Agreed................but a viable way to <i>fix</i> Pakistan still has to be found. The nukes + 150 million people is a daunting task.
Exactly SuperMac ... Thanks for the post so I didn't have to respond to that completely innacurate analogy
His plan is to actually fund the intelligence services to the point that they can deliver us actionable intelligence about terrorists. Then, when targets present themselves, to take them out with covert, discrete military action. What is more frightening, the lumbering 100,000 soldier strong army (whose position and movements you are aware of), or the covert special ops guys (who can strike just about anywhere and anytime)?
I wasn't looking at the exact anology for Saddam. Actually I was just giving you an example showing that the logic of this president could be wrong - you are dangerous, could harm us, and we take you out before you can do that, so we are SAFER. The only problem is that you could be wrong, in the case I am willing to, but I will not do it at all, because of my inability, or trouble at home, or any reason. But once you take me out, you can paint the picture whatever you want to. You did a good deed for all the neighbours etc. BTW, if you want to look at exact anology, you probably should not forget that you gave me the pistols in the very beginning, because there was a bigger worse neighbour you felt threatened to you, and you actually helped me to cause trouble to that bad neighbour, so you were willing to overlook what I did to some small neighbour and actually helped me with those evil thing I did. Speaking of homeowner's association, after you "warned me over and over", I decided to yield to your super power and let them in again. Ironically, you actually lost patience, and thought you were ready to come in and take me, so you just kicked those homeowner's association people out. Because when you were ready for the war, the reason is no longer important. Although you claimed I also have machine gun, you couldn't find it at my home; so you just said that I pursued it anyways. The only problem is nobody seems to ever ask, every country in the world sort of pursue or at least try to pursue that machine gun. But hey, I am in no position to argue that why you take me not others. I had a bad record, was a criminal before, so you could just do everything with me. By taking me out, are the neighbours including yourself, safer? I don't think so. I was never a threat to you, although I was really bad. You know what, if you claimed in the very beginning, that you could not watch my kids suffer under me and wanted to come in and take me out, I would actually be ok with that. The only problem is, that you claimed I first had a machine gun, which could harm you and other neighbours; second I had ties and connections with a murder case at your family, despite all the people you caught in that case actually came from your another close friend. After you took me out, you could NOT prove your two claims were right. You just shrugged it off, and said what the hell, he's a bad guy, we did a good deed to all of us. Well, I have a problem with that. I don't understand how I got into this trouble, put myself into anology of Saddam, damn it I guess when I first came up with the simple example just wanted to say that you can't simply act on best guess or even best motive. You need to have facts to back you up. Saddam is a very very bad guy, what he did is terrible, no matter at what time, no matter for whom, no matter who would actually benefit from his actions, wrong is just wrong. I have problems for US to support dictatorships only because they claimed they were fighting "communism". So I had problems with Saddam to use biological weapons against Iran too. I am a Christian, the christian life I understand is that you don't claim you act in God's name. The war in Afghanistan was supported by every country in the world. The administation really should have finished it before they even started to think about another one. The war in Iraq was not supported internationally. Because for war, justified or not, there are lives lost, precious lives. So I think one should be very careful when he/she says that he/she supports the war. Maybe we should ask some questions like is it a must, have we tried all the other ways? Having faith and confidence in yourself is a very good thing. But if lots of others are against you, you might want to take that into consideration - there is a remote chance that you actually could be wrong. After all, you are not God, and no one is righteous in God's eyes.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/08/02/90_of_afghan_electorate_registered/ 90% of Afghan electorate registered Many minorities, women on rolls By Stephen Graham, Associated Press | August 2, 2004 KABUL, Afghanistan -- Nine out of 10 eligible Afghans have signed up for landmark October elections, the United Nations said yesterday, a resounding endorsement of a democratic experiment intended to help Afghanistan turn its back on years of debilitating war. Women and ethnic minorities are strongly represented among those registered for the first-ever direct vote for president. But parts of the south risk being left behind because of stepped-up attacks on election workers and Afghan and US security forces. The first tallies since the eight-month registration drive began winding down Saturday indicate that 8.7 million of the estimated 9.8 million eligible voters have collected identification cards for the Oct. 9 election. Forty-one percent of those registered were women. "The participation is amazing," UN spokesman David Singh said. "There was a lot of skepticism . . . at the beginning, but the targets have been fulfilled." The turnout is a relief for the world body, which has overcome misgivings about Afghanistan's readiness for elections under strong pressure from the United States. The vote had been delayed from June because of slow progress in disarming warlords' private armies. A vote for Parliament was put off until next spring. It is also a boost for President Hamid Karzai, who is widely expected to defeat 22 rivals to secure a new five-year term. The US-backed interim leader was still saying in June that 6 million registered voters would be enough. "We are overwhelmed with joy at the sheer enthusiasm," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said. "It's essentially the first important step toward a successful and legitimate election process." Afghans have flocked to register in the north, west, and center of the country, where regional leaders, including opponents of Karzai's drive for a centralized state, have encouraged their supporters to sign up. Ethnic rivalry in a country deeply scarred by years of infighting also has encouraged communities to make sure they are fully represented. UN figures suggest that a third of the estimated 1.05 million voters in five southern provinces dominated by the country's main Pashtun ethnic group are not registered. In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Singh said, the number of those registered had exceeded the projected total, suggesting either fraud or that the estimate of the electorate is far too conservative. Officials acknowledge cases of people registering more than once, but say a dab of indelible ink on every voter's finger will limit fraud on polling day. Many underage Afghans also may have slipped through. Still, officials say registration teams will have to continue working for weeks more in the perilous south and southeast, where a virulent Taliban insurgency threatens to decouple militant heartlands from the rest of the country. Shootings and explosions have killed at least nine election workers since May, including a worker and a would-be voter killed Wednesday by a bomb in a mosque used as registration center in Ghazni Province. Afghan officials said a land mine seriously injured three election workers in Uruzgan on Friday. The US military says it has killed more than 100 militants in the region since mid-May, opening the way for registration teams. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
