LAID TO WASTE Taliban seizes a THIRD of Afghanistan in blitz offensive after US wastes nearly $1TRILLION in ‘pointless’ 20-year war

The Daily Sun (US) ^ | Olivia Burke

[Fungi]

My prayers for all those that spilled blood for a worthless cause. Fight a war to win not to spend interminably on an endless war. Have we learned nothing from the Brits, the Russians, and the Afghani's? They are forever devoted to a seventh century murderer, rapist, thief and pedophile that is called a “prophet.” Leave Islam alone, you cannot change it or defeat it, just make sure to prevent the Saracens from entering our shores---too late.

[laconic]

I would hope that Bush and Cheney at least take a few moments to ponder the destruction that they caused in Afghanistan and Iraq, the thousands of fine men and women they sent to their deaths, the tens of thousands whose lives they ruined through severe mental and physical wounds and suicides. An idiot who knew a lick of history would have known that this is the world’s cesspit, a place where empires founder whether it is Alexander, the Brits or the Russians. But we had some mushmouth idiots in the White House, Bush and Cheney, babbling about how the locals “thirsted for our democracy”, who avoided combat during Vietnam yet would throw our best into this dump for 20 years based on the advice of neo-Marxist neocons. The democrats can have the Bushes, Cheneys and neocons of this world - they did an enormous amount of damage for next to nothing to our best young men and women with the goal of modernizing a medieval, hateful pit of the earth.

[dljordan]

And our government think they’re going to confiscate weapons and make serfs out of everyone. Although looking at some of the current crop of young men I saw tonight it won’t take much.

[grcuster]

I agree, you never create a bond of friendship like you do in the military. Now retired now longer than I was in, I still run across fellow military members I was stationed/deployed with and we can pick up a conversation as if it was yesterday.

[Rebelbase]

It is a story that has been told before.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***THE Taliban have seized control of a THIRD of Afghanistan***

And the did not use nukes or F-16s as Biden says.

[JohnBovenmyer]

We failed on the one place we could and should have scored as profit there. Polio eradication. World would be free or that scourge if not for polio vax fundamentalists. Mainly afghans, some Pakistanis and periodically some in .Nigeria. Rest of the world, even India, got the job done. Once it became clear what the problem would be there should have been a religious solution. Tell our Saudi ‘friends’ to open a polio vax factory in Mecca, using its ‘holy well water’. Have their top cleric issue a Fatwa declaring Jihad against an infidel virus which now only is affecting their faithful. Draft young male Saudis to man the campaign there.

[Kevmo]

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Here’s what I wrote on the subject of Iran, Iraq & Afghanistan a while back.

To: NormsRevenge
We SHOULD withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran.

Here’s how I think we should “pull out of Iraq.” Add one more front to the scenario below, which would be a classic amphibious beach landing from the south in Iran, and it becomes a “strategic withdrawal” from Iraq. And I think the guy who would pull it off is Duncan Hunter.

How to Stand Up to Iran

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1...osts?page=36#36
Posted by Kevmo to TomasUSMC
On News/Activism 03/28/2007 7:11:08 PM PDT • 36 of 36

Split Iraq up and get out
***The bold military move would be to mobilize FROM Iraq into Iran through Kurdistan and then sweep downward, meeting up with the forces that we pull FROM Afghanistan in a 2-pronged offensive. We would be destroying nuke facilities and building concrete fences along geo-political lines, separating warring tribes physically. At the end, we take our boys into Kurdistan, set up a couple of big military bases and stay awhile. We could invite the French, Swiss, Italians, Mozambiqans, Argentinians, Koreans, whoever is willing to be the police forces for the regions that we move through, and if the area gets too hot for these peacekeeper weenies we send in military units. Basically, it would be learning the lesson of Iraq and applying it.

15 rules for understanding the Middle East
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1774248/posts

Rule 8: Civil wars in the Arab world are rarely about ideas — like liberalism vs. communism. They are about which tribe gets to rule. So, yes, Iraq is having a civil war as we once did. But there is no Abe Lincoln in this war. It’s the South vs. the South.

Rule 10: Mideast civil wars end in one of three ways: a) like the U.S. civil war, with one side vanquishing the other; like the Cyprus civil war, with a hard partition and a wall dividing the parties; or c) like the Lebanon civil war, with a soft partition under an iron fist (Syria) that keeps everyone in line. Saddam used to be the iron fist in Iraq. Now it is us. If we don’t want to play that role, Iraq’s civil war will end with A or B.

Let’s say my scenario above is what happens. Would that military mobilization qualify as a “withdrawal” from Iraq as well as Afghanistan? Then, when we’re all done and we set up bases in Kurdistan, it wouldn’t really be Iraq, would it? It would be Kurdistan.

.
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I have posted in the past that I think the key to the strategy in the middle east is to start with an independent Kurdistan. If we engaged Iran in such a manner we might earn back the support of these windvane politicians and wussie voters who don’t mind seeing a quick & victorious fight but hate seeing endless police action battles that don’t secure a country.

I thought it would be cool for us to set up security for the Kurds on their southern border with Iraq, rewarding them for their bravery in defying Saddam Hussein. We put in some military bases there for, say, 20 years as part of the occupation of Iraq in their transition to democracy. We guarantee the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan as long as they don’t engage with Turkey. But that doesn’t say anything about engaging with Iranian Kurdistan. Within those 20 years the Kurds could have a secure and independent nation with expanding borders into Iran. After we close down the US bases, Kurdistan is on her own. But at least Kurdistan would be an independent nation with about half its territory carved out of Persia. If Turkey doesn’t relinquish her claim on Turkish Kurdistan after that, it isn’t our problem, it’s 2 of our allies fighting each other, one for independence and the other for regional primacy. I support democratic independence over a bullying arrogant minority.

The kurds are the closest thing we have to friends in that area. They fought against Saddam (got nerve-gassed), they’re fighting against Iran, they squabble with our so-called ally Turkey (who didn’t allow Americans to operate in the north of Iraq this time around).

It’s time for them to have their own country. They deserve it. They carve Kurdistan out of northern Iraq, northern Iran, and try to achieve some kind of autonomy in eastern Turkey. If Turkey gets angry, we let them know that there are consequences to turning your back on your “friend” when they need you. If the Turks want trouble, they can invade the Iraqi or Persian state of Kurdistan and kill americans to make their point. It wouldn’t be a wise move for them, they’d get their backsides handed to them and have eastern Turkey carved out of their country as a result.

If such an act of betrayal to an ally means they get a thorn in their side, I would be happy with it. It’s time for people who call themselves our allies to put up or shut up. The Kurds have been putting up and deserve to be rewarded with an autonomous and sovereign Kurdistan, borne out of the blood of their own patriots.

Should Turkey decide to make trouble with their Kurdish population, we would stay out of it, other than to guarantee sovereignty in the formerly Iranian and Iraqi portions of Kurdistan. When one of our allies wants to fight another of our allies, it’s a messy situation. If Turkey goes “into the war on Iran’s side” then they ain’t really our allies and that’s the end of that.

I agree that it’s hard on troops and their families. We won the war 4 years ago. This aftermath is the nation builders and peacekeeper weenies realizing that they need to understand things like the “15 rules for understanding the Middle East”

This was the strategic error that GWB committed. It was another brilliant military campaign but the followup should have been 4X as big. All those countries that don’t agree with sending troups to fight a war should have been willing to send in policemen and nurses to set up infrastructure and repair the country.

What do you think we should do with Iraq?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1752311/posts

Posted by Kevmo to Blue Scourge
On News/Activism 12/12/2006 9:17:33 AM PST • 23 of 105

My original contention was that we should have approached the reluctant “allies” like the French to send in Police forces for the occupation after battle, since they were so unwilling to engage in the fighting. It was easy to see that we’d need as many folks in police and nurse’s uniforms as we would in US Army unitorms in order to establish a democracy in the middle east. But, since we didn’t follow that line of approach, we now have a civil war on our hands. If we were to set our sights again on the police/nurse approach, we might still be able to pull this one off. I think we won the war in Iraq; we just haven’t won the peace.

I also think we should simply divide the country. The Kurds deserve their own country, they’ve proven to be good allies. We could work with them to carve out a section of Iraq, set their sights on carving some territory out of Iran, and then when they’re done with that, we can help “negotiate” with our other “allies”, the Turks, to secure Kurdish autonomy in what presently eastern Turkey.

That leaves the Sunnis and Shiites to divide up what’s left. We would occupy the areas between the two warring factions. Also, the UN/US should occupy the oil-producing regions and parcel out the revenue according to whatever plan they come up with. That gives all the sides something to argue about rather than shooting at us.

38 posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 3:55:19 PM by Kevmo (We need to get away from the Kennedy Wing of the Republican Party ~Duncan Hunter)

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[dpetty121263]

I would never advise a young Man or Woman to join the Military now, not in this day and time...Just be used up in useless wars..

[rfreedom4u]

We should have deployed a fleet of tractors and tons of salt for the poppy fields.

[cuban leaf]

And before us it was the USSR.

[rbg81]

The same can be said about Afghanistan: Afghanistan wins again. The graveyard of empires. Sooner or later, Afghanistan always wins.

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I guess it depends what you mean by “winning”. I am not sure you can call being dragged down to living under Medieval Islam a victory. If the Taliban takes over again, there will be a lot of unhappy people. However, at the end of the day, they did not want to fight to maintain their way of life. Sucks to be them.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Eradication of Islam would serve mankind better.

[nickcarraway]

Trump Would still be president if he had entered this war. I guess he didn’t want to be re elected.

[hanamizu]

I guess it depends what you mean by “winning”.

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I mean that Afghanistan is going to be Afghanistan. The Taliban is just the current manifestation. If it weren’t them, it would be some other group. Their national sport involves a weighted goat carcass that two teams of rider try to get across a goal line.

I have known some fine Afghans, but the bulk of the population is determined to live life as they have for the last 1000 years and they really don’t like being told what to do by outsiders.

[Sgt_Schultze]

These repeated pointless wars seem to be nothing more than proving grounds for weapons systems being offered for sale to other sovereign nations. “Battle tested”

[Uncle Miltie]

Afghanistan will fall so fast it’ll make your head spin.

I predict a hundred thousand murdered on suspicion of collaboration.

Total Biden Blood Bath.

[The Duke]

America’s problem has never been a lack of firepower, but rather a lack of political will. If the American people aren’t 95+% “all in”, then it just shouldn’t happen. And when it does happen, it should unleash Hell on Earth.

[blueplum]

We spent 1T teaching Afganis how to exterminate the taliban. If they haven’t learned by now, or they don’t want to put forth the effort, then so be it. Not our problem any more.

[RinaseaofDs]

I would have booby trapped everything on leaving.