Re: “The heaviest fighting there since the 2001 US invasion has recently erupted”
Yes, because the ANA and the coalition are moving in to previously uncharted territory, so to speak. Extending their reach. This is a good thing, unless you are hoping the coalition loses.
Re: “Now, as predicted, Taliban forces have taken the offensive against US and NATO troops, often employing deadly new tactics, like roadside and suicide bombs, learned from Iraq’s resistance. Casualties are mounting on both sides.”
Yeah. An estimated 600 Taliban have been killed, with 41 Afghan and Coalition security forces killed or wounded combined, since April. The estimated Taliban casualties do not contain the number of wounded, which is often twice the number killed in combat. Casualties seem pretty one-sided to me, but I’m not a journalist with an agenda.
Re: ”Most Afghans working for the foreign occupation are secretly in touch with the resistance.”
Most? Really? Wow. Feel free to just make stuff up, Eric. LOL.
Posted by Bino at July 4, 2006 11:43 AM
Whoa Redneck… WHOA…!
First post and already you’re ridiculing Eric saying he doesn’t know what he is talking about??? A bit quick out of the gate today? Too much caffeine?
Listen… you FOX News SHILL… you can’t call me a liar. Because:
1. I’m a Pathan too.
2. I live next door to Afdirtistan.
3. I never lie. I’m like George Washington.
And I can confirm everything Eric sez is true in this article.
1. Americans kill civilians and later label them “Taliban”
2. There is great hatred for Americans in Afghanistan. Indeed of all foreign people
3. It doesn’t matter if the Americans kill more people than the Taliban kill Americans. Body-count is a statistic for losers… any military historian will tell you that. eg. Vietnam vs. US… US had much higher body count… did it make any difference? Nope.
So, my little FOX-news Shill, you have been shown up as the pathetic idiot you are… yet again. Who is the one with an agenda here, huh? 5 cents per word shill.
Stupid Southern-Baptist American….
Posted by Rampart at July 4, 2006 01:10 PM
Oh… I remember… you aren’t talking to me, are you? LOL
Posted by Rampart at July 4, 2006 01:11 PM
Oh.. and Eric… a slight correction…
Many of Alexander’s Greeks never went home. We are their children (mixed with Mongolian genes).
Posted by Rampart at July 4, 2006 01:15 PM
True that Rampart. Many of Alexander’s soldiers stayed behind in the NWFP and Kashmir to marry the local women. That is why a large number of Kashmiris and Pathans look like Germans or Greek. It’s a beatiful mix: Caaucasian genes with Desi genes, wouldn’t you agree? Blue eyed, blond haired Kashmiri women with fair skin…
Posted by crazyinsane105 at July 4, 2006 02:01 PM
Rampart: Your reading comprehension is on par with my four-year-old niece. You didn’t even address anything I said. That’s good though, because I have as much interest in your insights as you do in acting like a grown-up. Try to be a big boy and not throw an erroneous name-calling hissy fit when someone posts something you disagree with. That’s how adults roll. I suspect you’d have better luck getting your hands on “even one bitch” (your delightful words) if you weren’t such a complete loser. And with that, I bid you adieu, my friend.
Here is my favorite Eric Margolis quote: “what Muslims really need is a jihad against their own rotten societies”.
Granted, I had to wade all the way back to 2001 to find a sensible Margolis quote, but it was worth it.
Posted by Bino at July 4, 2006 03:03 PM
I did answer your post quite comprehensively.
It had nothing of substance in it… all you did was ridicule Eric and his facts.
I only pointed out that you are a fool and a liar. And that I can confirm that Eric’s article is spot on.
I think everyone here agrees, I made my point and you didn’t. You never can make a point…. just a copy-paste guy.
What Americans needs, btw, is a Jihad against their rotten society. LOL. Baby-Killers Inc.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:18 AM
And al-Bino Sewer (the white pig)…. I thought you said you weren’t talking to me? haahahahahahaha
No discipline. Typical American shill.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:20 AM
Anyway, I don’t think we’ll see more of this guy on this thread. He’s said the usual FOX news line. No more material.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:26 AM
So… who else is stupid enough to say that I, who runs into Afghans everyday, doesn’t know what I’m talking about?
I am surprised at Eric’s insight. Damn accurate.
1. An Afghan will kill an American in a second if he thinks nobody is watching.
2. American’s kill innocent Afghan familes all the time. Even that American puppet, President Karzai, got annoyed over it.
In short, America’s Afghan adventure is going south. And guess who will pick up the pieces? LOL
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:47 AM
So… who else is stupid enough to say that I, who runs into Afghans everyday, doesn’t know what I’m talking about?
I am surprised at Eric’s insight. Damn accurate.
1. An Afghan will kill an American in a second if he thinks nobody is watching.
2. American’s kill innocent Afghan families all the time. Even that American puppet, President Karzai, got annoyed over it.
In short, America’s Afghan adventure is going south. And guess who will pick up the pieces? LOL
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:48 AM
Dammit…. double post…. very frustrating
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:50 AM
Seems like the Taliban knew something we didn’t. By successfully eliminating the production of opium poppies throughout the country, the Talibs denied potential rival warlords a major source of income for funding revolts against their rule.
On the other hand, I have a hard time buying into the notion that the Talibs would be able to displace the Americans so easily. The Soviets ended up leaving due in large part to the substantial military and financial contributions of foreign powers. These new resistance fighters, while loaded with opium profits, don’t have the powerful friends that the original anti Soviet Mujahids had.
Then again, there are far fewer Americans in Afghanistan than there were Soviets in the 80’s.
Posted by chatman at July 5, 2006 04:07 AM
No, they don’t have the power to displace the Americans at all. In fact, they don’t need to displace the Americans from many areas, simply because the Americans aren’t there. Why waste effort?
NATO? The British? No sticking power if the US isn’t interested. And it seems like the US is less and less interested in running this shithole. If they were interested they could’ve stopped Afghanistan from becoming a Narco-State. If they were interested, they could’ve gotten rid of the war-lords instead of doing deals with them. etc.
People sense that.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 04:24 AM
People don’t understand the Pathan’s warrior mentality….
They are crazy bastards. When we engage the enemy, we don’t fight for victory. We fight to hurt the enemy. Keep it up long enough, victory will be assured anyway.
When Alexander’s genes mixed with the genes of the Ephilite-Huns (a Mongloian people), they produced a very sick (“sick” in a way I admire) race, now called the “Pathans”, who really enjoy ripping little chunks out of you everytime you touch them.
Like cutting down a tree, one axe blow at a time. The axe always wins in the end.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 04:33 AM
The fight, is an end in itself. There is great honor in such an act.
So, no…. they aren’t looking to displace the Americans. They can wait.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 04:35 AM
Oh and this link again underlines how clueless Bino is:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5148982.stm
You can see it again fits with whatever Eric said and whatever I said. So much for the Karzai Govts’ American sponsored authority in Kabul. LOL
Why does AlBino-Sewer come here when he keeps falling on his face? Maybe he is a masochist?
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 06:13 AM
Rampart = 13 posts.
Everyone else (3 people) = 4 posts.
And Rampart still has yet to make a salient point. Looks like someone’s mom forgot to feed them their ADD medicine. Again. LOL.
Posted by Bino at July 5, 2006 07:29 AM
Well, since Rampart gets paid by the post, and must be three or four different people….
“Now, as predicted, Taliban forces have taken the offensive against US and NATO troops, often employing deadly new tactics, like roadside and suicide bombs, learned from Iraq’s resistance. Casualties are mounting on both sides.”
—since when is that new? That tactic is soooo 1979. Maybe guns are a new deadly strategy too. This is quite a good example of polemic reporting. This is just FoxNews style reporting but from a different perspective. The columns are better than L.Ron Hubbard novels though.
“At the time, this writer, who covered the 1980’s Great Jihad in Afghanistan and ensuing birth of Taliban, warned war would resume in about four years, just as it did after the 1979 Soviet invasion. This prediction was greeted with jeers, accusations of idiocy and accusations of lack of patriotism.”
Well, I read all of Eric’s 2001 and 2002 articles just now and there was no such prediction … unless it was verbal. It must be nice to know everything in advance. Maybe someone can post a quote before Eric goes back and edits his 2001 columns to insert a prediction.
Other Eric prediction from 2002: Russia re-occupies Afghanistan. Well, maybe that’s still coming… right after Chechnya is successfully concluded….. ‘cause their supply of troops and supply-line security is better than America’s.
Posted by JonnyBoy0416 at July 5, 2006 07:58 AM
Bino boy, you are running on emotion, not fact. The emotion is allegiance to the US military (not social) agenda. 600 to 40? The first victim of war is truth and the first lie is the number of enemy casualties. Best not to attempt to refute Eric’s posts with official party lines if you want credibility on this site.
I think Eric’s article is spot on. Just my opinion. living afar as I do. his familarity with the players and dynamics is obvious so a Fox refute doesn’t wash. BTW Fox is the only news station Cheney watches, so without reality checks from sources like Eric its down the garden path to defeat.
Posted by ghawley at July 5, 2006 08:53 AM
Bino the “adult”:
Salient points have a tendency of missing you. I have made plenty.
The main point was…. what you see as a Group-Hug, is what I see is a Cluster-Fuck.
Care to comment on the BBC story? They’re making stuff up too, huh “adult”? LOL
JonnyBoy:
Eric wrote different articles for newspapers like DAWN (for example). Those can’t be found here. And of course, all predictions can never be true. But that Afghanistan is heating up (the main point today)? That isn’t a prediction… it’s happening right now.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 09:09 AM
Rampart, my point was just that it isn’t news to get panicky about - it’s just the logical consequence of NATO troops entering the area (regardless of their final goal or motives) … Afghanistan has been “heating up” for a few hundred years. For example, the point was taken above that Cdn troops are getting involved in more gun battles -> well of course they are - they are going into areas controlled by the Taliban (and maybe al-queda, but I don’t know that) instead of just patrolling around Kabul …. and not because the level of contentment in that particular region has changed since 2002.
Posted by JonnyBoy0416 at July 5, 2006 09:46 AM
Gwahley:
Re: “. Best not to attempt to refute Eric’s posts with official party lines if you want credibility on this site.”
Lame! Look, here is his claim: “Casualties are mounting on both sides”
While technically accurate, in that they cannot shrink, it paints a distorted picture. But apparently we can’t challenge Eric, right? At least, not with actual numbers being reported by the media. We can just let Eric ignore all those widely reported numbers and paint pretty pictures that suit our bias. And as far as “credibility” on this site, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
And really, again with the Fox news quips? Are you so lame that you need to parrot Rampart? Why don’t you try buying a Google machine and checking out non-Fox sites like pbs.org or something? It’s easy enough to find all kinds of articles detailing casualties. There have only been about 80 coalition casualties YTD.
But we mustn’t question the expert who in this very article claimed without a stitch of proof that “Most [that would be the majority, in case you didn’t get it] Afghans working for the foreign occupation are secretly in touch with the resistance.”
No, we must toe the party line and bleat to the Margolis beat. Facts and proof be damned!
Rampart: Yeah, I read the BBC link. So what? It does nothing to counter the three issues I had and made mention of in my first post. Nothing. You have the reading comprehension skills of a retarded chimp on crack. Show me where I called anything a “group hug”? Oh, that’s right…I didn’t! But you are unable to actually comprehend what I write. You are real a credit to your country.
Posted by Bino at July 5, 2006 10:01 AM
Bino the “adult”:
To you, eveything is going the US way… America is loved by all and will win because of this love. If it weren’t for a few trouble-makers… And the Afghans are on the US side… we give them chocolate… FOX news sez so.
That is what you are basically peddling, yes?
The term “group hug” is an allegory for your emotional, cock-eyed vision.
Get it? Adult?
God, he’s so literal “when did I say THAT“…. it makes my eyes bleed. LOL
Facts and proof? Only a literal idiot would look for “facts and proofs” in this world. Why? Because they are easier to copy-paste, right? hahahahahaha
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 10:13 AM
The BBC article fits Eric’s (and mine) perception of events in Afghanistan…. that the Americans have no control.
You, however, keep talking out of your emotional ass.
How about contradicting my 3 points? Which you haven’t….”adult”.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 10:17 AM
Bino the “adult” sez:
“actual number (of american dead in Af’stan) being reported by the media”…
That’s “US media” son. How do you know those numbers are real? They’ve lied to us about everything else….
I never knew faith could move mountains until I ran into you… Fox-news-Adult. LOL
If you stick around here, then yeah, this place would really lose it’s credibility, with a literal-idiot on the loose.
I bet, that is exactly what you want.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 10:27 AM
Bino: If you were an Afghani, and uncertain about who will win in the end - the foreign installed government or indigenous insurgents - would you not hedge your bets? Esp as you know the foreigners will tire of the war and leave one day. So it is reasonable to conjecture their are ties between the ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’, esp as the ‘bad guys’ know who you are. That being said, Eric is obviously well connected so no doubt has info sources to this effect.
I agree the body counts must favour the foreign troups given the combatants’ relative technology. I agree the counts, exagerrated oor misconstrued as they are, could have been noted as the impression is impossible.
Still, body counts on both sides considered, we don’t know who will tire of the war first. As Rampart says, the Pushtan love the fight, and so may well outlast the patience of mom and dad US/CDN Taxpayer.
Question: Why do you onl;y question Eric’s versions of events and not the offical line? The official version was deliberately wrong on WMDs, etc. etc. but so far Eric’s versions are more aligned with the facts on the ground.
Umm, aren’t you the guy who said in an earlier post something that amounted to, and I paraphrase, “Any speculation is stupid? We need to stick to the facts!”. How do we predict ANYTHING and make sense of the world more generally without leaping off the page of Fox ‘facts’? (If it wasn’t you then, your current post is akin to that.)
Posted by ghawley at July 5, 2006 10:28 AM
Bino - the last sentence of my 2nd para should have read: “… as the impression left of equal casualties is impossibly wrong”.
Posted by ghawley at July 5, 2006 10:33 AM
JonnyBoy:
I will tell you something no lousy American newspaper will tell you.
Question 1:
What is the largest smuggling operation in the whole world?
Answer 1:
Something called “ATT”. Afghan Transit Trade. Goods meant for Afghanistan are not charged any taxes or duties when they land in Karachi…. they are shipped to Afghanistan…. where they are smuggled back into Pakistan. LOL. Damn cheap.
Afghans make millions of dollars and so do we.
Question 2. Are the people who run the ATT… the smugglers… are they armed to the teeth?
Answer 2:
Oh yes!
Question 3:
To protect their livelihood, have these people shot at US forces?
Answer 3:
All the time.
They aren’t Taliban. But that is what the Americans call them, since they carry weapons and will shoot at the slightest excuse. (Americans will call any dead Afghan a Taliban, btw)
The closer you go to Pakistan, the more resistance you will run into. Might be Taliban… more likely they’re just smugglers.
And it is possible they just might be both.
Point is, the American invasion has put a dent into the largest racket in the world… that has made them quite a few enemies.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 10:41 AM
Gwhaley:
“Still, body counts on both sides considered, we don’t know who will tire of the war first”
Agreed.
“Why do you only question Eric’s versions of events and not the official line?”
What makes you think I don’t?
See, this is exactly why Jonnyboy was right when he posted that Eric is the Fox News for those who share his ideology. If I don’t agree with Eric, then by default, I must be some Fox nerw shill! And just like the pathetic righties on Fox who would attack you for questioning their party line, so too does this board attack you for questioning Eric’s party line. Right or left, it’s all the same to me in this sad regard.
Re: “The official version was deliberately wrong on WMDs”
I don’t believe that there was ever the claim that the war in Afghanistan was to remove WMD, rather to remove AQ and the thugs that harbored them.
Re: “Any speculation is stupid? We need to stick to the facts!”.
Very, very loose interpretation of my stance on Eric’s claims in an earlier article. And I think my point was that we have to hold the facts available in higher regard than some biased speculation, specifically speculation like the Toronto 17 were simply dupes who were framed by a government agent. Remember when Eric wrote that?
Let me ask you: You claim repeatedly that Eric is really well grounded, connected, accurate. I’m sure that traveling between Paris and Miami he meets up with some old contacts. Sure. Think he’s been to the Helmand province lately? Others have. Their impressions might differ from his. Are they not credible? Why is Eric so credible? Clearly he has an agenda. You can feel the bias as you read the words. So why is he credible? Because you agree with him? Hey, Eric writes some stuff I agree with, but so does Bill O’Riley (that’s a guess, I wouldn’t honestly know but I suspect I must agree with him on something) but at the end of the day I don’t necessarily think either is a beacon of honest journalism.
Rampart: Man, are you that incapable of writing a single post? For every post I make, you drop 4 lame ones trying to counter. Is your ADD so consuming that you can’t even concentrate your tiny mind long enough to write a single post?
Re: That’s “US media” son.”
OK. Why don’t you take your illiterate ass to BBC or CBC or anywhere else and see what you can find in this regard. See how it correlates with the evil, American MSM? Doy. You know that BBC article you linked? Well, you must find the BBC credible, so why don’t you surf your sorry ass on over to their website and see if the casualties don’t correlate with those of the “US media”?
Re: “To you, eveything is going the US way… America is loved by all and will win because of this love. If it weren’t for a few trouble-makers… And the Afghans are on the US side… we give them chocolate… FOX news sez so.
That is what you are basically peddling, yes?”
Um, no, and I never said as much you idiot. That’s why you need to go back to school.
I believe we should be there. You believe it is a “shithole”. I believe we can and should help, and that help begins with reconstruction, which can only occur with security. You call it “Afdirtistan”. I think the world can be a better place. You think I’m a shill. That pretty much sums it up. You deserve your lot in life, and I repeat, there is a pretty good reason you to not yet had “a single bitch” (your words) in your bed, my little 40 year old Virgin.
I’m off to a buddy’s cottage now – going to listen to some Country music, fly my American flag, watch some FOX news, read my bible. You know…the redneck getaway. In reality, I’ve got a case of Heineken on ice, all 6 TOOL CD’s in the CD changer in the car, a quarter of hydro in the glove compartment and I’m leaving the girlfriend at home. Time to rock.
Have a great remainder of the week and an even better weekend!
Posted by Bino at July 5, 2006 11:18 AM
Rampart:
Thanks for that rather important tidbit. I honestly hadn’t thought of that aspect, and it makes perfect sense in terms of there being many many reasons why individual gun battles can erupt between NATO forces and locals in the border region. …On one side, a sort of “law and order” agenda VS a local “legitimate business” - meaning I’m sure some local people who do this see it as a perfectly legitimate way to make money (whether it’s so-called warlords, or just businessmen) and don’t see the reason for foreign intervention (either NATO or Kabul). I wonder what proportion of “Taliban fighters” are just what we would call “organised crime” here?
—I’m sure the Cdn troops are very aware of this situation, but that is a very informative piece of info for me.
truly, thanks.
Posted by JonnyBoy0416 at July 5, 2006 11:31 AM
Remember Najibullah ! The same sorrrrrry fate awaits the Mayor of Kabul.
The Soviets learned the lesson of slow bleed and the festering wound, as did many others before them.
The Umrikaans have no notion of history and you know what they say about those who don’t learn from history learn the hard way.
Stop living a lie and perpetuating the establishment line, the personalities at this forum are not only well versed in history but also very adept with the current reality.
My advice to those who fit this mold is to stop shooting from the hip, lest you learn the lesson of slow bleed. This ain’t no western pardner
Posted by oldfan at July 5, 2006 11:53 AM
Bino, Fair and Balanced:
This is the second time you mentioned my joke about Col.Denard and his wives.
I said, how come he can marry 7 wives (Muslims can only have 4 at a time) when I can’t have a single bitch of my own… to marry you bloody fool.
No marrying kind bitch. Many many disposable fuckable kind. Understand my comment now, you of the juvenile brain?
You think people can’t have sex without marriage? LOL. You a virgin, Bino? Mr.Adult?
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 12:54 PM
JonnyBoy:
Nobody can seem to tell who is what. Smuggler or Taliban. But, as you pointed out, Afghanistan has been boiling for over a hundred years…. well, that would because of smuggling. And raiding. So I would say, that most of the guys doing the shooting are smugglers and not Taliban.
Afghans traditionally used to make a good living by coming into India (now Pakistan) and looting all the gold from the temples. Looting (and now smuggling) is in their blood. And it is in mine, I’m not ashamed to admit.
Anyway, once I went to a Pakistani border town. They have something called “Barra markets” in such one-horse places. I found stuff there (damn cheap too!) that I never saw anywhere in Karachi.
Sex toys for example, displayed openly. And prophylactic chewing gum (yup… I’m not joking). And people think Pathans are a conservative lot. But they will and do sell anything.
New notebook computer. Pentium 4, it was. $50. Probably stolen….
I saw a whole grand-piano. I asked the pathan guy there, how much. He said… would you believe it… he said “I don’t know…. OK, 4000 rupees.” Bloody hell!
These smuggler guys are a God-send when you want to pick up something very very cheap.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 01:11 PM
I bet Bino is thinking he should’ve taken a longer potty break… a fair and balanced potty break.
Sez he never said anything like that… and then sez exactly that again. LOL. Believes the US should be in Afghanistan “to help”. Thats the party line buddy. And it goes with the hearts and minds nonsense… like giving chocolate to kids and radios to village elders.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 01:26 PM
Group hug, group hug. “World can be a better place” (Bino’s fair and balanced words).
Didn’t I say you meant that exactly? Idiot. Did you go to school or not?
There is only cluster-fucking going on, not group-hugging.
The US went to Afghanistan to kill and destroy.
You are either a liar, brain dead, or a shill, if you suggest otherwise.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 01:43 PM
Maybe I’m naive but I have no problem with FOX NEWS. Any network which regularly brings in commentators like David Gergen or James Warren is a legitimate news service in my eyes. I like checking out the Fox All Stars at 6:30 every night. They are a better alternative than CNN’s Lou Dobbs and his narrowminded and biased reporting on his pet peeves. I’m certainly do not agree with many of the All Stars assessments, still they are entitled to their opinions. Fred Barnes is a bit of a caricature of the Ugly(ignorant?) American yet his views do best reflect the thinking of mainstream America so it’s always interesting to hear how wrong he is.
Yes FOX does come up with perspectives only Americans can come up with but so do all the other US media outlets. The most crucial world issue plagued by misinformation is the Palestinian question. The entire US media is shockingly biased in favour of Israel. One cannot single out FOX NEWS as they’re just a small piece of that problem. How do you unbrainwash 300 million people who they’ve been programming since 1948?
Posted by Paul Whiteside at July 5, 2006 02:59 PM
Bino - shh - seriously - gettin’ annoying
Posted by Tovy at July 5, 2006 03:21 PM
I might seem like I’m singling out FOX, but I’m not. I think all American media STINKS.
I just mention FOX all the time, because they are typical.
And yes, I watch CNN, FOX, etc. too. But then one can take pill regular way, or like a suppository.
Posted by Rampart at July 5, 2006 03:27 PM
Surely, the learned people at this site are aware that FOX News went to court against Jane Akre and Steve Wilson in order to defend Fox’s right to FALSIFY THE NEWS.
Go to Google, type in “Jane Akre Fox News lies” and see for yourself.
Of course, true believers of FOX News will simply point out, “FOX didn’t do anything wrong because there’s no law against falsifying the news!” and then expect that such a statement settles the matter of FOX’s credibility.
And what story were they being forced to cover up? Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone rBGH added to most of the milk in America, a hormone outlawed by every country but the U.S. (You folks have seen “The Corporation” haven’t you?)
A former co-worker, a pea-brained Far-Right winger, often told me that “All news in America is so left-wing that it’s practically communist. The only news you can trust is FOX News.”
Posted by D. Canuck at July 5, 2006 04:23 PM
That Far-Right wing co-worker has since quit his job in Left Wing Vancouver and moved to Texas. Good move, for him and us.
Funny story; he worked here in Vancouver but lived just across the border in Washington state. He bought a new truck and his beer buddies thought it would be fun to rig a steel tube with a couple of ball bearings inside to rattle as he drove. The steel tube had a couple of wires sticking out of it and was wired under the passenger seat.
The border was shut down for three hours when the authorities found it. It was hilarious listening to him complain about being ‘treated like a terrorist’.
Posted by D. Canuck at July 5, 2006 04:37 PM
I agree with Eric that this Afghan War is only beginning. I do believe that the Taliban mainly dispersed after the American intervention in October of 2001. They were never really in control of the urban centers. That’s why the US could easily claim that the country had been liberated when it rolled into Kabul.
However, we must remember that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not the same, however much the administration would like to have that idea take hold. I had thought the main goal was to find bin Laden and al-Zawahari. And indeed, they had found them in Tora Bora in late 2001. Bush and Cheney refused to send in the US forces in sufficient numbers at the time as requested by the CIA and now we have what we have.
Yes, the Taliban and other Afghans/Pashtuns are probably dying in much larger numbers than the NATO forces. But relying on numbers killed to prove who is “winning” is a deception. I would guess that the Pashtuns have the will to continue the fight for as long as necessary regardless of casualties.
The argument over which media source to believe often becomes a rhetorical deadend. I have trouble stomaching most of what FOXNEWS puts out, but that doesn’t mean they are always without merit. I am feeling more and more the same about CNN these days, with their slant towards more sensationalism in their coverage.
Therefore, I try to get information from many divergent sources daily, since no one source can possibly cover all the angles. As fully-engaged citizens, wherever we live, we must inform ourselves by reading from multiple sources (newspapers, magazines, books, primary source materials, etc), watching relevant television productions be it CNN, MSNBC, FOX, C-SPAN, etc.
My bottom line is that the more facts and ideas we come across the better we will be able to make up our own minds about how we think about issues that one way or another will come around to affect all of us. To become a mere partisan parrot does us all a disservice.
Posted by Loyd at July 7, 2006 03:22 PM
The US will lose. There is no doubt, but the legacey of their destruction willremain with us especially uranium munitions
Look at the photos I took in Kabul in March 2006:
Death made in America
http://www.rense.com/general70/deathmde.htm
And yes Rampart—Pashtuns are not children of Alexander the Greek, In fact, Pashtuns kicked his ass and he was defeated. You need to remember Pashtuns never mix with invaders, sure some of the Alexanders soldiers stayed behind, but they are situated and married locals of what is known today in Chitral as Kafiristan. As to Mongols, they were the most hated people and NEVER Pashtuns/Pathans mix with them. In fact, the off springs of mongols are the Hazaras, I do not know of even one Pashtun that has mixed with Hazaras. So have your facts straight. We Pashtuns are the Indo-European race with no connections with Alexander the Greek or The stinking Mongols
Sincerely,
Miraki
Posted by Daud Miraki at July 9, 2006 02:17 PM
Daud Miraki:
You are doing amazing things over there, and I would love to donate to your cause. However, with respect to Afghan birth defects, I think that their rate and incidence may have more to do with internal and cultural factors as they do external contaminants released by US military operations.
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=254959&apc_state=heniarr2005
The article states that the marriage of first cousins, physical and psychological abuse of women, malnutrition, drug abuse, and many years of war have a profound impact on the incidence of severe birth defects. The decades of war in particular is a sort of ongoing collective trauma inflicted on the people of the region.
The implication of these broader factors makes sense, considering that the use of DU munitions in Afghanistan by US troops has not been widespread; DU munitions are largely tank/armor busters, something which Taliban militia had no access to. Further, the US troop presence in Afghanistan is not large enough to cause a kind of rise in birth defects that you allege. Iraq is a different story; lots of DU munitions were used in the first gulf war, and they continue to use them to dispose of obsolete Iraqi armor in the ongoing occupation.
Your website speaks to atrocities committed by American soldiers on the population. This is hardly suprising, and definitely unforgivable. It’s unfortunate, because I know a lot of servicemen who go over there wanting to do good, and return disillusioned and cynical about their ability to win ‘hearts and minds.’
However, your supposition that US casualties are actually higher than what is reported, and that the extra American dead are being stored in secret freezers to keep the media and the public from knowing what’s really going sounds like an extravagant conspiracy theory to me. I rather imagine that some eyewitnesses want to give the resistance fighters more credit than they are due; regardless of the rightness of their cause, I seriously doubt they’ve been killing Americans at the rate your witnesses claim.
Posted by chatman at July 10, 2006 02:11 AM
Rampart,
full of crap as always.
If the Afghan population hates NATO forces then explain to me why total coalition losses to date from Taliban attacks number about 200. Soviet loses by 1985 were well over 5,000.
Explain to me why over 3 million refugees (who fled the Soviets, mujahedin and Taliban) have returned home.
Posted by Canuckistani at July 10, 2006 08:08 PM