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The US had a clear reason to be in Afghanistan. It was a brutal quagmire with thousands of deaths (and many more Afghani deaths), but one could at least argue there was purpose in the beginning.

Iraq was 4500 dead for one Texan trying to imitate daddy while listening to his CEO buddies.

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It was red herring. None of the villains on those planes are Afghanis or even Taleban. And the entire 20 years saga fighting there not even against the OBL but more of Taleban and bringing freedom that supposely Brits and Soviet cant. OBL troops morphed into Syria where infamously Obama crossed it with his "red lines" without boots on the ground but tons of CIAs operatives running around. We now know it has nothing to do with 911 but more of diverting the "real villains" attention far away in neighboring countries. But at least we bring freedom right? Unfortunately the Kabul government didnt even last 24 hours after we left in the most humiliating way possible. We surely made Soviet look incredibly powerful and foresighted. Their version of Afghan government lasted AFTER Soviet collapsed on budget while we burnt 10T. And then just like Pikachu surprised, China overtook USA as world most powerful country with weapon that we failed (railgun), own space station, robots, drones, rare earth, and even mbridge currency. Meanwhile we got the stable genius with flappy bird planes. And if you do OSINT way way more than 4.5K American KIA there. Way more. But hey, we cant even audit our Pentagon but we can trust-me-bro those number right?

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