"Are we going to escalate the war in Afghanistan for the sake of saving face? Defense Secretary Robert Gates says we have to stay the course in Afghanistan to deny al-Qaeda a "propaganda win."
A propaganda win, as best I can tell, is a condition where someone can say "nyah, nyah" to us and we can’t say "nyah, nyah" back. Except that wouldn’t be the case if we left Afghanistan. They could say they ran us off. We could say so what, we live in the richest country in the world and you live in Afghanistan."
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<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; ">“a recipe for staying in Afghanistan forever is just what America’s Long War mafia is looking for”</span>
ReplyDeleteIndeed, one has the feeling that such badly designed military adventures as the Afghanistan war, with no clear objectives in sight, are primarily launched and expanded to keep the military establishment busy and the military-industrial complex prosperous.
The objective of the Taliban is to overrun Pakistan and defeat the elected Afghan government and its ANSF. If they do this, they will attack Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Chechnya, Xinjiang and Kashmir.
ReplyDeleteCan the Taliban capture the Pakistani nuclear arsenal?
The ojective of the ISAF, UNAMA and international community is to increase Afghan capacity so that they can defeat the Taliban. This is a very simple mission.
The ANSF can defeat the Taliban provided it gets enough money, trainers and advisors.
The Taliban pays their soldiers about twice what the ANSF pays theirs. Moreover, the Taliban has about 200,000 soldiers in Pakistan. To defeat the Taliban, the ANSF needs to attack the Taliban inside Pakistan.
If nukes hit our cities, what good is living in Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Iran or India? Only if we all unite together can we facilitate the Afghans and Pakistanis defeating these Taliban monsters.
ReplyDeleteOne question some ask is:
-is it more important to train, equip, fund, advise the ANSF?
-or is it more important to train, equip, fund, advise the Pakistani security forces?
What are your perspectives?
"the Taliban has about 200,000 soldiers in Pakistan."
ReplyDeleteThat's a lie, its a shame that you keep doing that, all to keep the war going and Americans dying.
<span>If nukes hit our cities,</span>
ReplyDelete--------
You really believe Iran is going to hit "your" cities?
Iran hadn't agressed or invaded any other country since the 17th century!
The Taliban in Pakistan amount to fewer than 10,000 fughters who have no air force, no armored vehicles, and no tanks, they don't stand a chance against Pakistan's 550,000 troops.
ReplyDeleteTGIA, talking about Al Qaeda linked terrorists (Taliban, Takfiris,) not extremists Shiites, who are a far less dangerous global threat.
ReplyDeleteHow has the Taliban killed more than 7 thousand Pakistani Army and Police?
ReplyDeleteThere are You Tube videos of the Taliban taking an entire elite battalion of Pakistani Army even though the Pakistani battalion is armed with Tanks and gets air support.
Grow up r.s. Take your head out of the sand. The Indian PM Singh expressed deep concern about the Taliban taking over large parts of Punjab a few days ago and said they pose a great threat to India. The fact that Indians are talking about how to help Pakistan tells you all you need to know about how serious of a threat the Taliban really is.
The Taliban in Pakistan, mostly located in the Pushtun areas, could not possibly overtake the rest of the country. 85% of Pakistan's population is made up of Punjabis and Sindhis who do not support Talibanism or Islamic radicalism.
ReplyDelete<span>talking about Al Qaeda linked terrorists </span>
ReplyDelete-----------
Al Qa'ida lauching intercontinental missiles to nuke US cities? Sure!!!
But hang on a second! .. We're talking about Iran here aren't we? We aren't going to rotate around the globe in every discussion!
<span>"the Taliban has about 200,000 soldiers in Pakistan." </span>
ReplyDelete-------------
Huh?
In that case be careful! you might find one under your bed!
A different view:
ReplyDeleteAfghan withdrawal would be folly
Afghanistan's complex patchwork of success and failure is all a world away from the metropolitan commentators
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/27/afghanistan-withdrawal-folly
r.s. the vast majority of Afghan and Pakistani Pashtu hate the Taliban as well. Many Taliban fighters are not Pashtuns. Many are Chechan, Uzbek, Uighar, Salafi Arab, Punjabi, Sindhi. Remember that the ISI trained a helf million Takfiri wackos over the years from all over the world. Now the ISI has lost control over them.
ReplyDeleteTGIA, I am refering to terrorist attacks like Bali 2002, 9/11, the attack against Russia today, the attacks agaisnt Mumbai in 2008, 2006 and 1993, London 2005, Madrid 2004, against Thailand, Pakistan etc. If the extremists get ahold of nukes they are likely to try to use them agaisnt Population centers.
ReplyDelete"Marja has become one of the big poppy growing plots of the world....Marja will be the first target"
ReplyDeleteThe logic here, I gather, is to multiply your enemies. Obama is enlarging the Afghan conflict, not only by waging a drone war in Pakistan, but he also wants to turn the Afghanistan war into a war against Afghan druglords. The more enemies you have, the more likely the conflict will endure.
Oh my God. I agree with you. So do most ISAF and GIRoA I think. This should not become a counter narcotics war.
ReplyDeleteHow is Obama enlargening anything? Incrasing training, equipping, funding for the ANSF will likely be popular on the Afghan street and enable the Afghans to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda more quickly.
The Taliban are going to go after the Afghans and Pakistanis no matter what. After that, they will go after Iran, the 5 Stan countries, Dagastan, Chechnya, Russia, Xinjiang and India. Sometimes it is important to listen to what the Taliban say they want and to believe them.
Apparently they are not that good anan, they missed your lying ass
ReplyDeleteThe Voice of Anandistan has its ears to the ground in the Afghan street. Its reporters post survey results indicating 99% of population believe Haj Hussein Obama is the long-awaited Mahdi; 95% of Taliban are European; 97.5% of Afghans believe that Karzai is a democrat and his brothers are philanthropists.
ReplyDelete