View Full Version : Something's up in Afghanistan
Shaka_Khan
03-01-2007, 01:20
This is old news. Anyway, Cheney was at a base in Bagram, Afghanistan when there were two explosions at least a mile away.
NATO: Intelligence suggested bomb threat (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070228/ap_on_re_as/afghan_explosion)
Bombing at U.S. Base in Afghanistan Kills at Least 23 (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/asia/jan-june07/afghan_02-27.html)
Grey_Fox
03-01-2007, 13:13
What do you expect, it is a warzone after all...
What do you expect, it is a warzone after all...
they were gonna be received as liberators......ohhh wait...:oops: I forgot that was bull excrement :smash:
Well they were. Just didn't last, things like this don't help
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/10368/365cd35b/index.html
funny :wall:
fixed
Watchman
03-01-2007, 14:55
...404 ?
I think most resources and troops going into Iraq instead didn't help. Stupid Bush. He could have been remembered as the guy who freed Afghanistan and set up a proper state there for the first time in centuries, instead he'll be remembered as yet another foreign invader and the guy who got America into another Vietnam-style war they didn't need to go into in the first place.
Banquo's Ghost
03-02-2007, 11:27
I think most resources and troops going into Iraq instead didn't help. Stupid Bush. He could have been remembered as the guy who freed Afghanistan and set up a proper state there for the first time in centuries, instead he'll be remembered as yet another foreign invader and the guy who got America into another Vietnam-style war they didn't need to go into in the first place.
I think this is rather unfair. The invasion of Afghanistan had international support and was always doomed to be a huge challenge with the mission-creep of country-building. The Afghans have been a fractious lot for many hundreds of years.
The important obejctive was to remove the harbour for organised terror groups. Putting the Taleban out of power helped that objective, but as has been seen, it is another issue to deprive them of their power base entirely.
Yes, the mistake was to start another, unjustified war before finishing the job in Afghanistan. This diversion lost the wider international support that the US had (now it's virtually impossible to get NATO troops to go at all to Afghanistan). Other mistakes included alienating Iran (which was being remarkably helpful in A) and being feeble with Pakistan, not to mention allowing Osama bin Laden and his cronies to avoid capture or neutralisation. The haphazard approach to the opium trade has also made things a little worse.
But I think it was always wishful thinking to believe Afghanistan could be pacified and brought to heel as a "proper state". As with all regime change, only the people of that benighted country can make that choice. In the meantime, properly conducted payments to warlords to keep them on "our" side would have gone a long way to marginalise the Taleban.
ShadeHonestus
03-02-2007, 11:43
But I think it was always wishful thinking to believe Afghanistan could be pacified...
They are a hashish smoking culture, the only reason they are so uppity is due to the lack of smores. :smash:
Shaka_Khan
03-06-2007, 08:04
Mistakes turn Afghans toward Taliban: analysts (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070306/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistannatousunrestcivilian_070306053643;_ylt=Ao9ZSl4LueZxUEa62USXFbP9xg8F)
Fisherking
03-06-2007, 12:50
Oh for the love of Mike!
Yes this surly shows how those Evil Nato operatives are targeting innocent civilians and the wonderful Taliban is protecting them.
I don't know about anyone else but if I am taking fire and I see where it is coming from, my first impulse is to take cover and shoot back. The Taliban tactic would seem effective. But at the same time if I were a civilian and someone out side my door is shooting rockets at airplanes, I am not going to finish dinner and see what happens next. I am going to run out of there as quick as I can. To me sticking around would mean that you had some sympathies toward the people shooting at someone else.
It sounds much like the Taliban has a slight advantage in the propaganda war at the moment and the word innocent may be a bit over used by people either ignorant of the situation, or who have a separate agenda they are promoting.
I feel deeply for those caught in the middle. Care in target selection needs to be taken but there are limits. If people don't do what they can to stop conflict or avoid it then they will get caught up in it.
Tribesman
03-06-2007, 13:19
But at the same time if I were a civilian and someone out side my door is shooting rockets at airplanes, I am not going to finish dinner and see what happens next. I am going to run out of there as quick as I can. To me sticking around would mean that you had some sympathies toward the people shooting at someone else.
Hmmmmmm....slight problem there .
The nutter shooting rockets might be a bit angry with you for running away and kill you .
The people getting shot at with rockets might think you were a terrorist trying to flee and kill you .
A bit of a bugger isn't it .:shrug:
Fisherking
03-06-2007, 13:32
Hmmmmmm....slight problem there .
The nutter shooting rockets might be a bit angry with you for running away and kill you .
The people getting shot at with rockets might think you were a terrorist trying to flee and kill you .
A bit of a bugger isn't it .:shrug:
In deed it is. It looks like they need to ask for help from one side or the other and stick with the decision. Some times it is not a good idea not to choose a side.
Tribesman
03-06-2007, 13:46
In deed it is. It looks like they need to ask for help from one side or the other and stick with the decision. Some times it is not a good idea not to choose a side.
Yet choosing a side can leave you completely buggered as well . Algeria for example or Vietnam ...or to expand on that last one the Hmong .
Fisherking
03-06-2007, 14:01
Yet choosing a side can leave you completely buggered as well . Algeria for example or Vietnam ...or to expand on that last one the Hmong .
Some times life gets very risky doesn't it…
What options do you think you would take in that situation Tribesman?
Tribesman
03-06-2007, 15:10
What options do you think you would take in that situation Tribesman?
Well lets see , flee across the Southern border ...damn that means living under the Taliban and their allies .....bugger
Ally with a warlord ...damn what happens when the coilition decide that the drug barons are no longer their allies .....bugger
Flee across the Northern borders ....damn some nasty brutal dictators up their who are getting a blank check on oppression for leasing air bases ......bugger
Flee across the western borders ....oops mad mullahs there plus two civil wars and the threat of an "surgically precise" bombing campaign....bugger .
Damn , its a hard one isn't it....I know I know ....hijack an airplane fly to Britian and claim asylum :2thumbsup: OK a few years in Belmarsh followed up by a media campaigh to kick me out of the country ...but hey at least I wouldn't be getting shot ....unless I got really unlucky on a tube train .
KukriKhan
03-06-2007, 15:22
Or insert 'Bourbon' into my name, stow-away to Paris, and declare myself the new Sun King. Wait... Mdme Guillotine awaits. Bugger...
Or insert 'Bourbon' into my name, stow-away to New Orleans... That's the ticket!
Fisherking
03-06-2007, 15:22
Anyone have a count on the number of Irish aid workers lost in Afghanistan or other trouble spots over the last few years?
not a joke okay...I am sure there have been quite a few...
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