Goota love the Afgan sense of sensibilities

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by michael pierzga

Nations must very carefully choose allies to defend . Entangling alliances must be avoided at all cost.

Never should a righteous, violent, military power like America be allowed to deploy its military might to influence another countries internal affairs .

If Afgans choose to live in the stone age..let them.

What do you suggest we do, when another country's 'internal affairs' include providing safe haven and support for terrorists like Al Queda, whose main purpose in life is to attack America?

Playing nice and staying in our own yard only works when others are willing to do the same. If they sit in their yard and throw rocks at us instead, I would suggest we have a right to climb over the fence and stop them.

[beachcraft]

I hope we can get the rest of the world to take an equal stake in defending freedom and peace.

[Roly]

What he i think he meant, they are perceived by their own fellow country men as freedom fighters from American tyranny.
The mindset here is the huge indignation of a sovereign power curing their home grown problems. Its almost like the cure is is worse than the problem.
Personally I believe the taliban have relinquished the right to breathe our collective oxygen by their actions & philosohies. Remove them from the gene pool.
But how can you do that without raising the ire of moderate Afghans?
Too hard.

One minute they hate the tailbandits next thing they are defending them.

[daiquiri]

Originally Posted by Roly

But how can you do that without raising the ire of moderate Afghans?
Too hard.
One minute they hate the tailbandits next thing they are defending them.

Talibans are a product of ignorance. Extirpate the ignorance and you will extirpate the Talibans. Bullets and bombs are good for the military industry and as a temporary defense from the Talibans, but will change nothing as long as their vital lymph - the ignorance - is not drained out. Without that effort, this and other wars in the region can last indefinitely.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by Roly

What he i think he meant, they are perceived by their own fellow country men as freedom fighters from American tyranny.
The mindset here is the huge indignation of a sovereign power curing their home grown problems. Its almost like the cure is is worse than the problem.
Personally I believe the taliban have relinquished the right to breathe our collective oxygen by their actions & philosohies. Remove them from the gene pool.
But how can you do that without raising the ire of moderate Afghans?
Too hard.

One minute they hate the tailbandits next thing they are defending them.

If I had any good answers about what to do with Afghanistan, maybe I'd be President instead of Obama. But I don't really see any good paths to follow; we seem to be damned no matter what we do or don't do about the situation.

But I do get annoyed when people try to carry on as though the Taliban is more righteous than, and somehow morally superior to, the average American soldier. Although they aren't saints, I'd say that on the whole our forces are better-behaved than most in the world.

[hoytedow]

Originally Posted by troy2000

,,, Although they aren't saints, I'd say that on the whole our forces are better-behaved than most in the world.

Well put.

[Mr Efficiency]

A lot easier for the US to keep these wars going these days, as opposed to the Vietnam days, the forces being all-volunteer, it's the call-up that causes the social upheaval at home.

[michael pierzga]

Originally Posted by troy2000

If I had any good answers about what to do with Afghanistan, maybe I'd be President instead of Obama. But I don't really see any good paths to follow; we seem to be damned no matter what we do or don't do about the situation.

But I do get annoyed when people try to carry on as though the Taliban is more righteous than, and somehow morally superior to, the average American soldier. Although they aren't saints, I'd say that on the whole our forces are better-behaved than most in the world.

Foreign soldiers, no matter how well behaved, are like sardines....they stink after three days. Regardless of how much perfume you spray on the situation OCCUPING forces will be resented so DONT OCCUPY.

In the case of Afghanistan, simply make it clear that if the country is allowed to become a terror base it will be bombed flat. People aren't stupid.

[Mr Efficiency]

Originally Posted by michael pierzga

Foreign soldiers, no matter how well behaved, are like sardines....they stink after three days. Regardless of how much perfume you spray on the situation OCCUPING forces will be resented so DONT OCCUPY.

.

Well, maybe, unless it was West Germany and those naughty Ruskies were just next door.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by michael pierzga

Foreign soldiers, no matter how well behaved, are like sardines....they stink after three days. Regardless of how much perfume you spray on the situation OCCUPING forces will be resented so DONT OCCUPY.

In the case of Afghanistan, simply make it clear that if the country is allowed to become a terror base it will be bombed flat. People aren't stupid.

Actually, people are stupid. They have a track record of war over several thousand years to contemplate, while keeping in mind that most of those wars did more damage than good.

But I think we're maybe working towards a better solution than just bombing the country flat. As our unmanned aircraft technology keeps progressing, we're making more and more precision hits -- without high casualty rates among the general populace. Hopefully people are getting the general idea: they're safe, unless they hang around with our potential targets.

[michael pierzga]

Flatten it......when the dust settles send in a delegation with huge truckloads of money then state...

This place looks like a smouldering slag heap, Be good boys and you can have all this cash and just to sweeten the deal we will throw in a couple HOME DEPOT's

The Afghans will do whats in their best interest.

[Redtick]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

Talibans are a product of ignorance. Extirpate the ignorance and you will extirpate the Talibans. Bullets and bombs are good for the military industry and as a temporary defense from the Talibans, but will change nothing as long as their vital lymph - the ignorance - is not drained out. Without that effort, this and other wars in the region can last indefinitely.

Talibans are about control, if they control the people they control the country. If they control they country they control the money. Greed not religion is the root of the problem. Those in control are not ignorant, they use the ignorant to do the dirty work while they stand aside gathering money.

[michael pierzga]

Originally Posted by Redtick

Talibans are about control, if they control the people they control the country. If they control they country they control the money. Greed not religion is the root of the problem. Those in control are not ignorant, they use the ignorant to do the dirty work while they stand aside gathering money.

Shiver me Timbers ! If you substitute " Big Business" for Taliban you recreate an American election cycle !!!

Big Business is about control, if they control the people they control the country. If they control they country they control the money. Greed not religion is the root of the problem. Those in control are not ignorant, they use the ignorant to do the dirty work while they stand aside gathering money

[watchkeeper]

Originally Posted by daiquiri

Well, there was no need for peeing on dead corpses, regardless of what they represent to you. Those marines' action reveals a rather disturbing trait of their personality.
Once they end their service in Afghanistan they'll get back home with these war-acquired attitudes and vision of the value of human life. You don't expect them to completely change their personality and moral attitude once they get back to the civil society, don't you?

My great grandfather - Royal Navy sail master and maori wars, both my grandfathers - WW1France & Galliopaous, my father - 1000 bomber raids & South Pacific, 2 uncles - North Africa, Italy and Greece and myself. We all came back with attitudes changed and found our lives. Apart from a pirate incident none of my family brought their wars home.

[daiquiri]

Originally Posted by watchkeeper

We all came back with attitudes changed and found our lives. Apart from a pirate incident none of my family brought their wars home.

My deepest respect for what you and your family did, but those were different times and different attitude towards the value of human life, I'm afraid. We are living in a morally very chaotic and empty times nowadays. Everything seems to be relative, everything is allowed, "respect" is a word existing only in past tense.

Did you or your buddies ever piss on a corpse of a dead enemy and have so much fun while doing it, like the youngsters in the video do?