Oh, and Afghanistan is still a mess too
The current warfare in the Middle East has pushed Iraq out of the news cycle. And, of course, even before these latest hostilities, Iraq had already pushed Afghanistan out.
Well, it’s still there and it’s getting to be more and more of a mess.
(AP) U.S. Soldier Killed in Afghan Firefight
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb exploded in the Afghan capital Tuesday, killing two Afghans riding in a taxi, as fighting in eastern provinces left a U.S. soldier and seven suspected Taliban dead, officials said.
Also, the Afghan government appealed for $76.4 million to tackle an “imminent food crisis” caused by prolonged drought, particularly in the north and northwest.
Read on; it’s depressing.
Iraq was never in the stars — at least that’s my take. In other words, even if Bush & Co. hadn’t royally screwed the occupation up, the end result would probably eventually have been the same.
They screwed the pooch on that one the day they started the war.
But there are legitimate reasons to believe that Afghanistan might have been different. Every indication in the early days was that the people, weary of years of war and extreme poverty, were ready to embrace a new way. If we’d kept our eye on the ball, instead of running off to the next excellent neocon adventure, and finished off the fighting capacity of the Taliban and their terrorist allies, real progress might have been possible.
It was a golden opportunity: But Bush, who seems to have a shorter attention span of a five-year-old boy, pissed it away.
And we will be paying the price for that blunder for many years to come.
July 25th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Yes, what if we had crushed the Taliban and caught Bin Laden? Then, after the war that the rest of the world was behind, what if we had rebuilt (with the help of old Europe) Afghanistan and encouraged some form of self-government that would have more equally distributed power and resourses?
We were a different country then, 9/11 didn’t change everything, Bush and his handlers did. They dropped the ball, they put their old, dusty, nutty plan of world (oil) domination into action. Then they proceeded to fight among themselves over who should have control of that oil. People died while they haggled, and many more will die before they ever get enough money.
It’s never about doing the right thing , for them it’s just all about them.
July 26th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Exactly, alwayshope. It is a me,myself, and I group think. Their incredible selfishness and hypocrisy boggles the mind. I have come to believe it is about personal gain for them, not even a political philosophy. Bush wants to make his family richer and more powerful. Cheney, who still gets income from Halliburton, wants the same, and on down the line. These people are addicts. They have no sense of limits and boundaries, and dont give a rat’s ass who they hurt to get what they want. They have no social conscience. If they do throw an occasional crumb from the table, it is for political reasons, and self-serving. There is no compassion behind it. I am counting the days until this bunch of sociopaths in expensive suits are banished to the backwaters of history.
Afghanistan will be right back to where it was before 9/11-a training ground and launch pad for terrorism.
July 26th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I just finished reading “Without Conscience” by Robert Hare, the psychologist who developed what is currently considered the best tool for diagnosing psychopathology. While a true diagnosis requires an lengthy interview by a professional trained in its use, I get the strong impression that many politicians, especially in this administration, would get a high score–indicating pathology. Google the term to see a summary of the test. The book is very scary.