amazing thing I just heard on NPR news re: Afghanistan.

[NRaleighLiberal]

Interview with a correspondent over there - talking about what a smooth/wily figure Karzai is (smears the US when it befits his needs politically), about how many of his family members are in his government, etc.

went on to talk about how countries are prepping to leave - and leaving the US in a quandry. Used terms like nation building, fighting a group (Taliban) that had nothing to do with 911 - how we need to find some sort of a success or else the last 8 plus years will be seen as a waste of time. I nearly crashed my car - seen as a waste of time? As in if a sale-able reason isn't fabricated, there will be, what - PR hell to pay? My God.

so there you have it - the Afghan war as a political/PR stunt.

And why are we still there, and why are Bush et all not in prison for mass murder?

[jody]

1. "why are we still there"? Because Bush/Cheney's spirit dominates the Oval Office. nt

[juajen]

2. It's because of oil. TAPI Oil Pipeline. NT

[Robb]

15. Sigh.

TAPI was meant to move natural gas, not oil. And construction never got off the ground.

An argument might well have been made in 2001, but it's a different landscape today.

[Arctic Dave]

3. I posted a month or so ago that the only reason we are still there is because

the Democratic Party wants the try and shrug off its "Vietnam Syndrome". They don't want to look like they "lost " another war on their watch. This pure p[olitical theater we are looking at. Nobody gives a fuck about Iraq or Afghanistan excet the people making the money.

[Enthusiast]

11. The U.S. pulled out of Nam

when Nixon was in office. The Democrats didn't leave Vietnam as a "loss".

Vietnam was a complete loss from the start anyway, just like Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Arctic Dave]

13. But the Dems escalated and it turned to hell.

They are blamed for the lose. That is what decades of lies and PR do for you.If the Dems had any balls they would be doing the same thng day in and day out to the repugs.

[G_j]

4. K&R

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Greyhound]

7. Because of the choices we were allowed. n/t

[bluerum]

8. And they don't dare mention that we are there because buSh et all got

us in with no plan for getting us out.

[Mithreal]

9. Pakistan will greet us as liberators.

[amborin]

10. K&R

[unhappycamper]

12. The Marjah 'project' was a Pentagon propaganda idea.

Marjah is the honeybasket of opium, courtesy of the CIA. There is no large town in the Marjah footprint.

The whole occupation is a scam.

[bvar22]

14. Meet Hamid Karzai:

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children fighting and dying in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

Commanded in Chief
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/engelhardt

[Robb]

16. How many times will you cut and paste this?

And whatever shall you do when Karzai's gone, as this administration's year-long effort to marginalize him continues to bear fruit?

[bvar22]

18. As long as American Blood is being shed to keep this thug in power,

I WILL continue to post this.


Not very pleasant to face this REALITY is it.
Of course, some would prefer to simply sweep it under the rug, and not "bother their beautiful minds" with this "unpleasantness".

Bin Laden is NOT in Afghanistan.
Neither is AlQaeda.
The people we are killing did NOT attack America.

It is well past the point to Bring the HOME!

[Robb]

19. Mindless repetition.

Your ignorance of the situation is staggering.

[bvar22]

20. Your brilliance is staggering.

Lets just kill them ALL.
Problem solved!~

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children fighting and dying in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

Commanded in Chief
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091221/engelhardt

[defendandprotect]

17. Bush should be in prison . . .

US/CIA created the Taliban/Al Qaeda financing it thru ISI/Pakistan back when

they used it to "lure the Russians into Afghanistan in hopes of giving the Russians

a Vietnam-type experience." We didn't want to be losers alone!

Imagine, we set up the Russian/Afghanistan war!! That was under Carter!!

US also wrote and printed the notoriously VIOLENT Islamic text books our MSM was

so horrified by -- and shipped them into the ME to create a VIOLENT Islam.


Religion has seldom failed to provide the TOOL the elites need for conquest!


This last go-round, US invading Afghanistan was certainly also farce based on 9/11 MIHOP.

And of course the real estate attraction is OIL --

and H E R O I N --

[Vattel]

21. The real question is what can still be accomplished

in Afghanistan (and Pakistan--the two are connected) and at what cost? Can Obama's policies (1) help the government of Afghanistan to develop adequate forces to provide adequate security for the people of Afghanistan, and (2) generate enough economic development to marginalize the Taliban. If we leave Afghanistan with a central government that is reasonably democratic and reasonably effective in providing for the security and economic needs of its people, then we win. Is such a "victory" possible? I don't know, but I don't see much evidence being offered that it is not.