Admission is the first step. [clip] Peter K.
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Unlike Rashid, I don't think the US had any intention of rebuilding Afghanistan. We bombed for a few weeks, then paid the war lords to get the Taliban out, installed a show government for Kabul, tried to get others to pay for reconstruction, and have pretty much left the people and events there take whatever course they will.
I think Rashid focused on the US carrot and forgot the stick part. Sad to say, it looks like the US didn't kill enough people in Afghanistan to feel the need for more carrots.
The main reason I posted Rashid's article was because it helps illustrate how far away Afghanistan is from the US public imagination and 9-11, the supposed reason for overthrowing the Taliban in the first place.
We are light years away now, off to Iraq and tossing out Saddam.
Whatever happened to the great hunt for ObL or Mullah Omar or the Anthrax maniac, or now the DC sniper. Who knows. Last week it was declare war on Iraq, trap the sniper, and move North Korea into next up to bat. Week after next who knows. Whatever happened to the Florida election debacle, the California energy fraud, the Enron, Anderson, Dynergy, WorldCom crashes? The stock market nose dive, or Israel and the Palestinians? What about tossing out Chavez? What ever happened to the great drug war? Who got shipped in and out of Guantanamo? Whatever happened to Homeland Security? Whatever happened to the `everything's different since...' line? Hell with virtual police state powers (remember the patriot act?) how come the DC cops and feds can't nail a sniper in their own backyard? All old news.
Who knows? Who cares? It all goes round and round. Bomb this, hunt that, scare somebody new, shoot a few people, blow up a few others, declare war on something new, say everything's different, then bomb some place else, blah, blah, blah...
Mullah Omar al Bushid has giant stock piles of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction. He is terrorizing his own people and the rest of the world. Al Bushid must go. Somebody please help us....
We think he is driving a white van with a ladder on top.
Chuck Grimes