US is in not stronger position as compared to USSR.
Few thousand troops and funds aren't going to change ground realities.US was doomed in Afghanistan,the day they entrusted One thug over another.
US did her part well but administration in Kabul was inept beyond imagination of Americans.
But US has filled houses of many Afghan Warlords with US Tax payer cash.
@pakistani342
The primary measure of US power is not boots on the ground but:
1. US power of simply being the US -- there are about 500,000 Pakistani-Americans and 500,000 Afghan-Americans -- how many Pakistani-Soviets or Afghan-Soviets were there? -- this indicates an enormous pull of gravity -- now the rise of China will begin to check it in a couple of decades but seriously how large do you expect the Afghan-Chinese or Pakistani-Chinese community to get
2. US wealth -- US companies own 50% of the world's wealth -- US entities owning 1/2 of the world wealth has been a phenomenon that became true around the early nineteen hundreds (if my memory is correct)
3. US nimbleness -- the US culturally and structurally is a self-improving/correcting system -- we're not perfect, far from it -- this is manifested by say the US start-up culture -- there is a reason Silicon Valley is in the US an in the US it is in Palo Alto (and surrounding areas) -- ever heard of a Silicon Valley in Grozny Park -- and Silicon Valley is not even about technology but the confluence of ideas, business, science, capital, technology, risk taking, migration, art. While this type of thinking epitomizes itself in Silicon Valley it pervades all aspects of American life and culture -- at least far more than anybody else out there.
4. US hail-Mary-thinking -- the US thinks big -- it is cultural -- in someways this is coupled with the enormous access to human resources, wealth and natural safety -- you will see this in business, projects -- everything the US does is big and bold -- again this should be taken in comparison to what other nation-states do.
5. US cultural power -- again not separate from wealth -- but Hollywood, the NBA, etc. are strategic weapons -- even chubby-Kim-of-the-38th-parallel idolizes American NBA players
Again not trying to be jingoistic -- but once in a while when I step back and look at the American Project -- it's sheer power is unfathomable.
So in sum the US does not need a lot of boots to be able to exert enormous power -- if it wants to.
The more important question is should the US care about Afghanistan. I would think in some measure yes -- but it's not worth a 40 billion dollar a year price tag to us.
