Can anyone tell me why the hell we are in Afghanistan? Why did we increase troop levels when Obama came in rather than pull out? What is the measurable definition of success or a “win” there?
Two Americans murdered today as a guy came out of the crowd, killed them, then disappeared back into the cheering crowd. Nothing but “Death to America” riots and attacks after the accidental burning of some Qurans. My emotive response: Pull everyone out immediately with cargo planes and choppers that have a big Screw You written on their undersides.
I seriously don’t have a clue why we are there and why we have fathers/brothers/sons coming home in body bags from there.
…politicians looking to ride popular rage after 9/11 eventually realize they are riding a tiger, as retreat from the country – letting the Taliban back in to immediately take over – will look like abject defeat. Pacifism doesn’t win elections, as Obama evidently concluded.
But yeah, though I hate to agree with populist isolationism or libertarian wingnuts, I say let the Russians worry about the Afghans, and let the Indians worry about the Pakistanis.
Iin the 80s you armed the Afghans and trained them to kill commies, and didn’t realize that after they killed all the commies they wouldn’t just fade back into the bush.
I got a question…
So, apparently some soldiers accidentally burned a Koran. How did news of such an event get out? I mean, how would anyone have even known about it? Who initially reported it?
Obama ran on ratcheting up Afghanistan and catching Bin Laden to protect his foreign policy political flanks for winding down Iraq. Obama increased troop levels for this reason. There is no definition of success, just like there hasn’t been for a single war since WW2.
My emotive response: Pull everyone out immediately with cargo planes and choppers that have a big Screw You written on their undersides.
Yeah, those ingrates, not supporting us blowing up and torturing everybody.
I seriously don’t have a clue why we are there and why we have fathers/brothers/sons coming home in body bags from there.
You know exactly why: US foreign policy paranoia about failed states producing terrorists who will commit another 9/11.
How was it bad for us? What did we care what happened in Afghanistan and Pakistan during that period? I mean, sure, the Russians spent a lot of treasure and men on pointless atrocities in the region, instead of us, and maybe accelerated the fall of communism by a couple of years, and the Indians and Pakistanis faced off, but how did it hurt us? I mean, maybe it did hurt us, but I’m not sure how, offhand.
Do you actually not know this? There’s more or less a straight line from “US funds crazy terrorists (who are Muslim) to attack the Soviets” to “same crazy terrorists eventually decide to attack the United States.” Osama was part of the CIA-funded ISI insurgency.
Yeah, but that was a result of our intervention, not of our staying away. My point is if we had done nothing at all, not funded or trained them, we’d have been better off. My question was, what part of the fact that we didn’t invade or fight in the region was bad, not what were the bad consequences of the things we did do.
That’s a very logical view in 2012, not so much for 1979. The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union was seen as a direct threat, another “domino” falling to communism just a few years after the NVA marched into Saigon. I know it’s tough to get the Cold War mentality now, but I grew up in the 1980s - even here in Canada the “Red Menace” was always there. People really did believe in it, and so did the politicians. It would have been unacceptable to Republicans and Democrats alike to do nothing.
Can someone with more knowledge explain to me how a Koran exemplar can be disposed so that it is according to Islamic laws? I mean, they can’t be kept forever if they print more as time goes on? Is there some sort of ritual necessary?
