have been undergoing a slow motion collision since the industrial revolution. The plutocratic global economy depends on ever growing human population, consumption rates and warfare all of which are killing the planet and therefore, also, obviously, us.

If we could somehow take control of our planet away from the wealthiest, greediest, most ruthless, most violent, hateful, fearful people and give it to the wisest, most generous, kind and loving people then the global, human population would go into decline, problems in Afghanistan would right themselves, the U.S. military budget could be safely cut by 90% or so and we'd be on our way to a peaceful, paradisaical Earth.

Sadly, I don't see this happening. Most likely, whatever happens in Afghanistan, the human species will continue speed walking toward Mad Max or Soylent Green.

OK people we need to finish the job in Afghanistan. the truth is the real blame if you wanna lay any lies with Ronald Reagan And George bush 1. When the Russians left that country was toasted and we did nothing to help them Then as they starved we put troops in Saudi Arabia wich gave Bin Laden a full blown chimp fit and set things in motion for sept 11th.

If we leave were just gonna have another terrorist group take over well get attacked again and send out troops there again. Unlike Iraq Afghanistan is a solid proven threat to us and our allies.

Out now. Immediately.

There never WAS a "right time" to be there in the first place.

On two separate occasions Clinton, and then Bush, refused to send attorneys to present a case when the Taliban government offered to hold extradition hearings for bin Laden

The war was unjust and stupid from the beginning, and gets worse with each passing day.

Don't ANY of the liberal and conservative cheerleaders for this war read history?

Afghanistan is where empires go to die. This goes all the way back to Alexander the Great.

Leftist? Why not just say "fifth columnist"? It has a charming retro ring to it, doesn't it?

It's already a quagmire. It might not have gotten so bad if we'd invested properly in it - and not gotten sidetracked in the other (and irrelevant) quagmire of Iraq, but I think our military needs to pull back and our general foreign aid needs to be stepped up to compensate. Schools, jobs education and training will go a lot further than air strikes on civilians. I don't know if now is the right time to withdraw troops entirely, but we cannot "win" this any more than we can "win" in Iraq. That's old-school thinking and doesn't apply to the new paradigms.

Total opposition ,,immediate withdrawal. No troops aboard.anywhere in the world. Obama has gone back on his campaign promises. We have to develop coalitions of people of all political persuasions to oppose the wars, because we all are victims.We also must work to see that Obama is not influenced by the neo cons in his cabinet, who are a big source of the problem.

Because the war in Afghanistan was so badly mismanaged by the Bush Administration, it, like the deficit, was left as a welcoming gift for the Democrats to clean up.

Don't worry---we'll clean up after Bush and the Republicans again. We always do. Look at history. Hoover, a Republican, brought us The Great Depression. FDR, a Democrat, cleaned it up.

Bush Sr. and Reagan brought us massive deficits. Clinton cleaned up that fiscal mismanagement and left office with a HUGE surplus which Bush Jr. spent wildly even before 9/11 happened.

Democrats have a long and distinguished history of cleaning up Republican messes and instituting social policy like SSI, Medicare, and Equal Rights for all races, that benefit our whole society.

The only decent Republican Pres. you guys have had in the past 100+ years was Eisenhower. He understood the Military Industrial Complex that screws over our economy time and time again.

With a decent president, we should stay until things are right. George Bush had things going well, as well as you can in Afghanistan anyway.

With Obama who has no idea what to do and only got trapped there because he blew hot air out to say GWB wasn't doing it right to win the election ... we really should pull out. I mean we are over there Merandizing Terrorists on the battle field. Our presence is so stupid it's now a disgrace to our country, and we sure won't do those people any good.

It was the kind of stupid garbage democrats are doing now that they did in Vietnam that made Vietnam such a stinking mess. It was almost like deliberate sabotage, but maybe it's all just honest natural stupidity.

It's pointless, it goal was the pursuit of Bin Laden, and he's the forgotten man. Now we just want to win the hearts and minds of the citizens. That won't happen. We need to get out or totally occupy a country. The middle course doesn't work, no matter what success' we had in Iraq, they will all vanish when we leave anyway.

There is no war to be won over there. Bring our troops home and let them fight it out amongst themselves. All that money being put into a war that we should not even be in and our own people are doing without here in America. Let's put our priorities where they belong.