Taliban, like American revolutionaries, will prevail

It took King George III nine years to figure out Britain couldn't control its American colonies. Though his controlling military was superior in firepower and personnel, the revolutionaries had a cause, self determination, that the Brits could never match. We denigrate King George III as nutty for staying so long in a hopeless war, but US leaders make him look quite sensible, doubling his US stay with their 18 year long failed effort to subjugate Afghanistan as an outpost of US world power. The 911 attacks were a trigger used to conquer Afghanistan, install a puppet government and staff gigantic military bases; all for endless control. Tho we vanquished the Afghan Taliban government in weeks, they rose from the near dead to reclaim over half the country with no end in sight.

A majority of Americans support withdrawal of US forces, knowing full well our puppet government there will eventually fall. They have learned the lesson taught them in school about the American Revolution, that people everywhere have the right to self determination; that a government suppressing self determination can be altered, even abolished. Our leaders choose to ignore that lesson, preferring perpetual war squandering trillions while killing untold thousands, all for inevitable defeat.

We're still wondering, as Pete Seeger wrote in 1955, "When will they ever learn...oh when will they ever learn?"