Comments on: Late Night: No Elephants, No Parade

By: Maddy

Maddy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:05:03 +0000

Yea Mike, Teddy is right, Alexander gave up on Afghanistan, he left some administrators there and declared victory. Study history the answers are there.

And let me reiterate, no one has ever defeated Afghanistan in the first place and our war there is not one designed to defeat them, in fact I don’t think anyone has a clear purpose for our being there.

By: Maddy

Maddy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:41:15 +0000

We can benefit Afghan’s with books and education, you will never defeat the Taliban completely, their ideology is what we are fighting and you don’t fight ideologies with bullets. A war will never ever be won there, no one else in history has ever succeeded in doing that.

There is a great book that illustrates my point: Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who started building schools, the first one built was in Korphe, Pakistan.

Killing people, killing the Taliban just results in more complicated and ever increasing violence and in the end we won’t be any farther down the road than we are now.

By: tjbs

tjbs — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:40:03 +0000

Objective: War Profits US #1 arms sales worldwide needs unending conflict.
Means: Fear Mass trauma watching the US attacked while defenseless after spending billions on defense.
Method: Violence against the others,unrestrained killing over there by those selected to heartlessly snuff out others with no remorse.
Result: A economic and moral collapse by refusing to reign in those who profit from and get their jollies from this random subjection of others.
Is America great because we devise the greatest automated murder machines ever dreamed up and are always looking for a proving ground where we can show the rest of the world our savagery in using this junk?
Wonder why we’re bankrupt,fear.

By: MikeD

MikeD — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:53:26 +0000

I don’t follow. What new definition do I offer of ‘to reject’?

By: Hmmm

Hmmm — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:42:52 +0000

It’s perfectly fine to dismiss the rationale that is given as insufficient, but it’s clear enough what it is. Accept it or reject it, but don’t pretend it doesn’t exist.

Ah.

Obviously this is some new definition of the verb ‘to reject’ of which I’ve been previously unaware. Thanks for the vocabulary development.

By: MikeD

MikeD — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:06:55 +0000

Not sure that he did, but you’re right that they showed him.

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:05:44 +0000

Alexander the Great thought he had responsibility for the Afghan people, too, but they showed him.

By: MikeD

MikeD — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:32:57 +0000

We toppled the Taliban with near unanimous domestic support and we don’t want to leave when they are resurgent. That’s why we’re staying. You can always ask, ‘To what end?’ one more time a la a three year old’s “Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? …” But it doesn’t get us anywhere. It’s perfectly fine to dismiss the rationale that is given as insufficient, but it’s clear enough what it is. Accept it or reject it, but don’t pretend it doesn’t exist.

Also, at this point the Afghanistan campaign really does have little to do with 9/11, it’s true. Rather, it has to do with finishing what we start and not abandoning a people for whom we took responsibility. It’s more than fair to question the costs, benefits, and values of that reasoning. Yes, we went there in response to 9/11, but we took responsibility for the country at that time, and now that, not the attacks, is what it is about. It’s actually a non sequitur at this point to raise the Afghanistan in a 9/11 remembrance piece, though that’s obviously your prerogative.

By: Larue

Larue — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:53:34 +0000

If you search for connectivity, I’m sure it’s there.

Not the first time our own set us up for war, and chaos, for profit.

By: flyarm616

flyarm616 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:52:21 +0000

I lived close to that neck of the woods many years ago..Mission Viejo..