These murdered aid workers in Afghanistan had been there since the Soviets were there?

[NNN0LHI]

And the Afghans just decided to kill them now?

Just a coincidence this happens when support for the war is lagging as it never has before?

I have seen this movie before.

Anyone else?

Don

[RandomThoughts]

1. I understand what you are saying there,

It is sad when bad things happen, but I also understand your point.

[WI_DEM]

2. The Afghans didn't kill them--the Taliban did.

[NNN0LHI]

5. You think the Taliban are not Afghans?

Sumatrans maybe?

Don

[TheBigotBasher]

11. I was listening to American news station on the morning and I was shocked about the lack of detail.

The Taliban are VERY unlikely to have killedf them and it is far more likely that they were robbed, despite what the Taliban (and indeed the US Government) say.

There was quite detailed coverage of the area on the other day. The Taliban, even before the invasion did not have an influence in that area.

For example:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10902094

[malaise]

3. Well I remember nuns killed in El Salvador by the RWs

and there was no outcry from the Reagan/Bush goons and now I see lots of innocents being killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
All the innocent dead are dead so none of the propaganda works with me.

[gratuitous]

4. Honoring the reason for their service would mean ending the war

But the only service worth honoring by the United States is that which carries weapons, drops bombs and blows things up. We're not quite so taken with people who really do give all and make the ultimate sacrifice for their fellow human beings.

Will this cost the Taliban some support? Or will the United States rush into this situation, murdering people willy-nilly in hot pursuit of the cowards who killed the aid workers, and retrieve the Taliban's lost honor for them?

[kenny blankenship]

6. Or their luck just ran out, as luck tends to do in dangerous places.

With all respect for their motives, what they were doing was just insanely reckless. No westerners should be in that country without armored vehicles, vests, helmets and 24x7 protection by the military. Certainly, after President "Peace Prize" announced he was going for broke in Afghanistan they should have known to clear out.

Hopefully, these workers left no families behind. If they did, they did their families a terrible harm by throwing their lives away in that hellhole country. It's great that there are people who "just want to help". It's sad that they are so often fatally naive.

[NNN0LHI]

8. No, these aid workers were professional

They weren't some foolish people who didn't know what they were up against. If they have been there since the 80's they had a great understanding of the element they were in. Just to travel they had to have a working relationships with people even our government would consider the enemy. There is no other way to survive there for 20 or 30 years like they did.

These were no amateurs.

Don

[kenny blankenship]

13. There's one little problem with your theory. They're DEAD. So you're wrong: they weren't safe.

Like a lot of people in Afghanistan who really don't deserve it, they got killed. That happens to be a hallmark of highly dangerous places.

Sérgio Vieira de Mello was a professional. His luck ran out 7 years ago next week in Iraq. His aid mission even had armed UN security, only not enough. They were not enforcing their own checkpoint. Fatally, he relied on the implied understanding that aid workers and the UN would only be in the country to do good, and therefore they would not become a target of Islamist militants. 7 years after that one little bombing, he's still dead. You only have to be wrong ONCE.

As I said, in Afghanistan it was insanely reckless to be doing what they were doing. That's just a fact. Go there if you don't believe me! The western aid workers needed to be behind walls, armored cars, helmets and vests and the machine guns of US stormtroopers all the fucking time to have any rational feeling of safety in that country. I don't care if you're universally beloved, there are people there who'd kill you for the gold in your teeth, or for the 8 dollar Casio watch on your wrist. Whatever their prior experiences in the country, the situation changed on them. However, the situation can ALWAYS change on you without warning in a country so dangerous as Afghanistan. And with the Peace President's widely trumpeted policy of escalating warfare, it was HIGHLY ADVISABLE to consider the possibility of a change in their situation. That was their warning. Sérgio Vieira de Mello was another pertinent warning. They ignored those signals, and gambled that they were safe--or at least in no more danger than before-- and they were wrong. Of course if they had accepted the safety of full military protection, then no doubt they would feel they could not do the job they felt compelled to do. To help everybody. Now they help nobody.

Now if your angle is that they were killed to help war hawks argue for staying in that shithole and throwing more lives away, well you'd need evidence for that. Then again this is DU so no evidence is required. You're right absolutely right. They were in no danger and the fact that they're dead means we, or Afghans aligned with us, killed them for propaganda reasons. It could have happened NO OTHER WAY.

[okieinpain]

14. i kinda like you. kinda. n/t.

[Posteritatis]

15. I wasn't aware that 'professional' and 'invincible' were synonymous. (nt)

[likesmountains 52]

7. This man was my friend and dentist....he was doing what he loved

and it is just weird to see his fate discussed here. He did not see it as a "hellhole country." What he saw was children who needed medical services.
http://www.durangoherald.com/sections/News/2010/08/09/Taliban_kill_dentist_from_Durango/

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I am sorry for your loss. *hugs*

[Warren Stupidity]

9. They (the org, not nec. these individuals) were tossed by the Taliban in 2001.

And came back after the occupation. Very dangerous situation.

[nashville_brook]

12. k n r -- nice observation.

[Enrique]

16. it's something that happens during war

atrocities like this. Sometimes they have trials and find out what happened. It doesn't seem likely in this case.