Alot of people want to know why Afghanistan matters, well there you have it in one good example.

Would it really be in the interest of the American people to break our promise to the Afghan people, for the second time; and let them fall back under the influence of Wahhabist suicide-murderers?

I don't think it is, granted there's alot of money being spent, but we have already committed to them, and "pulling out" now is more than just an act of saving the US from excess military expenditures.

We promised the Afghans our help in the 80's when we trained and armed them to fight the Soviets, after the Soviets withdrew, we decided Afghanistan was no longer interesting; and they suffered a long and brutal civil war, I know one person in particular, CSM Faiz Muhammad of the Afghan Commando Kandak; who fought and lived through that civil war, and saying it wasn't pretty is a bold understatement.

We let influential power players like the Taliban's Mohammad Omar (who's rule was recognized by Pakistan, The United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia) take control of the majority of Afghanistan and impose a religious theocratic oligarchy. Do some research if you are left lacking as to the terrors the Taliban put onto the Afghan people.

You can say that this is imperialism and so forth, but then to me, you look like an idiot.

I'll draw some comparisons to WWII.

We put the Afghan people in a bad way, worse then the Treaty of Versailles left Germany after WWI; we also promised our help to the Afghans and didn't deliver, policy changes can be a real bitch like that.

Then an extremist organization backed by the Taliban government attacked and killed some three thousand Americans on 9/11.

I'll add to this that the U.S. tried it's best to remain neutral, not getting involved until the Attack on Pearl Harbor which killed ~2,500 people. We declared war on Germany and Italy as a response to them declaring war on us, as they were allies of Japan.

Now you can always find people talking about how terrible the Nazi's where and of the horrors of the holocaust, but the same sentiments seem to be missing in sympathies for the oppression and terror visited on the Afghan people by the Taliban, whom we had effectively armed and trained, promised support to, then ditched all together as part of a "policy change".

The war is not the same (granted we never "declared" war, they were United Nations Security Council Resolutions), there will be no massive land or sea battles, this war is being and will be fought in the "unconventional" manner.

I don't think the war in Afghanistan is a lost cause, I don't think it's even a bad idea; I think it's taking a stand. It might not be the best thing, but we've already gotten involved for the second time, and I'd really be disappointed in my country if we turned our backs on the Afghans for a second time.