US back to the drawing board in Afghanistan

[demobrit]

KARACHI - Top Pakistani and US officials are to develop a new consensus strategy to combat the renewed al-Qaeda and Taliban threat as US-led coalition intelligence is convinced that this nexus has consolidated in Afghanistan to such an extent that it is using the country as a sanctuary from which to direct global operations.

It was for this very reason that the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 as the Taliban had allowed Osama bin Laden to take up residence in the country, set up jihadi training camps and, among other things, plan for September 11.


http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GJ06Ag01.html

[LynnTheDem]

1. Heh...HOW MANY YEARS LATER???

Total FAILURE. And the Russians are laughing their asses off.

[winter999]

4. Russia isn't laughing,

they've had the Chechnya monkey on their back for a lot longer than we've had Afganistan.

[daleo]

8. They can still laugh. n/t

[newyawker99]

19. Hi winter999!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Bush can't control shit

nor does he want to.

For the billions we are spending, maintaining law and order shouldn't be that big a deal.

[LynnTheDem]

3. BUSH did two wrongs, both of which are now a total utter complete

Fuck-Up.


Just as BUSH has fucked up every single thing in his entire useless miserable little life.

[demobrit]

5. Led up the kyber

The British couldn`t tame the Afghans in the 19th century , they were led up the Kyber pass literaly and so now Mr Bush and co are going the same way up the Kyber

[Bridget Burke]

7. "When you're wounded & left on Afghanistan's plains

And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."

Old Rudyard knew the price of Empire.

"Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!"

[endarkenment]

6. So imagine that you are an afghani

and you are dirt poor and your country is occupied by foreigners who don't speak your language, don't understand your culture, drive around armed to the teeth in convoys of SUV, APCs, etc. Call in air strikes that kill your cousins whenever they feel like it, and enrich the same corrupt bastards who have been pillaging afghanistan since the 70's.

The only folks who appear to be offering an alternative are the taliban and their jihadist friends. The only folks who will avenge your cousins deaths and redeem your damaged pride are these same taliban and their jihadist friends.

The arrogance of our imperial adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are astounding. We are lead by incompetent arrogant fools, fools who kill and maim and torture and rape without hesitation, without concern, fools who think of nothing but plundering both our nation and the rest of the world.

[enigma000]

11. Pillage Afghanistan?

Do they even have anything to steal?

As for supporting the taliban and getting revenge option, I think the Afghans are pretty fed up with the whole eye for an eye deal after 40 years or chaos and civil war.

Let NATO do its reconstruction work - they are not killing without hesitation.

http://www.nato.int/issues/afghanistan/

[endarkenment]

12. We've put the same corrupt warlords right back into power

And they promptly resumed the plundering they wer engaged in before those nasty taliban put an end to it. Even a dirt poor country like afghanistan can enrich the few who are corrupt enough to use power without mercy and without ethical constraints.

The NATO forces are pretty much confined to reconstructing Kabul, and Kabul is basically a potemkin village, a showpiece for the imperialist effort to bring freedom and democracy - western neocon style - to the heathens.

The killing in the border region is as indiscriminate as always. Oh wait - you think they only kill the bad guys, right? That good old smart bomb technology at work. Go ahead have some more kool aide.

I'm sorry for the sarcasm. I bought the bullshit on afghanistan too. But it was bullshit. It is all part of the same crap, the same vile evil imperialist crap we are engaged in in Iraq, the same vile crap we have been doing in a cascading crescendo of vileness pretty much since Regan got into power with a mandate to undo the post vietnam damage.

[Spinoza]

16. Perhaps your scenario is true for Afghan men,

but frankly I find it hard to believe that the women of Afghanistan would prefer the return of the Taliban over the Coalition. As bad as things may be today--for te women of Afghanistan, there is simply no comparison to their unbelievable sufferings under the Taliban.

[endarkenment]

17. It is all cultural imperialism in my book.

We have no right to impose our standards, which by the way we do not bother living up to ourselves, on the rest of the world at gunpoint.

I find all of these rationalizations for the military invasion and occupation of foreign lands mere apologies for torture rape and killing. You do understand that we started the torture and rape sessions over in our lovely experiment in freedom and democracy in Afghanistan, right? This is where the goofballs got their methodology for the rape and torture in Iraq. There has been no accounting for the victims who went into our gulag in Afghanistan. But yes, the women of Kabul are certainly thankful for the freedom that has come their way. You balance that equation and get back to me on what the ethical position is.

[saskatoon]

18. Afghanistanians?

AFGHANISTAN

Are you crazy US man
What you doing to Afghanistan---
You get your orders from your Koran?
Tell me so I understand---
Tells you killing children are the ways
To spend with Allah all your days
To spend eternity with your Lord
He tells you this in Holy Word?
My little girl she has no legs
Her little brother he is dead.
When your B-1 Bombers first come here
Dropped cluster bombs---
Such things to fear!
They last for many years untold
Their evil genie to unfold
When our children go to play
In this land so far away
They happy run in childish scenes
One step and blown to smithereens
This time ---one Saudi you come to kill
Turn majestic mountains into hills
Rape our land, moonscape maker you
Devastations what you grew.
Many years ago you come to our land
Sent Stinger missiles to aid our stand
Sent money and arms in steady flow
To defeat the Russians you hated so.
We fought your fight, brought them down
The you were nowhere to be found
Our land laid waste, thousands dead
Crippled, starving where then your aid?








P.2
What you doing to Afghanistan
You don’t own the world US man
Many, many years have gone
Your country stolen from red men
Herded like cattle to barren land
You have much blood upon your hands.
Where bomb next US man
Iraq, Syria and Iran?
I think you’re crazy US man
Going to get yourself a new Vietnam.
If your not crazy you’re a fool
The world’s not going to let you rule
Will your people follow you like sheep
Your killing, maiming plans to keep?
Will your people sell their souls
For the sake of rich man’s oil?
You sow you reap---time coming when
You going to reap a big whirlwind
You foolish, foolish US man
Remember well Vietnam!

Copyright © 2002 by G. M. Stevenson
[email protected]

[Charlie Brown]

9. I knew it would be a failure in '01

everyone told me I supported the Taliban, and stood w/the terrorists.

Going into a very volatile part of the world and shoving our beliefs into another society is a deplorable foreign policy.

[The Wielding Truth]

10. Friend's son has orders to go there within weeks.

[gratuitous]

13. When you treat a crime as an act of war

Don't be surprised when war doesn't obtain your objectives. A hammer can be a very useful tool, especially if you're trying to drive nails. When you're trying to cook a hamburger, though, a hammer doesn't get the job done.

I have to say, though, that the locution used in this story, "the US invaded Afghanistan . . . as the Taliban had allowed Osama bin Laden to take up residence in the country," states the misguided rationale for the invasion of Afghanistan as clearly as anything else could.

And so we're stuck in two Asian land war quagmires. Thanks, Chimpy McCokespoon.

[saigon68]

14. Chimpy McCokespoon lol

[BrotherBuzz]

15. And how's that bumper crop of poppies looking?

Mission Accomplished!