That’s quite a stretch to say there aren’t any post 2001 exhibits because of the sponsors. Is that a ‘suspicion’ or is it based on something. I think the soviets just left much more junk behind.
How could we expect any other outcome when our "ally" to the south Pakistan has been sheltering, training, and financing the Taliban since their inception. Heck even after 9/11 we looked the other way when the evidence was staring us in the face. I find it very interesting that this attack happens a few days after President Ghani visited Pakistan for the first time in 4 years. Pakistan's policy of "strategic depth" will never allow for a government in Kabul to function independently. We all know how this movie ends.
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There have also been reports that Iran has been arming the Taliban:
https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/report-claims-iran-arms-taliban/
Blowing up things while vowing to continue to talk peace? Smashing windows while demanding Beijing to treat you with respect? Exceeding treaty enrichment limits while steadfastly claiming to respecting the non-nuclear deal? Anyone see kind of a meaningless trend?
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We need to just get the heck out of there. We have been there far too long. Nothing we do will change the situation. The Afghan government is corrupt, its soldiers are unmotivated (half of them are drug addicts), equipment we provide is stolen and sold on the black market. We can be there another twenty years and the situation will be the same. We spend $45 billion a year there, down from $100 billion per year. The Taliban will take over just as the Viet Song and North Vietnamese did the minute we pull out. Let's just declare victory and leave.
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Expecting some breakthrough with the Taliban is a pipe dream. What seems best is begin flying Afghan citizens to the US, give them healthcare and voting rights, and apply sanctions on the Taliban.
@Alberto Abrizzi
And apply sanctions on trump!
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@Alberto Abrizzi
So depopulate the entire country and ensure that it's nothing but a wasteland?
Maybe you should have suggested that when Israel was created, and give the Jews both Dakotas as their country.
This is what happens when no one believes what the US says or commits to. The US has now zero credibility in that region, even in the eyes of rag-tag groups such as Taliban.
The Taliban is playing the games of "peace-talks" and "disengagement negotiations" with the US because it represents a huge PR success for them. With some justification, they are telling everyone that they have forced the mighty US military to come to them pleading for the chance of an orderly withdraw. The "negotiations" also buys them time to expand their territory and get a sense of present US priorities for, and long-term interests in, their country.
At the same time, they do not believe in any of the US promises. They know, depending on the US domestic politics, the Trump administration may - and, most probably, will - reverse its policies toward Afghanistan overnight. So, they keep attacking the US and Afghan forces as there is no peace negotiations and no end to this war. After all, after 19 years, Afghan warlords have finally figured out how to make big money out of this war.
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This can't be true. Bush 2 told us we won many years ago and billions in cash where given to their government powers to turn them into a liberal democracy.
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When Trump called for a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, he was attacked by:
• The NYT editorial board
• Virtually all Democratic politicians (Tulsi Gabbard was a notable exception.)
• Liberal talking heads in the media, and some conservative ones as well
• 90% of the commenters on the NYT comment board
They wailed and moaned that:
• Trump didn’t listen to his generals
• The women of Afghanistan would suffer
• It would dishonor the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers who had died or been injured there\
• It would (INSERT POORLY-REASONED) excuse
Why can’t everyone, even Trump critics, get behind a withdrawal?
Maybe 18 years isn’t long enough?
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@John
You think that US mistakes are all one big liberal versus conservative thing, John? Gee maybe you have succumbed to the Russian propaganda that has effectively divided the US people.
Try this: the US voters on both sides are so stupid that they cannot even point to Afghanistan on a world globe. We are dumb and we are getting dumber. We have let our emotions take the place of facts and logic, and we are lost. Sounds like from your post that you are in this category.
Our commanders in chief are elected by those dumb people and are so dumb that they cannot command. Where is the honor for our troops in that? McNamara admitted that he did not understand that Vietnam was a civil war not a Commie domino situation, and George HW Bush admitted that his son had been played by Cheney to get Halliburton huge no-bid contracts for the stupid US war in Iraq that indirectly created ISIS and also unleashed Iran. Stupid commanders in chief.
With this level of dumb, we in the US will turn into a 3rd world country with the rich living in castles surrounded by serfs living outside the walls, including you. Now go back to your video games, sports, and target practice. Nothing to see here. Move along!
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So far there’s been more news commentary about a shark attack than about the children who were killed in Afghanistan. I guess there’s nothing to use to make political points in the bombing.
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The U.S. started the war in Afghanistan in line with all other war crimes U.S. has committed since the end of ww2. Hard to leave? If Afghanistan wants the Taliban, its their business. The Taliban is doing what every resistance movement, against foreign occupation, in the history have done: they are attacking the Quislings.
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@Dan
You speak as if peasants "want" dictators. That is naive.
The US is in Afghanistan because of the World Trade Center bombing was hatched in that vacuum of a failed government after the Soviets withdrew. This is not rocket science, I am surprised you missed it. Sweden benefits hugely from NATO defense even if you are not formally aligned. Again, Dan, you are naive. Situations are complex, there is always good with the bad and bad with the good, even in your Sweden.
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Eighteen year afghan war. That's all I could stomach in this article.
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Why are we admitting Afghans of military age when Americans are risking their lives to help Afghans?
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@DSM14
How can you deny someone the right to live in any country they want? I know that right must exist, I just can’t recall where I read that,
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@DSM14
smart people that are not criminals and who want to work hard and pay taxes are of benefit to the US and raise our GDP. There are plenty of jobs for that type of worker. If you are dumb or lazy, it won't save you if you were born in the US, you will still get left behind. So, get up, dress up, show up, try hard, get along, and maybe America will be great for you too.
PS- US going to war is a lot about the HUGE profit margins US military contractors charge the US government for equipment and weapons. It is not about the "honor" for the soldiers. If it were about honor the profit margins of the US companies would not be so HUGE. It is just about the rich getting richer. So wise up, voters. Maybe you should object when the US Supreme Court lets the defense corporations give unlimited funds to political campaigns?
@Shamrock I hope you are being sarcastic.
Otherwise, I am not surprised you can't recall where you read that as it has never existed. Each country sets it own immigration laws. And there are no worldwide rights to anything, as people in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and every other autocratic regime can tell you.
1
What? This war is still going on? Dear Leader promised us we would be out of it. What ? Iraq is still fighting? The ISIS guys are still around? Libya is still a war zone? We are supplying weapons to kill in Yemen? We are supporting the Israel government to suppress and lock up Arabs? We support the Saudi Dictator because he buys lots of expensive weapons? We dared the Iranians to go back to develop nucs? The West bank is to be a real estate investment for wealthy folks?
Dear leader said we would be out of all of this mess. He would rescue us from the Dems policies.
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@RichardHead
And yet you still won't march on Washington DC for campaign finance reform? And you still accept the system that makes all the ultra-rich of Southern Marin county even richer, at the expense of the middle and working classes? You should be demonstrating against your neighbors in Mill Valley, Richard. They are complicit in this tax cut, buy the politicians thing, invest all excess cash in stock buybacks, US govt paying huge corporate welfare. Your neighbors are socially concerned, all the way to the bank. While they are upset about carbon and they still fly everywhere in airplanes. No, the Prius doesn't mitigate much.
By any universal standard, and by any religion, the acts of the Taliban deliberately setting off bombs that kill and maim children and civilians are truly evil.
3
If this was Kansas, or New York or Texas, it would be the lead story. Unfortunately, it is not, as this is the world we live in today. As long as the victims are (a) non-white and (b) anyplace other than the United States of America that's how it is. I refuse to "get used to" bombings such as this.
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@Easy Goer
No, it wouldn't. The headlines would have you believe that only Flint has lead-infested water, and they've solved that problem by now.
In fact, a Reuters analysis article (which never made it to any front page) shows that there are over 3000 communities (~28 million people) who live in communities where the lead content is more than double that of Flint. And they're mostly inhabited by white people.
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Heartbreaking for the Afghanis, especially the blameless children.
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Sounds like the Taliban want the USA to stay.
Let’s leave. We will never accomplish our goals,whatever they are.
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Still waiting for Trump to extricate us from these unwinnable foreign entanglements.
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Why should anyone negotiate with the Taliban when they are setting off bombs?
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Because we’ve been there for 18 years and have changed nothing. It will end like Vietnam: We’ll declare victory and pull out. Hopefully, they’ll give us a decent interval. Back when right wing Republicans were chanting “cut and run” as an insult to Democrats who questioned the wisdom of taking over a small third world country; a famous general said we could cut and run now, or next year, or in some future year, but we would cut and run eventually. Sadly, in 20 years or so, a new generation of philosophical descendants of Rummy and Chaney will be strutting around demanding we invade some other third-world sink hole because it will be “easy.”
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@RPW That's the awful thing about negotiating to end a war. Their logic would be, why would anyone negotiate with them if they weren't setting off bombs?
Another question here would be, why are the negotiations just between the Americans and the Taliban? What about the government of Afghanistan? This makes it look like the government is some kind of client or puppet of the Americans, which is what the Taliban would call it. Well, we'll see what comes of this.
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@RPW
Afghanistan is truly the worst country in the world. And I had nieces and nephews raised to root for them in the Olympics. Incredible. Their parents told them it’s a wonderful country that was ruined by George W Bush.
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