We all know it is not the way the US has been acting but I am not sure poltical solutions can be accepted without the need sometimes for military intervention. Please clarify your thinking.
It propably will take decades to undo the wounds of the Russian and now the US/NATO invasion. It will take education and helping to build a society and economy, where woman can become more independent. Besides the goal of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was not to improve the lot of women.
I was always against the war on terrorism and the invasion of Afghanistan. I never been able to see this as an solution. It is only the civilians that are suffering once more.
...but what would you propose?
You might object that none of us here at ET is proposing "The Solution For Afghanistan" you're looking for. It may be hard to accept, but in that particular occurrence, there's just no such thing. Orderly withdrawal is the best that can be hoped for. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
but no....out comes the paraquat, sop to keep the black market price up.
it 'works' on coca in colombia, right? <snark> ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
why? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
It's the second one today that has slipped by me and the first was J., also corrected.
I'm sorry, I'll try to be more careful with my mouse. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
oh yeah and don't forget the kites, or are those just for boys?
taliban are bad news, no doubt, but who encouraged them by acting like global assholes?
fundies like war...it's what they do... inside their heads, most of all.
i was fortunate enough to travel in afghanistan in around '74, and was struck by so many good things about the country, it burns me up to see the suffering they endure through foreign meddling.
they have been traumatised more than almost any other nation on earth, and we, the supposedly enlightened west, can only come up with violence as solution to almost all problems.
war machines need wars...afghanistan is just one of the 'crappy little countries' michael ledeen mentions as needed to beat up every so often, just to piss on the territory and blow up expensive munitions.
i would imagine that if the alternative is a rabid western kill-force bent on instrumentalising your geography and monopolising your resources, then maybe even loons like the taliban start looking better, at least they speak the language.
lose-lose...till we get out the killers and replace them with genuine aid that has a transparent, entirely sustainable agenda.
obama will doubtless make that his first priority.
mcpain or shrillary, i don't go there... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Women are second-class citizens and human rights are ignored, as of current. Plus, there is widespread banditry, rape, and warlords from all factions depend on cultivating heroin.
You are speaking on the basis of an illusion, an illusion that what 50,000, 100,000 troops do there has any positive influence on people's lives. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Should Afghanistan go back to the days of Taliban rule where women are second class citizens and human rights are ignored?
In fact, in Iraq things are not just as bad as they were, but much worse: under Saddam Iraq was secular and women had more rights, and the US occupation has empowered religious reactionnaries. We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
Pashtun Suicide Terrorism---an Update International Terrorism Monitor--Paper No. 370 By B. Raman
(...) In its issue of August 3-9, 2007, the "Friday Times" of Lahore wrote as follows: "Recruits are formally registered with the Taliban as suicide bombers and given a receipt indicating their registration number. At any given point, there are thousands in line waiting to sacrifice their lives, an observer returning from South Waziristan told the weekly. If one of them is selected to be the next bomber, the news is a cause for celebration in his household. (...) ....Women, because of the Taliban's strict anti-wife-beating policy, are largely in favour of them..... This is part of the strategy of winning over the mothers, who, according to the Taliban, have the greatest influence on the child as he grows up. Women are thus actively involved in the process of indoctrinating children in favour of the Taliban."
Seems Pashtun women in Afghanistan now mostly view the Taliban as comparatively more women-favouring than the other lot - so imagine just how womens'-rights-friendly the northern alliance warlords must be! "Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami
Should 'terrorist' groups be incubated by the Taliban? What is your poltical solution for the country?
'Terrorist' groups are incubated by the Saudis - to the extent that the biggest bribery and corruption investigation in the UK in recent history was derailed at least in part by hints that more terrorism might happen if it continued.
Afghanistan has nothing to do with anything. It's a monkey trap - the place where empires go to die.
An American in London:
Please clarify your thinking.
The lack of clarity would not appear to be on Jerome's side here.
The threat from the Saudis was not a surprise. The Saudi royals are thugs. Still, the response from the UK was a big surprise to me. I wouldn't expect Her Majesty's Vanguards to unload on the peninsula but folding like that? Then, what's next?
That's one period on which I would've most certainly used the stick approach rather than the carrot. But I guess that's easy to say for me, as someone who isn't buddy-buddy with these scumbags.
And now we've pissed away the opportunity. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
you are the media you consume.
How can you believe the same unreasonable people who would kill people on the basis of their religious or political differences could agree to a political solution without military intervention.
That is the problem, is it not? How can we get the people who would kill others to agree to political solutions? Maybe we could prosecute them and jail them, or just stop rewarding them. Not electing them in the first place would be a starter.
Or wait, are you talking about murderous leaders in other countries? A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
But we don't talk about that, because the Saudis are our bffs.
But why talk about it? Nothing will be accomplished on that front until we're free of their oil, and we're a little too concerned with bullshitting Ohioans about NAFTA than we are about ending the oil addiction and actually making ourselves safer. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
