An election held under the guns of a foreign occupation army cannot be called legitimate or democratic. That’s a basic tenet of international law.
Nevertheless, the US and its NATO allies have been lauding last week’s faux presidential elections in Afghanistan as both a sign of growing support for Hamid Karzai’s Western-backed government and the birth of democracy in Afghanistan.
In reality, the carefully stage-managed vote in Afghanistan for candidates chosen by Western powers is unlikely to bring either peace or democracy to this wretched nation that has suffered thirty years of non-stop war.
Eric Margolis
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This man is a liar. Is he on the ISI directorate or Saudi take?
ReplyDelete<span>This man is a liar</span>
ReplyDelete---------
How could you tell without reading the article? BTW, this is not an argument...
Maybe he's jealous!
ReplyDeleteNo I don't think he is jealous of Afghans. It is amazing that so many lefitsts around the world support violent attacks against the elected GIRoA and the ANA and ANP that are loyal to it.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that a 2.9.09 Afghan poll found that:
-91% of Afghans have a negative view of the Taliban
-92% of Afghans have a negative view of Osama Bin Laden
-91% of Afghans have a negative view of Pakistan
-the 6.09 poll found that 87% of Afghans had a positive view of the ANA;
is completely meaningless to some on the global left. They don't give a damn what Afghans think, or Afghan interests. Instead, they support forcing a Taliban dictatorship (an ISI and Saudi Arabian proxy) on the Afghans.
TGIA, why can't so many on the global left figure out they have been duped by a Saudi funded propoganda campaign. Look at V. He has difficulty thinking outside the parameters the Saudis have placed for him; it is as if the Saudis have colonized his mind.
I would understand it if the global left demanded that all global troops leave but that the international community gave the Afghans hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to fight the Takfiri extremists; but that is not what they are advocating. Many leftists want to see the ANA and ANP blead.
By the way, TGIA, many Arabs are jealous and envious of the amazing economic success of China and India; and the fact that Chinese and Indians have better quality governance. Remember that China and India too were colonized and exploited and look at what they have made of themselves. Arabs have a major global PR problem, including among Indian, Bangladeshi, Malaysian, Indonesian, Turkish, Afghan, southern former Soviet and Persian muslims. This image is partly unfair . . . look at the amazing Dubai for example. But that that does not make it go away.
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="">"We do not want a PAX Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time." </span>
ReplyDelete<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="">President John F. Kennedy, 1963</span>
r.s., what does your quote have to do with the Taliban attacking the GIRoA, ANA, and ANP?
ReplyDeleteI think that the Afghans should get $250 billion in grants overthe next 20 years to fight them.
My apology you botched abortion.
ReplyDelete$25 billion a year? So not going to happen Anand. The world is struggling financially and that kind of dough is just not available for one pathetic country that cant manage its own affairs.
ReplyDeleteFleming, $12.5 billion a year; of which $7.5 billion a year from the US, $5 billion a year from others. Many other countries have more to fear from Haqqani and Mullah Omar than the US. Let them (Russia, China, India, Iran, Stans, Turkey) pony up.
ReplyDeleteFlemming, it is much cheaper to pay Afghans to fight Al Qaeda than for us to fight Al Qaeda directly. ISAF costs $100 billion/year.
ReplyDelete20 years Anand? Get real. China and Russia? Get real again.
ReplyDeleteOperating 50 or so unmanned drones in constant surveillance should be plenty. And it should take 5 years, not 20.
The Afghans will probably never get their act together. Huge waste of resources.
Fleming, Mullah Omar and Haqqani threaten China and Russia more than the US. If America threatens to pull out and let them burn; I think they would contribute.
ReplyDeleteHow would you operate these drones by the way? Where would you launch them from? How much do you think the drones will cost? A lot more than you think.
Flemming, Afghans aren't different from Iranians or Indians. Afghanistan was part of India until 1700 and part of Iran until 1747. Afghanistan between 1747 and when the Brits split Afghanistan up included almost all of Pakistan, much of India, eastern Iran and the southern former USSR.
If Indians can make it, so can Afghans. What evidence do you have that the Afghans can't make it?
I don't follow you. Were you with the peace movement regarding Iraq in 2003? How did Iraq benefit America?
I'm still waiting for a retraction and apology, you creepy little fascist.
ReplyDelete<span>"r.s., what does your quote have to do with the Taliban attacking the GIRoA, ANA, and ANP?"</span>
ReplyDelete<span>don't be stupid
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