Failure in Afghanistan?

[Rogers]

British high command is warning that the military situation in Afghanistan is shaky and, should NATO fail there, the consequences may result in a nuclear-armed jihadist regime in Pakistan.

Part of the problem is that debate in the United States remains fixated upon the situation in Iraq. In this pre-season of the 2008 elections, neither major political party in the U.S. had yet even attempted to articulate a grand strategy for the global war against al-Qaeda to replace the “neoconservative” vision that is widely viewed as a failure.

Many European governments lament U.S. distraction and mismanagement, but are unable to fill the resulting gaps themselves. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda’s strength has been rebuilt and a U.S. defeat in Iraq combined with a NATO defeat in Afghanistan may permanently shift the field of battle to the streets of London and New York where advance skirmishes have already been fought and won.
http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/07/15...n-afghanistan/

Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world...126817,00.html
NATO must pull together in Afghanistan: Harper
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...ub=CTVNewsAt11
We are failing in Afghanistan
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comme...129595,00.html
Soldier Warns Of Afghan Failure
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...275751,00.html

[guyone]

...if that's what you want to believe.

[Rogers]

...if that's what you want to believe.

It has nothing to do with what I believe, or want to believe, guyone. If you'd actually read the articles I linked to, you would have seen it was a warning of failure if action is not taken NOW. The Generals' have essentially issued NATO with a call-to-arms to stump up the troops they need to get the job done. Are you a military expert on the ground in Afghanistan, guyone? No, I didn't think so.

No use crying about things when it's too late, guyone!

[guyone]

I'm not a military expert but I have many friends in the military who always laugh at this stuff. I tend to side with them being they are actually there.

[Rogers]

I'm not a military expert but I have many friends in the military who always laugh at this stuff. I tend to side with them being they are actually there.

...if that's what you want to believe.

[guyone]

It's what I know.

So there.

[Rogers]

It's what I know.

So there.

Well, that's me told. Damn those whining Generals!

Not meaning to be disrespectful to any soldier, guyone, but aren't they trained to obey orders and not think too much for themselves?

[guyone]

I know you are but what am I?

[North_of_60]

Soldiers think fast and well. They're the ultimate killing machine trained to make war. They are good men and women, but in their ways and manners, objectivity is punishable.

Back to Afghanistan...

I like Robert Fisk. He is probably the most famous foreign correspondant with over thirty years of experience in international politics.

You must read The Great War for Civilisation - The Conquest of the Middle East.

His descriptions of the sensless war the Soviet Army fought against the Afghani Mujahideens is astonishing and so reavealing of the great clash of civilizations. Be aware that a Russian Communist has much more in common with a conservative US rightwinger than any Pachtun living in a Hindu Kush valley.

The invasion of Irak and the quagmire the US Gi's are swimming in must bring back some bad memories to the old russian soldiers.

'Terrorism' is a word that has become a plague on our vocabulary,the excuse and reason and moral permit for state-sponsored violence - our violence - which is now used on the innocent of the Middle East ever more outrageously and promiscuously. Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. It has become a full stop, a punctuation mark, a phrase, a speech, a sermon, the be-all and end-all of everything that we must hate in order to ignore injustice and occupation and murder on a mass scale. Terror, terror, terror, terror. It is a sonata, a symphony, an orchestra tuned to every television and radio station and news agency report, the soap-opera of the Devil, served up on prime-time or distilled in wearyingly dull and mendacious form by the right-wing 'commentators' of the America east coast or the Jerusalem Post or the intellectuals of Europe. Strike against Terror. Victory over Terror. War on Terror. Everlasting War on Terror. Rarely in history have soldiers and journalists and presidents and kings aligned themselves in such thoughtless, unquestioning ranks. In August 1914, the soldiers thought they would be home by Christmas. Today, we are fighting for ever. The war is eternal. The enemy is eternal, his face changing on our screens. Once he lived in Cairo and sported a moustache and nationalised the Suez Canal. Then he lived in Tripoli and wore a ridiculous military uniform and helped the IRA and bombed American bars in Berlin. Then he wore a Muslim Imam's gown and ate yoghurt in Teheran and planned Islamic revolution. Then he wore a white gown and lived in a cave in Afghanistan and then he wore another silly moustache and resided in a series of palaces around Baghdad. Terror, terror, terror. Finally, he wore a kuffiag headdress and outdated Soviet-style military fatigues, his name was Yassir Arafat, and he was the master of world terror and then a super-statesman and then again, a master of terror, linked by Israeli enemies to the terror-Meister of them all, the one who lived in the Afghan cave.

[guyone]

We've got much better toys than the Russians.