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2009-10-14 Afghanistan

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Posted by tipper 2009-10-14 10:52|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 From the article: Taming this land and its human inhabitants into a civilized country will require great investments in time, resources, imagination and intelligence. Bringing Afghanistan out of the Stone Age is not a decade-long project; we are already seven years into the war, and its only getting worse. Some people say it will take two generations, but more realistically, a century will be needed. My personal estimate is 60 years will be needed. In either case, the US electorate will not accept it. (As a side note, AFAIK in the USA there are still no college-level courses available in Dari or Pashto).

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-10-14 12:33|| 2009-10-14 12:33|| Front Page Top

#2 From a comment posted to Yon's article"I believe the phrase for the kind of long-term tutelage you envision is 'colonization'.

And that's simply a non-starter. I don't see either US party being willing to sink decades worth of blood and treasure into Afghanistan for a benefit which is not easily measurable on a balance sheet."
Then there's Pakistan, which is looking more and more like Afghanistan with nukes.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-10-14 12:40|| 2009-10-14 12:40|| Front Page Top

#3 (As a side note, AFAIK in the USA there are still no college-level courses available in Dari or Pashto).

I think Rosetta Stone carries those. Check their website.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-10-14 13:57|| 2009-10-14 13:57|| Front Page Top

#4 Yon is correct, IMO. This is a fools errand. Better to come to that conclusion quickly, leave, but do so with the explicit statement by Barry saying that should any American or Allied target be hit, ever, where the guilty party can be tracked back to either Afghanistan or the tribal belt of Pakistan, then a whole lot of US heavy bombers are going to be making multiple visits to that region.

Posted by remoteman 2009-10-14 18:41|| 2009-10-14 18:41|| Front Page Top

#5 remoteman, that young Afghan gentleman from Denver that just was bound over for trial was trained and managed by Al Qaeda allies in Peshawar, if I recall correctly. Why should we wait until the next one succeeds, when we are already there with the anvil of troops in Afghanistan, the hammer of US-controlled Predators in Pakistan... and the Pakistan army noisily attacking some of the jihadi groups from the Islamabad side?

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-10-14 23:22|| 2009-10-14 23:22|| Front Page Top

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