It is odd because he was our hand picked proxy. He runs a country where we should have made our beach head in the first place, when we were out to find Bin Laden. While we were dicking around in Iraq. Recently we fouled up privately negotiations he was having with some Taliban elements that he wanted to diplomatically bring into the fold. He feels legitimately emasculated in our presence. Now he does seem to be a corrupt asshole whose family dabbles in drugs and graft, but hey, he is our boy.
Now word that American-led forces in Kabul have admitted killing three Afghan women in a February raid -- after NATO initially claimed the three women were found "tied up, gagged and killed" when the Special Operations team got there. Bullets were dug out of their bodies and nearby walls in an apparent coverup. ISAF now says that the women were accidently killed and that the two accompanying men appeared hostile. NATO now says it appears the men were merely trying to protect their families. Today word that innocent civilians and a western journalist were picked off by a U.S. helicopter gunship in Iraq while walking down the road like ducks in a shooting gallery.
Bad shit happens in an armed conflict. Innocent people are bound to get snuffed. It is the nature of war. But anybody remember Vietnam? If we lose the support of the countryside, if this leader is looked at as merely a western stooge, these people will fight us for the next hundred years. Remember what they did to the Russians?
We pretend to have an interest in Afghanistan, we have no interest in them. They are a convenient place to set up our drone attacks on Waziristan, Pakistan and the Pashtun tribe. I have a hard time seeing an end game strategy. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the opposition is getting larger every day under our heavy hand. If our guy is thinking about switching sides, what about the man on the street?
3 comments:
Robert, What's up with the pretty picture of Mao? Political hero? or Mass murderer? Not to mention the exquisite revered Buddhist art he destroyed. Don't think I am going to order the limited edition print. Gee I guess I get to Razz you in person in a week or so.
Free Tibet Om Shanti, Lance
The worst genocides of the 20th Century
Mao Ze-Dong (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) 49-78,000,000
Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) 23,000,000 (the purges plus Ukraine's famine)
Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1939-1945) 12,000,000 (concentration camps and civilians WWII)
Leopold II of Belgium (Congo, 1886-1908)
Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44) 5,000,000 (civilians in WWII)
Ismail Enver (Turkey, 1915-20) 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks (1916-22) + 500,000 Assyrians (1915-20)
Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000
Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps)
Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) 1,500,000
Yakubu Gowon (Biafra, 1967-1970) 1,000,000
Leonid Brezhnev (Afghanistan, 1979-1982) 900,000
Jean Kambanda (Rwanda, 1994) 800,000
Suharto (East Timor, West Papua, Communists, 1966-98) 800,000
Was never intended as an endorsement Lance, I have been very critical towards tot he chinese. I was just lifting an iconic image out of the image bank a la Andy Whatshisname. Could have just as easily been Manson or Mother Theresa. Thanks for paying attention.
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