suggest that those poppy
@dervish
fields must be a lucrative enough "investment" to stay there, and The Military is not all that concerned with getting its ass handed to it. "Winning" the war, after all, not a desired result. And, remember, one of the "rules" of MMT is, 'we' can print As Much money as 'we' want, For whatever 'we' want, Whenever 'we' want - regardless of circumstances - so domestic spending is not tied to Military spending or Defense spending or any other spending. The Only reason "we can't have nice things" is becuz 'they' - Congress (or more accurately, the Oligarchy) - won't give them to us. Not becuz "we can't afford it." Although most congress critters truly believe "we can't afford it" becuz... (have no idea other than they don't know or don't want to know their MMT). So, instead, we "embrace the suck."

[comment:body]

Doesn't really matter
@CB
who is "winning" or "losing," just keep those MIC arms sales humming, baby!!
I wonder what would happen if 'they' declared war and nobody showed up to fight it?
The only way I see to end it.

The US has no intentions of leaving Afghanistan. What they are aiming for is controlled destabilization. If the US cannot control the country, then they are going to make sure neither Russia or China can gain a foothold. Afghanistan is a much too important roadblock to the Chinese BRI.

(Included more detailed map)

Why Russia and China Are Expanding Their Roles in Afghanistan
...
Pivoting to Russia

Still, Islamabad has options, and the logical response to its deteriorating relationship with one great power is to forge stronger relations with another. Enter Russia. While Pakistan's relationship with China has a deep history, born in 1963 out of a mutual enmity to India, its relationship with Russia was openly hostile, devolving into a proxy conflict during the Soviet-Afghan war. After the Red Army's 40th division crossed into Afghanistan in December 1979, the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence coordinated the shipment of arms to the Afghan resistance movement known as the mujahideen. What followed was a harrowing nine-year conflict that saw Islamabad and Moscow on opposite sides in what amounted to the final proxy battle of the Cold War.

Today, however, these roles are shifting. The United States is distancing itself from Pakistan while building a Sinocentric defense partnership with India, Russia's key partner during the Cold War in South Asia. Moscow is responding to Pakistan's overtures by building a stronger partnership with Islamabad. Russia's interests stem in large part from concerns about Afghanistan. The advent of the Islamic State's Khorasan chapter in 2015 stoked Moscow's fears of the transnational extremist group using Afghanistan to launch attacks into Russia's Central Asian periphery. For Pakistan, the threat from the Islamic State's Khorasan affiliate hits even closer to home: On July 6, the group claimed a bombing that killed 149 people in Balochistan, the second deadliest act of terrorism in the country's history.
...

...
If Russia succeeds in bringing both Kabul and the Taliban to the same table, the accomplishment would heighten President Vladimir Putin's leverage over negotiations to end a NATO-backed conflict that Washington has failed to resolve.
...
China Eases In

Finally, China is deepening its role in Afghanistan. Beijing's involvement in Afghanistan after the start of the war was limited to resource extraction, including a $3 billion agreement to develop the Mes Aynak copper mine. But the prospects of persistent Afghan instability after the NATO drawdown in 2014 awakened China — which borders Afghanistan — into playing a more active role. Bigger promises of foreign aid followed, while Beijing used its diplomatic heft to push for talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to try to do the same between the Taliban and Kabul. China has also invited Afghanistan to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This involvement now is rumored to even include a proposed military base in the Wakhan Corridor. Although Beijing has denied it is planning a military base in Afghanistan, China's expanding diplomatic and economic profile means it will be forced to establish a localized security presence in various theaters. And Afghanistan is a logical starting point, given Beijing's two core concerns regarding the country — namely, Afghanistan's ability to disrupt neighboring Belt and Road Initiative projects and the ability of Uighur militants to use Afghan territory to plot attacks in neighboring Xinjiang province.

Ultimately, the growing involvement of Russia and China with Pakistan will limit Washington's ability to bend Islamabad toward its own strategy in Afghanistan. Although the shared threat posed by the Islamic State's Khorasan affiliate provides a rare unifying purpose for the disparate external actors involved in Afghanistan, the geopolitical tensions inherent in great power competition mean that coordination on resolving the conflict will be intermittent, at best, as the war goes on through 2018.
...

@CB

and what China is working on. This is why we are going to start seeing more propaganda about China's interference in our elections. Why not? It worked so well with Russia.

The REAL Reason for the 'Bad Russia' Propaganda (And Now 'Bad China')

Russia and China have been forming a coalition with other countries for OVER TEN YEARS to have productive, constructive, FAIR dealings with other countries, UNLIKE the dealings of our greedy cabal of sociopathic money addicts. BRICS is the name of it, look it up - not much on OUR propaganda of course, but the info is out there.
....
Our establishment wants to do things AGAINST the main powers in BRICS, because they HATE seeing countries elude their control and greed. They were floating several 'bad Russia' attempts before they got traction with the 'interfered with our election' crap . Of course they ran with it, and used it for MANY things - distraction from real issues that their greed has caused, distraction from establishment cheating and rigging, justification for 'censorship' so we simpletons don't get the 'wrong' info (smfh) and the usual warmongering for the profiteers.

The TPP deal was actually being made to BLOCK and HARM the countries trying to escape the grasp, the greed and control of the US money addicts. And our 'bad China' fearmongering propaganda is ramping up - did you see the Lee Camp episode about the congressional hearing and the CRAP they were saying?
...
Our establishment bastards will NEVER tell us why they are really doing ANYTHING, so we MUST look to see what the sociopathic money addicts are REALLY attempting to do - and it is NEVER GOOD with sociopathic money addicts in charge. You know we are committing genocide/Holocaust in Yemen (or 'helping' Saudi Arabia do it), right? Guess why? Yemen is part of the Belt Road transport for BRICS and maybe some other countries that wanted to use it.

This is an excellent read to see what China has been up to while we are making the defense industry rich.

Inside 'Belt and Road,' China's mega-project that is linking 70 countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa

China is currently undertaking what it considers the largest project of the century — building a network of railroads and shipping lanes linking itself with 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.

The main focuses of the "Belt and Road" initiative — also known as "One Belt, One Road" — are in infrastructure, transportation, and energy.

Countries including India, Pakistan, Russia, New Zealand and Poland have all joined in the project. Together they make up at least a third of the world's GDP.

The US has no intentions of leaving Afghanistan. What they are aiming for is controlled destabilization. If the US cannot control the country, then they are going to make sure neither Russia or China can gain a foothold. Afghanistan is a much too important roadblock to the Chinese BRI.

(Included more detailed map)

Why Russia and China Are Expanding Their Roles in Afghanistan
...
Pivoting to Russia

Still, Islamabad has options, and the logical response to its deteriorating relationship with one great power is to forge stronger relations with another. Enter Russia. While Pakistan's relationship with China has a deep history, born in 1963 out of a mutual enmity to India, its relationship with Russia was openly hostile, devolving into a proxy conflict during the Soviet-Afghan war. After the Red Army's 40th division crossed into Afghanistan in December 1979, the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence coordinated the shipment of arms to the Afghan resistance movement known as the mujahideen. What followed was a harrowing nine-year conflict that saw Islamabad and Moscow on opposite sides in what amounted to the final proxy battle of the Cold War.

Today, however, these roles are shifting. The United States is distancing itself from Pakistan while building a Sinocentric defense partnership with India, Russia's key partner during the Cold War in South Asia. Moscow is responding to Pakistan's overtures by building a stronger partnership with Islamabad. Russia's interests stem in large part from concerns about Afghanistan. The advent of the Islamic State's Khorasan chapter in 2015 stoked Moscow's fears of the transnational extremist group using Afghanistan to launch attacks into Russia's Central Asian periphery. For Pakistan, the threat from the Islamic State's Khorasan affiliate hits even closer to home: On July 6, the group claimed a bombing that killed 149 people in Balochistan, the second deadliest act of terrorism in the country's history.
...

...
If Russia succeeds in bringing both Kabul and the Taliban to the same table, the accomplishment would heighten President Vladimir Putin's leverage over negotiations to end a NATO-backed conflict that Washington has failed to resolve.
...
China Eases In

Finally, China is deepening its role in Afghanistan. Beijing's involvement in Afghanistan after the start of the war was limited to resource extraction, including a $3 billion agreement to develop the Mes Aynak copper mine. But the prospects of persistent Afghan instability after the NATO drawdown in 2014 awakened China — which borders Afghanistan — into playing a more active role. Bigger promises of foreign aid followed, while Beijing used its diplomatic heft to push for talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to try to do the same between the Taliban and Kabul. China has also invited Afghanistan to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This involvement now is rumored to even include a proposed military base in the Wakhan Corridor. Although Beijing has denied it is planning a military base in Afghanistan, China's expanding diplomatic and economic profile means it will be forced to establish a localized security presence in various theaters. And Afghanistan is a logical starting point, given Beijing's two core concerns regarding the country — namely, Afghanistan's ability to disrupt neighboring Belt and Road Initiative projects and the ability of Uighur militants to use Afghan territory to plot attacks in neighboring Xinjiang province.

Ultimately, the growing involvement of Russia and China with Pakistan will limit Washington's ability to bend Islamabad toward its own strategy in Afghanistan. Although the shared threat posed by the Islamic State's Khorasan affiliate provides a rare unifying purpose for the disparate external actors involved in Afghanistan, the geopolitical tensions inherent in great power competition mean that coordination on resolving the conflict will be intermittent, at best, as the war goes on through 2018.
...