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2008-12-26 Afghanistan

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Posted by Pappy 2008-12-26 11:39|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 Uh, um, dunno. As I regard the goal of "sustainable development" in most parts of A'stan chimerical ..... and completely reject the familiar 80%-fluffy bunnies + prosperity/20% killing bad guys formula relied upon here .... and still think that the challenge in A'stan is for us to identify and then secure the absolute minimum sort of security and political arrangements that prevent use of the territory as sanctuary or base by AQ ..... I'm extremely unexcited.

Also, there's no need for a group of outside experts to decide anything - geez, senior career people, and political appointees, are PAID FOR THAT. Base closure was outsourced to provide cover and smoke for cowards in Congress; the Iraq Study Group was an astonishingly stupid exercise by its very nature, and produced predictably worthless "results". Get a clue, get a backbone, and work things out between career gubmint folks and the geniuses just elected. But first, toss away 90% of the framework used here .....

Posted by Verlaine 2008-12-26 17:28|| 2008-12-26 17:28|| Front Page Top

#2 It confuses means and ends. It's not about Afghanistan. It's about denying Afghanistan to militant islam, as it was about denying Afghanistan to the Soviet Union.

Ironically, the only solution I can see to retaining a 'united' Afghanistan is a Saddam-style strongman. Otherwise partition into ethnic states is unavoidable.

Posted by phil_b 2008-12-26 18:30|| 2008-12-26 18:30|| Front Page Top

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