Grey wrote on Sep 3^rd, 2012 at 10:08pm:


Not every rebellion - every conflict where you have the local population on side.

In WWII, the Amerikans had chewing gum and nylon stockings. In Vietnam, the Viet Cong had rice and doctors.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have one thing: the majority of them are Afghans.

For the Afghans, this is a question of nationalism. You'll never pin them down for long. They'll die defending themselves.

However, many Taliban cells are Pakistani. Afghanistan and Pakistan have been hostile to each other since the British were around. They are not united - far from it - but groups like Al Qaida and other militant Islamicists have staged a crusade out of regional rivalries and disputes.

This is how the Soviets were defeated. The battle for Afghanistan in the 1980s - along with Kashmir - was the genesis of militant Islam.

The West has not defeated these groups. Instead, locals have turned away from them. Al Qaida made themselves hated in Iraq. The Taliban aren't too popular either, but because they're locals they get support.

The Taliban don't give out gum and stockings. They provide security. In a country torn apart by invaders, warlords and tribal rivalries, the Taliban provide a form of order. It's a brutal form of justice, but many Afghanis prefer the devil they know.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Sep 4^th, 2012 at 11:12am:


This is what you said;

Quote:


What? WWII was just Hitler vs the Jews? Everyone came in to help the Jews? Is that seriously how black and white WWII is?

Should the countries that Hitler was invading stayed out of it as well? Should the agreements that other nations had to support each other (the agreements that dragged them into the war) have been broken as well? Do you have any idea what happened in WWII at all?

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Sep 4^th, 2012 at 4:21pm:


If you didn't keep saying stupid things showing your ignorance (for example, claiming that Herod is just a fiction), and if you worked on your writing and reading skills, maybe people would be able to detect your tongue in cheek moments.

As for bullying, perhaps if you and your band of bastards didn't keep going from thread to thread turning every topic into a bash the Jew feast, then maybe people like myself may stay clear as well. Instead, you want to gang up on someone for idiotic reasons, but you don't want anyone else getting involved unless they are joining in on the beat up.

I doubt anyone is taking your hateful and factually incorrect comments as tongue in cheek. Most people (except for those you have brought over from your own forum to defend and agree with you) think you're a damn fool.

At this time, I am, like many I know, very upset and even gutted by the recent events in The Ghan - and I do not feel like going near the RSL this week.

I do not feel that our current exit plan means anything in the long run - and the country will rapidly - almost overnight really - revert to is former level of near-anarchy or oppressive government, with all the same old killings and things going on and on.

All this plan will do is cost more Australian and American lives - and we are holding on from pride and the perceived need to support and reinforce our treaty(ies) with the United States - our one guarantee of survival in an increasingly tough world out there.

While there is political virtue in doing that - I am deeply upset by the deaths of young troopers.

Karnal wrote on Sep 4^th, 2012 at 10:11am:



Nobody wants to be ruled by religious zealots who behead people for dancing. Afghans are firstly people like all others. There is no 'Afghan nationalism', it's the Pashtun/talibs V the rest.

What's going to happen after the pull out is the re-emergence of the Northern Alliance with massive Russian support. Then it depends on whether there's a US president mad enough to bleed Americans dry to support the 'military-industrial complex' or whether there's a liberal who wont want a bar of Afghanistan.

In the latter case the Russians will back the NA with the Russian army and probably wont stop killing Talibs until they reach India. Great game over, USSR dead Long live the Putin Empire.

Quote:


Is it? Why's that then? Surely a place that's growing poppy fields all over can't be all that harsh? Mountains? Well there's Switzerland and Tibet and Antartica. Desert? Quite a bit in your neck of the woods.

All this talk of the 'most hostile terain on the planet' is just bullshyte written by people who've never been there. All Afghanistan's problems have arrived from outside, nothing to do with the land itself which is potentially one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

In fact for four decades under the last King (Mohammed Zahir Shah) Afghanistan was doing rather nicely as it made the transitision into a modern state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Zahir_Shah

Grey wrote on Sep 4^th, 2012 at 8:31pm:


Grey, the Northern Alliance formed to defeat the USSR. They were funded by the CIA. Has Putin got anything to do with the former satelites? You'd think he learned something from Chechnya.

Still, anything's possible. I'm backing Pakistan, but you probably knew that much.

I have no idea how bad the Taliban were, but many Afghanis want them back. Go figure.

Afghanistan is not the West. And it is has some of the most brutal terrain in the world. The Khyber Pass is not rhyming slang for a rather dark part of the human anatomy for nothing. Many parts of Afghanistan are unreachable during Winter.

Hence the success of the Northern Alliance. The US supplied them by air.

The Taliban were stuck with mules. Alas, this is the future of Aghanistan after 2014.

ADDS to previous post on this issue:-  As Spot of Borg said - the gangsters will be back in force within weeks etc..

I'm not a raging leftie by any means - I have past affiliations with the ex-pat Vietnamese community here - and the family of a former high-ranking officer in Saigon.  His family business provided the 'white mice' military police for the Saigon district, the river pilots and so forth - and were actually the river pirates of the area (and had some serious issues with those near the river mouth).

After the Communist takeover - it was business as usual - but with a different head since he and family were forced to flee.  The pirates were still around, through Yanks or Communists or whatever...business as usual..

That - my children - is the reality of 'politics' in many such countries.

(Kisses off tips of fingers....Ah ...Afghanistan!).....