So why not just avoid the escalation with its accompanying bloodletting and devote those funds to paying off the Afghan war lords (and the Taliban) right now?

One way to to this might be for the US to implement policies that guarantee top prices for opium products.

Oh wait...

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

I think the new initiative of McChrystal is overplayed. I don't think they're going to implement a direct analogue to the 'sons of Iraq' strategy. It's possible that this is just a tool to pressure the Afghan government to play along. And otherwise, the surge can still make sense from a push-pull perspective.

The problem is the fucked up nature of the government and the secret ops that have already been ongoing, as well as the wrongheaded focus on the drug side of the equation. The strategy would be much simpler for the US military if it got into the trade itself (officially).

the problem is that I can't work out what it's supposed to achieve. I read somewhere that for counter-insurgency tactics to work they'd need half a million troops in Afghnistan, let alone what they need for Pakistan. Going from 70 - 100 thousand is not a useful gesture, it's simply putting more troops into harms way. They have spent the last 7 years teaching the Taliban effective ways to fight the NATO troops who are stuck at the end of a ridiculously long and fragile supply train. Casualties have been rising considerably and now we are giving them more targets to aim at.

Afghanistan is a political problem, not a military one. Obama may have punted on the military issue, but he hasn't even begun to realistically address the political issue. Viceroys do not cut it. What is the strategy ? What is the military there to achieve ? What is the endpoint ? what are the waypoints that can reliably dictate interim tactics ? Does he know ? Does anyone ? Seriously, has anyone asked these questions and got sensible answers ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

Emphasis added.

The whole thing is just pointless.  The Taliban and AQ live there.  They ain't going anywhere.  Eventually the US will leave and they will still be there.  And when the US leaves the government of Afghanistan will fall.  Again.  

And the Taliban will take-over.  

Again.

No one could have predicted

I've never done anything to you.

Why so much hate?

The directors of Royal Bank of Scotland have been given sold legal advice

That's better.

The directors of Royal Bank of Scotland have been given legal advice that they would have to resign if ....

And the problem with that is ... ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

Anyway, this is a pretty article from a pretty good source.

No one could have predicted

Skennah Kowa

Plus, it's a bigger sport these days, and she's a bigger star than McEnroe.  There were literally dozens watching at home who might've been offended.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Cuss at them, throw your racquet/helmet/bat/whatever on the ground, etc -- that's all fine by me and (I think) most fans.  Sports are intense at that level, so you can forgive outbursts.  But threatening the ref, you deserve what you get.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys -- yet he has left it out of his heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything -- even his queer heaven itself -- to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place.

[...]

In man's heaven everybody sings! The man who did not sing on earth sings there; the man who could not sing on earth is able to do it there. The universal singing is not casual, not occasional, not relieved by intervals of quiet; it goes on, all day long, and every day, during a stretch of twelve hours. And everybody stays; whereas in the earth the place would be empty in two hours. The singing is of hymns alone. Nay, it is of one hymn alone. The words are always the same, in number they are only about a dozen, there is no rhyme, there is no poetry: "Hosannah, hosannah, hosannah, Lord God of Sabaoth, 'rah! 'rah! 'rah! siss! -- boom! ... a-a-ah!"

Meantime, every person is playing on a harp -- those millions and millions! -- whereas not more than twenty in the thousand of them could play an instrument in the earth, or ever wanted to.

Consider the deafening hurricane of sound -- millions and millions of voices screaming at once and millions and millions of harps gritting their teeth at the same time! I ask you: is it hideous, is it odious, is it horrible?

Consider further: it is a praise service; a service of compliment, of flattery, of adulation! Do you ask who it is that is willing to endure this strange compliment, this insane compliment; and who not only endures it, but likes it, enjoys it, requires if, commands it? Hold your breath!

It is God! This race's god, I mean. He sits on his throne, attended by his four and twenty elders and some other dignitaries pertaining to his court, and looks out over his miles and miles of tempestuous worshipers, and smiles, and purrs, and nods his satisfaction northward, eastward, southward; as quaint and nave a spectacle as has yet been imagined in this universe, I take it.

Therefore,
Burlesquoni will never enter KoH
Anyone with plastified surgery will never ....

Take thy soapbox over to the plastic surgeon's convention, Baaaaaarragan!

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.