Taliban kill more than 20 people (including children) for being "un-Islamic"

That's not what I asked.

 

You need to ask yourself if there would have been a 9/11 if the United States had made an effort to pursue a known criminal within the borders of a state they sponsored with aid money and unravel that chain all the way down to criminal negligence on the Bush Admin to A-Q leaders radicalizing in Egypt's prisons.

Assuming the same level of incompetence that allowed the event to happen, I would still not have unleashed all hell on Afghanistan. War has never solved a problem war caused in the first place. Take that however you will; I think covert operations intended to decapitate A-Q would have been a hell of a lot more effective. They went to Afghanistan to kill Bin Laden, and they killed him in Pakistan, for Christ's sake. The objectives were made up as they went along. Restoring democracy---etc.

The Taliban are a terrible regime, but removing them at the point of a sword brought very little. These kind of things have to begin organically. The Arab Spring, Gdansk---history teaches us that inevitably, the will of the people will triumph. Rushing history only invites tragedy.

What did the Afghan War bring the American people? Afghanistan is even more of a breeding ground for terrorists. American military objectives may have tempered A-Q somewhat, but at what cost? Could this have been accomplished with more precise operations rather than a mass invasion? Especially since most of A-Q's leaders are somewhere in Pakistan now, where drones are pecking them off these days.

What did the Afghan War bring Afghans? Nothing but two sides that blew s**t up and invited mass death. Nothing but a corrupt and weak government on one side, and crazies on the other. America can call it collateral damage, but a son doesn't care who killed his father for what reason.

Really, however, the game is that the terrorist you kill today will be replaced tomorrow as long as there is such poverty and despair in parts of this world. The endgame to this has to deal with these issues for there to be any success to really ending terrorism.

 

That's not what I asked. Answer my question. After 9/11, what would have been your reaction as president, since you are anti-war.

 

Northside Storm = Mark Cuban

DD = Skip Bayless

 

FIFY.



DD

 

You're lucky you just caught me in. Read again.

That would be a short-term fix just so that group of baddies doesn't mess with Americans again. Kinda like a theatrical move, with little strategic import, to be honest because the terrorists you kill now will be replenished by the next angry hungry guy looking for a grudge.

Really, the long-term fix is reducing the desperate inequality between the rich and the poor in the world so that you can start diminishing the number of terrorists in the world. It's easy to be angry on an empty stomach.

 

So you are against war, but all for covert operations? The same covert operations that Karzai is against now.

In what world would we have been able to do those in Afghanistan without the political sway we have now. We own that country as of now, and we STILL had to make concessions and stop them.

 

And it makes it a whole lot harder to stop new little terrorists from being created when the same people who hate us still exist.

Like I said, I gave out chocolate muffins to kids who have never had chocolate. I gave out water to kids who didn't have it. These kids began to willingly approach us, and once the taliban were afraid to fire on us, they left town and went elsewhere. Show them we care, show them we are there to help them. Expose them to the world of chocolate, pictures of American cities and skyscrapers and parks and stadiums.

When you are fighting an enemy that has nothing to lose, killing them is the only way to win.

 

America has already made its' bed and lied in it, with an aggressive foreign policy that often focuses on ensuring American wealth is protected, and American military operations that have not ceased this century for one decade.

Such as it is, I agree with this point as being the only short-term fix for America in this sordid situation as covert operations---something I would not prefer at all. But the country, in my opinion, does not have a choice because of the above. There's an irony in the fact that America is pursuing two groups it supported ardently; both Bin Laden in the 80s and the Taliban in 2001. American strategic objectives tend to have the country lie in bed with groups that are frankly disgusting. But there you have it. An inch of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but we're past the stage of prevention. There's a feedback loop with resentment that will grow into more resentment unless somehow American globe-hopping stops.

Reconstruction is nice, but what about just plain construction? I'm sure you and the majority of American soldiers are fine people, but that's somewhat counterbalanced by the "Kill Team" lurking out there. Chaos like war breeds situations where a small minority can make a huge majority look so very bad. A lot of people will resent you for that, unfortunately, and you are breeding more people who have nothing to lose. Like I said, collateral damage in a war is huge, and nobody really cares why they were designated as such.

 

Make sure future generations have things worth living for. Someone out there needs to think why so many people are willing to give up on life---from the Greeks who are jumping off buildings, to Tunisian shop-keepers willing to light themselves on fire, to the suicide bombers of the world.

Isn't it nuts that so many people in the world have given up hope in life? Endemic poverty and despair can do that to you, as well as the multitude (of often, unfortunately American-supported) dictatorships in the region.

It starts with getting strengthened international financial architecture to counter the pervasive power of capital that relies on the blood and sweat of Third World citizens for ridiculous profits, rectifying the fact that even though the world has enough food for everyone to receive enough to survive, many are left out of this pie...regulating speculation on critical oil and food commodities, getting proper political and legal systems in place etc. etc. etc.

Bonus points for somehow ridding the world of pervasive extremist interpretations of religion.

 

Exactly take out their government and give them a new one.....that allows a distribution of wealth...welcome aboard !

DD

 

Yeah, American-sponsored client governments have a really good track record of "spreading the wealth".

This goes beyond just Afghanistan either. A very small minority of people are making a killing off the backs of a very large majority. So long as this situation continues, there is no ending the anger that fuels terrorism.

 

Well then better to keep it contained in one region then eh?

DD

 

Well, if by one region you mean the entire Third World, and the lower and working classes of the developed world, then sure.