On YouTube: Hillary Clinton on what troops would do in her administration.

argh! I got to the “we cannot let al-Qaeda … “

She’s afraid of c. 280-1,500 at best terrorists and 300 million Americans have to pay for her Bush-Kool-Aid drinks? Not to mention the 1,032,938 Iraqis already died for The Big Lie?

AQI is a hobgoblin, very nearly an urban myth — hardly the key factor that should drive foreign policy. Bah!

Militarists just wanna have fun, not die.

Since this thread has persisted on the topic perris and I started, let me just say one thing. I might be misguided or naive in separating our policy of arming the Afghans from, say, that of arming the Contras — approving the former and decrying the latter –that’s what I’m doing. Defeating the Soviets militarily directly led to them withdrawing the Red Army from Eastern and Central Europe.

As for your charge that I was indifferent to the Afghans — there’s some truth to that, at least if you compare my concern for Europeans to my concern for them. But you may be guilty of the same: the Russians had invaded, the Afghans resisted, and they may have killed as many or more if we had armed them or not.

We certainly weren’t going to worry about someone else’s feelings when we considered our national security!

They did get their Democracy after all, despite a lot of interference or help from the Pakistanis. It was much later that Al Qaeda with Osama bin Laden’s influence somehow turned rabid. I’m certain there’s a great story in there somewhere.

OTOH, there was a law against supporting the Contras (the Boland Amendment) and Reagan ignored it (or at least someone in his admin did).

I think the Carter idea was that there had been a democratic election in Nicaragua and we were determined to see if real Democracy might take hold. The theory had been that Soviets would set up dictatorships they could control and here there might actually be a strong point against Communism.

The Republican assistance given to Contras showed once again that Reagan et al didn’t care about Democrat Law and just wanted to turn every 3rd world country into a dictatorship they could control. They’ve tried to do the same in Iraq and it’s failing badly.

In Nicaragua a curious thing has happened — Jimmy Carter’s faith that it MIGHT turn into a Democracy has pretty much prevailed. It isn’t America or Canada or Germany, but it might eventually get there. Reagan was dead wrong!

I completely accept and understand the oppression in eastern europe.

but afghanistan is not eastern europe.

logically then you must believe ‘we’ should have invaded the soviet ’satellite,’ Cuba.

It can be argued we “fought” the Soviet Union for many reasons. The primary one it had to be founded on was self-defense. Constitutionally there is none other which is legal.

We went to Afghanistan to undermine the Soviets as part of our larger plan. Apparently it was a plan of Brzezinski’s, but I personally see in it the touch of Jimmy Carter. As we were assisting Islamic people we were beginning to establish a long-term involvement in the Middle East — that was something Carter wanted to really work.

The personal effort he made to create peace between Israel and Egypt showed his fundamental Christian belief that we can make peace and it will be good for America as well as others.

You could say Bill Clinton was continuing that policy with our involvement in Kosovo, helping Muslims in Bosnia was blocked by Europeans and Americans weren’t much in favor of it either.

However, after the Reagan admin. had supported both sides in the Iraq-Iran war it was clear they weren’t going to allow the simple plan to continue. It obviously wasn’t going to remain a secret for long that we had helped Iraq as well as the more religious Iranians.

Why the Republicans changed the plan is unclear.

Now we are at the end of that Republican plan and we have to have a good way forward.

We obviously need a time of peace to recoup our strength and coherence. We need time to re-establish some friendly relationships. And, we need time to look with fresh eyes at the world and that takes new people who haven’t been so directly involved or emotionally stressed by the recent events. Obviously it calls for a Democratic president.

Having made a mess of thing the Republicans need to stand down for a while and rethink things political.

Democrats need to continue sorting-out their overall position in Congress.

But, the new Democratic president needs some coherency and direction from the start. He (or she) does need, as Clinton points out, to be able to hit the ground running. But, we need to look very carefully at what the Democratic presidential candidates are saying today, so we’ll know what direction that new president would run.

Is it just me who thinks that Blumenthal’s report today ought to cause everyone and everything to just….STOP??

I mean, I find this really shocking….and I thought I was way past any capacity for shock.

This is very strong ammunition for the “Let’s get out of Iraq NOW” caucus and the “Let’s kick out Bush & Co NOW” movement.

Events are happening quickly. Congress has to move equally quickly to kick out Shooter. And, they need to make it a very public investigation, so everybody can see what has happened and how he was involved.

Alaska US House Race Update

A lot happening today in Anchorage, …

Great story, but it’s still very difficult for me to get a handle on what exactly is happening and how we here at Progressives R Us could help (aside from giving Benson some money).

Can you outline what the issues are or what the voters are interested in within Alaska? Does the list of issues they are concerned with really go beyond the local economy and other local things?

What does Benson NEED to win? Ideas, a plan, just money, what?

… Here’s last … Sunday’s gruesome MtP. with Carville and Matalin: …

Obviously Mary Matalin is a snake and so is her husband. But to me they represent this odor du temps a la DC.

That couple represent the nexus of the Clinton-Bush families.

Mabel’s Wig Shack @ 153

I wonder how much of that ‘aid’ to the ‘freedom fighters’ in afghanistan actually had strings attached in terms of where the weaponry was purchased. All of it I’m sure.

So far from being designed to win anybody’s freedom it was actually a business decision.

I sincerely respect your opinion on Afghanistan in the 80’s and, believe me, I’m not blithely sure I’m right. This last comment, however, is echo-chamber talk. The Marshall Plan was a “business decision”, too. That doesn’t make it a bad thing. The “business decision” to pry Eastern Europe out of Russia’s hands was not bad, either.

the flaw in comparing the Marshall Plan to weaponry for the glorious Muhajadeen freedom fighters is the difference between rebuilding devasted cities and waging war with the ultimate Taliban victory.

I wonder how much of that ‘aid’ to the ‘freedom fighters’ in afghanistan actually had strings attached in terms of where the weaponry was purchased. All of it I’m sure.

So far from being designed to win anybody’s freedom it was actually a business decision.

I sincerely respect your opinion on Afghanistan in the 80’s and, believe me, I’m not blithely sure I’m right. This last comment, however, is echo-chamber talk. The Marshall Plan was a “business decision”, too. That doesn’t make it a bad thing. The “business decision” to pry Eastern Europe out of Russia’s hands was not bad, either.