You will have to forgive lemon law on two accounts....
1-- He actually believes that NATO has authority....
2--He actually believes the UN has authority.....
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Well Pershak, you manage to be totally wrong on two out of two counts.
1. What I advocate does involve throwing the umber corrupt Afghan government under the bus, the entity GWB embraced is incompatible with Nato success.
2. Yes we might get dumped on by half the world for meddling in Afghan affairs, but it beats the hell out of being dumped on by ALL the world for running an totally inept military occupation.
Nor do you remember world history, after 911 the international community practically begged the USA to fix Afghanistan, yet when GWB&co who lied their ass off asked the same world community for permission to fix Iraq, at the very best they got a uncommitted maybe if you feel froggie at best.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You will have to forgive lemon law on two accounts....
1-- He actually believes that NATO has authority....
2--He actually believes the UN has authority.....
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Now there is a possibly productive idea we have never properly implemented.
As it is we say catch 22, we can't make progress in Afghanistan until we kill the last Taliban rascal, but we have a too small Nato occupation on the cheap to accomplish that lofty goal. So we jump all over Afghanistan, putting out wackimole fires, never staying in one place long enough to secure anything. Rinse and repeat for nine long years as Afghan anarchy becomes the the Afghan people's reality. It never occurs to anyone that if we want Nato to win, we need 620,000 troops or we are just pissing into the wackomole wind while consigning the Afghan people to the worst of all possible world's, perpetual anarchy inside of a shooting gallery. But we have that catch 22 excuse, gotta kill the Taliban first.
Well, if we are not willing to put up the troops and development money to secure all of Afghanistan, maybe saving a part of Afghanistan is better than nothing at all. Pick a part of Afghanistan, any part, flood the zone with Nato troops, chase the Taliban out, then do the harder part, chase the corrupt Afghan Government out and establish a government that works for the Afghan locals. And then commit the development dollars to modernize the place, roads, schools, hospitals, modern technology, while keeping our troops in place.
Do it right for a few years, then our troops can move on to secure other areas while even the Taliban will give up and realize that is the better idea for Afghanistan. After all, the Taliban ideology is just an idea, and to some extent a natural adaptive response to prior conditions, and ideas and minds can be changed.
Winning hearts and minds has been a key focus for a while now but it doesn't matter. You can't win hearts and minds when the Taliban attack a village everytime our soldiers visit. Or when the Taliban threaten to execute anyone who talks to a coalition soldier. No security = No hearts and minds.
The idea of focusing on securing parts of Afghanistan with more troops instead of all at once is what we are doing with the surge right now. The problem is the Taliban can't be defeated if they are being backed by Pakistan and the Madrases in Pakistan can provide them with more fighters whenever they need. It's impossible to know if you've driven the Taliban out a village or province and even if you have they can always come back.
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Maybe we should instead ask what Jeditoda believes in? And that seemingly is the tooth fairy
or failing that maybe the Easterbunny.
In short Jedi, after 911, history shows the international community gave Nato all the authority they needed, the fact that Nato and more importantly the inept leadership of GWB&co proved unworthy of that larger international community support, is no reason to blame the international community.
But why should we be surprised about the GWB track record of embracing every Gin joint idiot that comes down the pike. It takes true inspired idiocy to embrace a proven thief and con man like Achmed Chalabi, so why should we be surprised when
GWB bet the farm on Karzai.
September 30-October 7, 2001: US Media Report Hijackers Received $100,000 from Pakistan
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However, Pakistan, a nuclear power, has already become a key US ally in the war on terror (see September 13-15, 2001). ISI Director Mahmood Ahmed, who is found to have had several telephone conversations with Saeed (see Summer 2000), is replaced (see October 7, 2001), and the story soon disappears from view (see September 24, 2001-December 26, 2002).