If you're so worried why not suit up and do the fighting instead of being selfish and wanting the troops to stay another 10 years.

We can't keep worrying about everyone else. We have childrens home closing  down and people put on the streets. Millions of children without food.

Sorry, just can't keep caring about people who don't want us there when I see American kids who could benefit from all the money we are wasting.

You do know that Afganhistan basically has no real oil reserves right?

I mean, the closest "Oil" connection I could even imagine is that someone wanted to build a pipeline through afghanistan, though most oil companies wanted to pass because they saw it as more costly and in general pointless when compaired to just exporting via the caspian sea.

Also....

Really depends.

Afghanistan would be more stable, but chances are women would have a real big rollback on personal freedoms headed down the pipes... some areas would be hurt because chances are the drug barons would be hurt....

who the hell knows, Afghanistan isn't exactly a fair democracy right now anyway...

so really it's all up in the air. Maybe without US troops there Karzai would be forced to legitimize the democracy to survive. Since it's his skin if the Taliban wins.

Honestly, I think pulling out of Afghanistan will be very bad for the people of Afghanistan but I also don't believe that western countries should stay simply to police the country ...

In my opinion the power vacuum created by the withdrawl of NATO forces in Afghanistan will be filled, and most likely this will be filled by groups pushing ideologies which are far more repressive than what the people of Afghanistan would be subjected to under the influence of western nations.

Umm actually I did apply to the Canadian Armed Forces and had wanted to serve in Afghanistan. But after talking with the army a while it came out that I needed to think over my application further. I have autism and the Army guy said that I could definitely join in fact he said I had a very high accuracy considering I never fired a weapon before. But I was told to talk to my psychiatrist about the application and contact the recruiter back after doing so. My psychiatrist said it wasn't a good idea, he said I would get shell shocked if I went and he didn't think I could handle the stress and situations that I would find myself in Afghanistan. I decided I was going to sign up anyway but a family friend came back from Afghanistan completely shell shocked. His life fell apart and I decided I could not handle the stress involved, its not that I am not wanting too because I do really badly want to join the Canadian Forces but due to my mental condition I do not think I could actually do. Unfortunetly while my psychiatrist said he thought I would pass the standard psych exam he said do to my history (3 suicide attempts) and the fact that I have suffered with depression in the past. He just said it would be a bad idea, instead suggesting I become a cop or work in security. I did end up going into security!

As for wasting money lol, American's are greedy and that is why you have those homeless food less children. There is nobody to blame but your own citizens in fact theirs a good chance you yourself are a major factor. Firstly Canada my country has a much higher tax rate country wide compared to many American states. This means for certain products we pay a lot more and we do pay higher taxes. But guess what every single citizen in Canada can apply for welfare and it isn't impossible to get or maintain. If your on welfare and have children you get income assistance for those children meaning their is absolutely no excuse for a child to go hungry.

Now lets talk about whether there is any excuse in America other then greed for children to go hungry, in fact anybody to go hungry or homeless? Not likely, why because even I who only make 500$ after my 300$ rent I still donate up to two hundred of those dollars to charity organizations a month. Whether those charity organizations are operating internationally or within my country differs. In fact their are food banks, homeless shelters and soup kitchens everywhere. Canada is noted as one of the most charitable countries and their is absolutely no excuse for someone to go hungry. In fact when I did security at the welfare office I know their were welfare patrons exchanging info apparently you could eat each meal every day completely free all you had to do is no the church and temple schedules. You could even choose whether you wanted to eat Indian food, Chinese food, western food. If you feel like Indian go to the Sikh temple if you want Chinese go to the Chinese church down town if you want western you go to many of the western churches!

Fact is their are so many charities and so many social services networks and so many low income housing units etc...etc.. that their is no excuse for someone to be homeless or for a child to starve in a first world country like Canada.

The only reason so many children are starving and people are homeless is greed. Greed of the American people or Canadian people. I mean I know welfare check receivers who spend all of their checks on booze or drugs, but in those cases their are plenty of Government run treat5ment centers and even more charity run centers.

All that has to happen in America to solve all those hungry children is a slight increase of tax's. In fact taxes across the US should be no less then Canada's 14% which a lot of the provinces are close to. I note on my trips to the US I only pay around 6% taxes there is no reason for such cheap taxes. Why are people against tax increases? Well they are worried about the outcome it will have on them, for those who can't find employment and require income assistance to survive or Government programs that help the homeless and poverty stricken citizens the taxes could save a huge amount of the population.

Let me ask you for your income how much do you donate to charity a month? How much in taxes do you pay on every single purchase, is it around 14%? How many hours do you volunteer each month?

I'm guessing if you are middle class or higher in the US and are not affiliated with a religious belief you likely don't do much volunteering or donating. You are probably opposed to taxes because you care only about your own welfare and not that of those around you. If I am wrong then that's great but the majority of American's I talk to only care about themselves. They make big statements like "Get out of Iraq, stop helping wall street...children are starving" Yet those same people opposed public health care, opposed social services, opposed tax increases.

Fact is the US Government is shaped by the American people. The American people are greedy SOB's who in general care only about themselves. Which is the whole point I am making with this point, the US only helps people if it directly benefits them. Even when it does benefit them the American people still don't want to help.

In all honesty I can't wait for the US to go down as long as Canada takes its place or another democracy does. The US Government is so corrupt because the people are so greedy.

It's economic help.

Aside from which, the reason Europe is asking is because they're well more f'd up then the US is and have zero political will to do so because the people have general gotten accustomed to all the government spending that most Europeon countries can't afford.

Portgual and Spain are asking for help because they're the next pins to topple after Greece and Italy.

We shouldn't need to help but Europe can't seem to get it's head out of it's but for five minutes to fix it.

SERIOUS austerity cuts are needed.

There's so many things wrong with this post, I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just make one point:  Welfare creates dependancy.

I live in the UK, you can see it first hand. Just about every citizen in the UK is dependant on Government for healthcare and education. 1 in 5 Britons are dependant on Government for housing. Entire towns and cities have become almost 100% dependant on Government welfare. When millions and millions of people are getting pay checks, housing, education, healthcare, without working, they lose respect. When people get everything handed to them on a plate, they understand the value of nothing.

My mother works for a company who's hired by schools to keep truancy in check. Over 90% of truent children that they deal with come from families dependant on welfare. Despite receiving everything, the parents can't even be bothered to get their kids into school. And why should they? They never needed education, the Government pays them to sit on their arse, their kids can just do the same thing.

But, more importantly, when you're so dependant on Government to live, you lose your liberty. The Government controls what they teach us in schools, which school we go to, what medicines we can receive, which doctor we can see. For 1 in 5, the Government tells us where we have to live, for those on benefits, the Government tells us how much we can earn. In fact, the Government tells us how much everybody can earn - the idea being that all income is the Governments, and they let us keep a certain percentage of it (my father is getting taxed something like 70-80% on some of his income - he gets to take home 20-30% of that money). For those working in the public sector, they control their pensions, they even control the retirement age for the private sector.

And when Government gets that large, they start taking liberty elsewhere - they don't like us smoking, so they tell us where we can and can't smoke, they tell us how much we should pay for smoking, they do the same thing for drinking, for driving, for drugs, they even start telling us what we can and can't say, through hate speech laws.

If you give the Government your life, you give them your liberty.

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As for your final paragraph, don't kid yourself. If the USA was to "go down", it'd take half of the world out with it, including Canada. Hell, in 2008, a couple of US banks failed, and it brought the world to its knees, imagine what would happen if their entire economy collapsed. Also, Canada filling the void? That's just blind patriotism,  FRANCE has a better chance of that, and we all know France will never be a super power. The ONLY countries capable of taking the USA's place are the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), and none of them will be able to do so this half of the century.

Sorry you couldn't get in, I apologize.

Besides that, your monthly rent is only $300? O_o

Was going in a good thing and wasn't that a selfisch act?

@.Of course the US and USSR were enemies and the US couldn't really allow the USSR to hold onto Afghanistan. But once the militia's had defeated the USSR and had asked for foreign assistance the US should have put boots on the ground immediately or at least sent democratic advisors and military/police trainers. The US was responsible for the militia's having all those guns and they should have helped the militias transfer power to a Government. But the American Government and people didn't give a crap about the Afghan people and left them to fall apart into a twenty year civil war.

Refer to my earlier post. The USSR withdrew it's troops but the Marxist Democractic Republic of Afghanistan fought on with Soviet assistance. There is not a chance in hell the US could have sent it's military to take over where the Soviet miliary had left off. That makes zero sense whatsoever. I mean think about what you're saying. You're saying the US should fight an ally of the Soviet Union who they (the USSR) was trying to prop up with their own Army until 1988, with American boots on the ground AND after the Soviet Union had just left on negotiated terms. How do you think the USSR would react? Also do you not think the Mujahadeen would then probably fight the Americans who would be seen as invaders? Put it another way how do you think the Americans would have felt if the Soviet Military went to Vietnam after they withdrew while still providing support to South Vietnam. They'd go to Defcon 2.

No offense but your very naive and haven't quite grasped the Machiavellian nature of politics. No one can claim to holding a moral high ground. And I mean no one.