Comments on: Obama On Afghanistan: I Will Not ‘Simply Assume That More Troops Always Result In An Improved Situation’

By: Oval12345678 aka James K. Sayre

Oval12345678 aka James K. Sayre — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:05:55 +0000

On nine-eleven, we were attacked by fifteen Saudi nationals, whose funding was mostly funneled through Dubai. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld stood by and smirked; they didn’t raise even a little pinky finger to stop these attacks. So did we attack Saudi Arabia? No. So did we attack Dubai? No.

We were not attacked by the Afghani people. We were not attacked by the Taliban; in fact, we created the forerunners to the Taliban by arming and training the right-wing fundamentalist peasants in the early 1980s to harass the government of Afghanistan and their Soviet Union backers.

By: dbearton

dbearton — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:59:55 +0000

The right wing clowns will never get it right. They are just ignorant and/or stupid.

By: Jane E. Schneider

Jane E. Schneider — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:27:25 +0000

fire _ant_chavis Says:
Your pal Bedlam Beck uses a teleprompter and it doesn’t help him because he’s still an idiot. !
March 29th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

There’s an excellent cartoon about this at TheZoo:
http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/its-all-about-delivery/#comments

By: Mathazar

Mathazar — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:40:01 +0000

There’s another 500lb gorilla in room which was mentioned on DK yesterday. What do we do about the opium crop ? This has long been one of the Afghan’s primary sources of income, and unemployment is very high there now. If we destroy the drug crops, we risk turning the warlords against us, and supporting the Taliban.

Personally, I favor letting them continue growing poppies, and then buying the entire crop, thus keeping it off the market. I reckon this would be cheaper in the long run.

By: tokin librul

tokin librul — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:19:59 +0000

over four million third world residents murdered, tortured, imprisoned or made homeless.

While our body-count in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan is probably a record for the 21st century–unless you count Congo–the 20th century was about nothing BUT slaughter, on a massive, unprecedented and usually untalked-about scale.

Here’s a thought: If everybody who was killed in wars in the 20th Century had lived to reproduce, the population of the planet could EASILY be twice what it is today…(Thank you, Dr. Malthus)

Your estimate for the casualties from blatant USer Imperialism since we finished our continental confiscations is wildly low. We killed, injured, immiserated, and made refugees out of 10 million, maybe 20 million people in SE Asia between 1954-75. That may be a low number…

By: tokin librul

tokin librul — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:06:38 +0000

I gotta friend teaching at the AmnU in Kabul. He got there in January. He’s a former news-paper reporter. He teaches American Studies. He blogs here.

By: NoBS

NoBS — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:56:04 +0000

We need to disarm the enemy, cut of the sources. And sometimes that “source” circles all the back to us. A lot of the weapons and munitions used against us in both Iraq and Afghanistan came from us!

Afghanistan is a different environment, a different war, and this is going to be difficult. I’m counting on President Obama to be flexible enough to understand that this could be a long-term commitment, even though it doesn’t represent his intitial policy – and could be political suicide. He’s between that rock and hard place, although, no fault of his.

We’ve been Bush-whacked again.

By: angels81

angels81 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:54:12 +0000

James Kay, I’ll bet you were one of those people who yelled at the top of your lungs about killing those terrorists that caused 9/11. Your boy bush went right out and attacked a country that had nothing to with 9/11, and now when Obama wants to go after those people you attack him. You trolls are not very bright or seem to know even what you want.

By: Eugene atrax robustus Debs

Eugene atrax robustus Debs — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:50:44 +0000

Beefeater Says:

A stupid mindless troll regurgitates idiocy on a message board. Where have we seen this before?

By: angels81

angels81 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:47:58 +0000

Boy, I see the trolls heads have exploded when Obama makes more sense in one speech then bush and his thugs did in eight years.

By: Eugene atrax robustus Debs

Eugene atrax robustus Debs — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:47:20 +0000

barack obomber Says:

You are an ignorant piece of garbage. We get you are too stupid to understand nuance. Anything not spelled out in bumper sticker slogans and two syllable words is going to be way over your head you simpleminded moron.

By: Oval12345678 aka James K. Sayre

Oval12345678 aka James K. Sayre — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:47:09 +0000

The joys of endless imperial American interventions around the world… Since 1898, over four million third world residents murdered, tortured, imprisoned or made homeless. (This is an admittedly a wild guess, but we slaughtered several hundred thousand Indonesians in the 1960s and millions of Vietnamese, Laotions and Cambodians as well as at least one million Iraqis in our most recent occupation).

Imagine, if three million Chinese soldiers invaded and occupied America, overthrew our government and set up a puppet government. We would be screaming bloody hell and trying by every means possible to kill the invaders and to drive them out. But since we are imperial pigs, we can never see the viewpoint of those at the receiving end of our aggression and our occupations.

You gotta love the seamless transition between the Bush occupations and the Obama occupations. And the seamless transiton between the Bush CIA drone murders in Pakistan to the Obama CIA drone murders in Pakistan. Seemless transitions we can believe in…

By: fire _ant_chavis

fire _ant_chavis — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:24:11 +0000

Beefeater Says: I’m just a hater!

Now you’re really showing just how ignorant you really are. I’m tempted to feel sorry for you! You must be one those ignorant “Bushies”. You can’t handle the intelligence level of President Obama and the First Lady Obama.
What happened? You had to drop out of high school and now you’re mad because an African-American had the opportunity that you didn’t have to become educated at Harvard??? Are you one of those types that has “entitlement syndrome”?

By: Badger

Badger — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:22:03 +0000

From David Brooks on the Newshour Friday Nite.
He is just back from a trip to Afghanistan.

“…we are a much better military at this. One thing that struck me with talking from privates to generals, counterinsurgency is now bred in their bones. And that means they know there’s no military — purely military solution.

They all want to talk about governance. They all want to talk about agriculture, about schools. They know that’s the way you win this war. So we are just a lot better at this.

And then the final thing to be said is, they much prefer the Afghan people to the Iraqi people, to be blunt about it. They think they’re more cooperative, more welcoming.”

I don’t agree with much of Mr. Brooke’s punditry…but if his REPORTING is for Real…this change in attitude is encouraging.

Cokie Roberts, also recently back Afghanistan, said …

The Afghanis aren’t Anti-American like most Iraqi’s are.

This rings true… because we Helped the Afghanis defeat the Russians….and we didn’t place deadly Sanctions on them for a Decade.

We just need to get Al Qaeda out, and then get out ourselves.

By: dbadass

dbadass — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:14:38 +0000

semi-intelligent?
–
Compared to what?

By: Marie

Marie — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:01:44 +0000

sacopenapa,
When I am able to read your comments, I usually find that you have very good points and I don’t disagree too much.
Where I disagree, however, is that your comments tend toward ranting and are difficult to read; and your solutions/responses, while they get to the heart of the matter, come to be seen as reactionary.
Please keep up the comments – I think you will see most of us agree with you – but try to stay calm.

By: fire _ant_chavis

fire _ant_chavis — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:57:00 +0000

barack obomber Says: Nothing important.

Your pal Bedlam Beck uses a teleprompter and it doesn’t help him because he’s still an idiot. You rethuglican trolls need to go help Boehner & Cantor create a real budget. The level of stupidity is glaring and seriously shocking. If you think your small minded comments mean anything you need to join Silly Shelly at the nuthouse for some better meds.
barack obomber comments=low down quackery!

By: sacopenapa

sacopenapa — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:42:04 +0000

Marie
There is no ‘Win’ in Afheganistan! The US is there for the Oil pipeline and military bases to control it! Any other excuse is a LIE!

By: sacopenapa

sacopenapa — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:40:37 +0000

END THE OCCUPATIONS OF IRAQ AND AFHEGANISTAN NOW!
OBAMA PROMISED THE END OF THE WAR IN IRAQ IF ELECTED. Instead, he says “combat troops” will be out of Iraq, however, this week we learned the the Pentagon is changing and re-branding the term “combat troops”, and the USA is keeping them right there… the only significant “CHANGE” is the name “combat troops”!
Obama is already responsible for the killing of civilians in Pakistan ‘drones’ attacks!
Where is the “CHANGE”?
Appoint a SPECIAL PROSECUTER NOW! Where is the rule of LAW?

By: pastcaring ceratopogonidae

pastcaring ceratopogonidae — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:22:54 +0000

barack obomber Says:

Nothing relevant, as usual.