Just as Afghanistan bankrupted the USSR, the same is happening to the US

[Postman]

in Afghanistan AND Iraq.

The United States is finished as a world super-power. They just don't realize it yet.

[lapfog_1]

1. Pretty much. I wish more had been made to connect the two things

though, to be fair, Iraq / Afghanistan was simply the last straw on the camels back ( an apt analogy given the location of our downfall ).

[angryfirelord]

2. I don't know

if we're finished as a super power yet. We still have a fairly large (or as I say, bloated) military, but our role certainly has diminished. The sooner we pull out of the middle east the better.

[mmonk]

3. Meet the new boss,

same as the old boss. Yes, the irony of it all. The trap we sprung for the Soviet Union became the trap for us.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. We've already spent more money on the bailout than we have on the wars.

We're doing a fairly good job of bankrupting ourselves, interminable wars or no.

[grannie4peace]

5. bush is the one who bankrupted us!!!!

[geckosfeet]

6. The geographic and political dynamics are quite different. The USSR

was quite literally next door. They were basically having their way when the US started funding resistance and supplying arms. Once the USSR pulled out, so did the US, leaving a vacuum that the Taliban filled.

The US spends billions maintaining the supply lines to Iraq and Afghanistan.

But I agree, the net effect of this huge the expenditure is depressing the economy. It is also concentrating our national wealth into the hands a few arms merchants and industrial corporations. In order for them to keep it we must remain at war.

[Joe Fields]

7. and don't forget all of the USSR satelite countries that were draining

resources from the Soviet Union.

[mmonk]

9. Or the over 800 military bases in other countries draining us.

[Selatius]

8. What will happen is the US will become too saddled with debt to even bother maintaining garrisons.

There will be a movement of forces back into the United States if the US continues with its massive borrowing. Military outposts around the globe will either have to be abandoned or scaled back.

It would probably be the largest movement of troops and equipment since the end of the last world war.

[Oregone]

10. Except we bankrupted ourselves with fradulent securities and uncontrolled, greedy capitalism...

The wars suck, but they are a drop in the bucket of what is really happening here financially.

[Sinistrous]

11. And to compound the tragedy,

the final result on the ground will be the same as it was for the Russians (and the British, earlier).