JoshHawj

How did you get out from the airplane/survive the crash?

What does he think of Hollywood's portrayal of WWII and WWII Vets? Does he have a favorite film?

What advice would you have for someone who is interested in learning another language, especially within the context of the intelligence field?

On that topic, I'm actually hoping to attend the DLI sometime in the upcoming year and was wondering how employment goes as far as former cryptolinguists wishing to apply to a 3 letter agency?

How do you feel the athletes of your day compare to today?

I'm especially curious about Wilt Chamberlain.

Well, we didn't fail at getting rid of AQ or the Taliban. Special Operations and the CIA succeeded in toppling the Taliban regime and chasing Bin Laden out in a few months. Nation building wasn't necessary to do what the CIA/SOCOM did.

On the contrary, nation building has helped out the Afghans (if only for the short term). After all, I don't think very many Afghans in the major populated areas will complain about the benefits that NATO has brought them (more jobs, better technology, increased life expectancies, better for arts/athletics/academics, etc). Compared to the civilian deaths under the Taliban/Soviet invasion, the casualties are also significantly lower (hundreds of thousands versus just 14, 000 in the past decade). So, it has done some good.

That said, I must agree with you in that I believe there will be a civil war of some kind after. It's extremely likely US SOCOM/CIA will continue supporting/fighting after the 2014 deadline. The problem, imo, is as you pointed out: The War on Drugs is similar to the War of Terror. It has intangible goals and poor usage of semantics. But this is something that most people on the Left or Right probably don't understand. It's not about winning, success, failing, or losing. You can't measure that in wars like that.

On the flip side, a civil war could serve as the vital sign of a democracy. That's a different kind of war where you may be able to measure victories. And if the side the US supports win a civil war, then they could be open to a democracy. So I do think the OP has a right to be optimistic. But maybe not for the reasons you, me, or even the OP would be able to predict in 40-50 years.