Kuster, Swett Differ on Af-Pak

Where Have We Heard This Before? (0.00 / 0)

One candidate says she's for "giving the Karzai government a chance to succeed."

To some of us those very words are an awful reminder. Just replace the name Karzai with Ky or Thieu or Diem.

Didn't work then, not working now. Way too many people are losing lives and limbs. In both Vietnam and Afghanistan, there was/is no military solution which we can impose from afar.  

But when I hear the other candidate say: "We need to develop a more nimble approach and not get bogged down in large, long-term military endeavors," I am relieved. That is clearly more practical. It's a new, more realistic direction and it will better serve America.  

No'm Sayn?

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by: BurtCohen @ Fri Jun 25, 2010 at 11:39:25 AM CDT

Ho Chi Minh never did this. . . . (0.00 / 0)

A press report from yesterday:

Another suspected poisoning at Afghan girls' school

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - Twenty-one people at a girls' school in northern Afghanistan fell sick on Wednesday and authorities there suspect they were poisoned.

Fifteen students, five teachers and a principal of the Baghawi Awlia girls' primary school in Sar-e Pul province lost consciousness, according to Asif Nang, spokesman for the Education Ministry.

Authorities suspect the Taliban, which banned girls from going to school when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Since girls' schools began reopening after the Taliban were overthrown, facilities, female students and teachers have been the victims of attacks.

Qamaruddin Shekeb, provincial deputy governor, said it's the third time such an incident occurred in the province, and Nang said it's the seventh suspected poisoning incident in the country.

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.c...

How about their "lives and limbs," Burt?  Or those at the dozens of girls' schools that the Taliban has bombed, so as to prevent women from accessing even the most basic education?  

If the word "progressive" means anything, it means preventing the Taliban from threatening regional security and oppressing the most vulnerable Afghan citizens.

I have numerous issues with our government's approach to the war in Afghanistan.  But crying "Vietnam" in response to every military conflict -- regardless of how different the causes or the circumstances -- is not a strategy for protecting human rights.  It is an approach for ignoring them.

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Fri Jun 25, 2010 at 23:22:41 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Willfully Ignoring (0.00 / 0)

Corrupt, beyond inefficient, a sickening joke...that's the "government" we are losing lives and limbs for.

Surely you don't really think the current policy is working, DD, do you?
If we want to achieve success, for "the most vulnerable Afghan citizens", the current policy is a failure, creating new terrorists faster than we can kill them.

We are making much worse the worthy issue of protecting human rights. Time to change course.
Let's do something that might actually achieve the goals you and I share, DD.  

No'm Sayn?

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by: BurtCohen @ Sat Jun 26, 2010 at 19:07:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm Just Waiting (4.00 / 1)

for the "Karzai Government" to demonstrate that they control anything beyond their own offices.  For the Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake, haven't any of these people read any Nineteenth Century history?  Or even Rudyard Kipling?  There is no Afghan nation.  It's a collection of warlord-dominated tribes living in a region the REST of the world calls Afghanistan.

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."

A liberal listens to a conservative and says "You may have a couple of points there.  Let's try to compromise.

A leftist listens to a conservative and says "Your ideas are ridiculous.  Shut up and listen."

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by: Ref @ Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 09:58:16 AM CDT