Afghanistan will never be conquered

 From Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan has never been conquered.  On October 7th, 2001, the United States began it's invasion of Afghanistan.  They quickly ousted the Tailban in a couple of weeks.  The U.S. invaded Afghanistan because of the September 11th terrorist attacks, which were planned by al-Qaeda which had bases in Afghanistan.  Ten years later the question that comes up is why are we still there and what is the role of the U.S. government in Afghanistan?

     In June 2011, President Obama announced that the U.S. will begin a gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan.  "Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security".  What was our mission in Afghanistan?  Was it to go after al-Queda and the Tailban or was it to create a stable democratic government?  Noah Feldman wrote in a Bloomberg.com article titled "Obama Plan Makes Victory in Afghanistan a Reality" states that "Obama is acting creatively and wisely in trying to recast our decade of involvement in Afghanistan as though it had been about bin Laden all this time.  It will certainly be bad for US interests if the Taliban re-emerge as the government of Afghanistan.  It will be very bad for Afghans too".  It seemed to me that the war in Afghanistan was never about setting up a stable democratic government.

     This pass year we have seen many uprisings against totalitarian governments in the Middle East.  These events seem to catch many in the West by surprise.  These movements came from ordinary people, not from foreign troops invading a country.  When has history shown us that invading a country to "help" set up a democratic government has ever succeeded?  The one thing that I wonder is whether the ten year occupation of Afghanistan has made it harder for the Afghan people to develop a democracy.

 Facts:
Alexander the Great invades Afghanistan in 330 BC.
Soviet Russia invades Afghanistan in 1979.
September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.
U.S. invades Afghanistan on October 7th, 2001.
June 22, 2011 Obama gives a speech on Afghanistan.