yes, take a deep breath and completely withdraw, don’t be tough on terrorism, be tough on the causes of terrorism, to paraphrase New Labour’s mantra on domestic crime in the UK during the Blair years: tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime
Lets be totally jack blunt, now, i mean lets have some realpolitik concerning the maligned Taliban regime. Let’s try to Imagine an extant Soviet Union intent on territorial control of Afghanistan, resisted only by the Taliban with it’s unflinchingly brutal religious ideology, viciously misogynistic interpretation of sharia law, warts and all. We know in our heart of hearts that the USA would still offer to sponsor the Taliban either overtly or through clandestine methods depending on public opinion back home. So the argument for liberation and such like is completely bogus.
There is so much mission creep, no one is sure what victory even looks like. Besides how do you destroy an ideology that is supported by a continuous stream of martyrs and would be martyrs, hell bent on taking themselves out and anyone else that happens to be in proximity, only limited by the extent of the explosive devise to which they are attatched?