[WS:] Obviously it is more complicated than that - it goes back to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan - which btw was on the side of the lesser evil. It is obvious that the US is now fighting monsters that it help to create during that intervention. It also the question of Paki ISI fighting proxy wars with India by setting up jihadist groups, and the US fighting a proxy war with ISI by attacking these groups. Since the US got itself into this mess in the 1980s to fight a proxy war with the Soviets, it now deals with the consequences, a blowback if you will, of its own actions. From that pov, the US presence in Afghanistan is more justified than leaving. It is like saying, ok we fucked up, so you clean up this mess so we can come clean-handed.
And to be frank with you, I try to reserve judgement on this really messy situation, but if I were to choose sides, I'd go with the US for the same reason I'd go with the USSR in the 1980s - they represented a lesser evil. I cannot find a shred of sympathy for jihadists blowing people up to implement their medieval fantasies.
As to "Nazis aren't "characters," they were the ruling party of a large state." that is a semantic argument. They started as 'characters" and managed to capture the sate - something that jihadists are desperately trying to do.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."