~~~ Whoooaaa, there, Benji... That's quite a generalization. How many people in America are of Irish descent? Millions by now. I assure you that "many" do not think of the IRA as freedom fighters. Perhaps some, but not the majority. ~~~ Counterbalance
Indeed i am. No better or worse then the attitude of the american government considering all the taliban to be terrorists. If (i have seen no hard evidence) it was bin ladden who ordered the september 11th attacks then attacking the majority of a country for a minority group is a grave generalisation. And america is the IRA's biggest supporter in the amount of money the donate, infact i could say the blood of british innocents is over american hands.
If we all lived like america then we (the english) should be bombing Dublin and other southern irish targets as that is the homeland of terrorist's who continue to attack us.
Brad, Reagan wasn't able to do jack without the help of Our So called Terrorists "Afghanis" all we did from here was to supply money and arms thats it. Who died and lost every thing during all this????? "Afhgans" who gained from all that "WE did". Easy for us to forget the lives of 1.5 million afghans died during 80s and benfit us and then now they are our enemy number 1 And also if you like to change your all the WE's to YOU, I would appreciate that. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ta ta Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I commend your honesty. However... Nor is either of us ever likely to see what will legally be considered “hard evidence” when all is said and done. America was the country that was hit on September 11, 2001. However, America is not the only country involved in the present campaign being carried out in Afghanistan. I’m not about to claim that other ‘ulterior’ motives haven’t moved some of the world’s largest/powerful nations to become involved with the still tightening coalition against global terrorism, but that’s what’s going on here. A global campaign. We’re all (the world) fed up with living under the threat of exactly what took place on 9/11. It is perfectly understandable that those living in Great Britain would feel 'fed up' with the IRA, and those who've supported them. Still... The Taliban is not a group located in one place: one country, one region, one village. The Taliban is also known the world over for it's "extremist" views. In the Middle East, members of the Taliban openly declare these views. It's no secret. All other grievances against America and sundry aside, a terrorist group, who have (known) strong connections to the Taliban, declared war on America--and this is just one of a long list of terrorists acts for these folks--and no, America does not have a spotless history in this area. That's not the main point. The reality is that war was declared and retaliation will take place. Doesn’t matter whether we like it or not; whether we think it‘s being carried out exactly as it should be. It’s happening. And war is war. And when we began to carelessly lump it all together, blaming this group and that, (or questioning one another's patriotism because it doesn't meet our own standards) we generally get nowhere because we have limited power and limited knowledge about what, precisely, is going on over there, and can only control so much of what goes on over here--hell, even in our own lives. This current ordeal in Afghanistan is a big ol’ mess; just part of a big ol’ can of nasty festering worms, and... Who is to blame for the failings in this world??? We all are. We, and our ancestors. And how do we fix that? One way is by communication. Effective communication. Careful communication. Responsible communication. You can say it all you want. You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, and I have no doubt a number of people--the world over--would tend to agree. However... America is a country made up of EVERYTHING. We don’t have manyAmericans of Irish descent knowingly contributing to the IRA’s cause over here. Nor is every American screaming for Bin Laden’s blood. I think you’d find that many anger-filled eyes are turned in his direction--because that’s where the evidence seems to point...for now. But if you could poll the lot of us (we, who come from every nationality heritage-wise,) I expect you’d find that the majority primarily want justice for the horrendous deeds committed on September 11. They also want to live free of fear--just like those in Ireland and the rest of the U.K. I don’t think there’s any harm in bringing up history or in pointing out facts that are relevant. Remembering our history--including our world history--is critical in my view. I’ve yet to see the point, however, in making sweeping, and too often unfounded, generalizations against one group or another. Be they the Taliban or the nation of America. Mistakes have been made. What can we NOW do to solve the problem--besides wholesale condemnation? ~~~ Counterbalance
Why? Brad ... Why bother? After all, you missed it the first time around. Hint: We have the proof, so let's show it. As to the rest of your post, Brad, what did you hope to accomplish other than essentially admitting that you're not reading what anyone is writing on the subject? You seem to be spinning phantoms to argue with. For instance, this: Obviously, you've missed the few times I've asked the question, Is the best we have really the best we can do? Tell you what, Brad: if you learn to read, maybe then you won't look like such a f--king idiot. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think Brad is a member of the KKK, if not he soon will be. Oh and Mr OSB is going to go on film make a confession about how he ordered the terrorist attacks and then post it to america, must be under stress or something eh?
Everybody gather around and listen to Tiassa's GRAND strategy for handling the current crises..... give the evidence to the Taliban. Ok, Tiassa, what should America do after the Taliban rejects the evidence. (Given that the leader of the Taliban is Osamas son in law, there is no doubt that they would reject the evidence). What should America then do and why?
Well we never asked for any one's permission before why do we care what they say???? But atlease we should have supplied evidence to our public. Oh well it all was possible if we had any evidence. I am sure we had none and our goverment and military wanted to have a war so we did. I guess like father like son, fits right here. Oh by the way Brad nothing personal but do you think of any thing else in your mind besides hate muslims or arabs?????
In my opinion the real problem isnt whats going on in Afganistan its what we'r going to do once the fighting stops. Who do we give the rains of power to? Im supprised they havent said what they intend to do, are they going to hold elections in Afganistan? What if the population voted the taliban back into power? Are we going to enforce a long lasting peace in the region (at a cost of many hundreds possibly thousands of UN service mens lives) are we going to put the pipe line in and leave it for the people of afganistan to sort out? These questions should already have been answered, hell the NA is already in kabul and we'r still twiddelin our thumb about what we intend to do. There still wondering how the NA has moved so fast, well its pretty easy if you have total air supierority, if any taliban fighter trys to put up an opposition then the american's on the gound order air strikes and blow whoever's there to high hell. I was watching the BBC and John Simpson was on the front line 10 miles from Kabul and 1 taliban tank decided to fight, it got about 300 yards out of the city when american jets destroyed it, it dident even get 1 shell off, no wonder they are running.
They have done well to find a common cause in war. If that energy could be channeled into unifying their peoples under one flag, Afghanistan could be a nation. A federation of tribes, working for the common good, is what they need.
Take heart, Bowser. Many in Afghanistan want one leader; one..caring...leader. They're very tired right now. They've known nothing but war for years and years... and are just beginning to learn that the Taliban is being pushed out of power. They've lived in fear and ignorance and any adjustments required of them will be awkward--to say the least. For now it sounds like things are moving in a positive direction. Dislodging the Taliban from Kabul is a good start. Fingers crossed.
Here is an interview with the leader of the Taliban. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1657000/1657368.stm This is the person that Tiassa demanded we give our evidence to! PACIFISM=IDIOCY=SUICIDE
Ah, Brad .... You remind me of an American soldier I hung out with last week. It was kind of funny; he continually reminded me how he defended my freedom in Grenada, and kept screwing up which missions he was talking about. He talked about how he went to Panama and saved 300 doctors (sounds like Grenada, but whatever works). He's also a cocaine dealer. Freedom, freedom, freedom ... cocaine dealer. As I recall, one of the primary reasons we went after our good ol' enemy Noriega was the coke trade. I like the fact that this man went to defend my freedom against the rabid Panamanians only so that he could be a felon. The irony of a coke dealer who is proud to have "defended my freedom" helped take down a coke kingpin. In this sense, I'm wondering if there's much of a point in responding to you. You seem to have no sense of propriety to reinforce your rabid calls for genocide. My coke-dealing, freedom-loving host last weekend can only answer questions about his military service with the phrase, "Well, when I was in Grenada defending your freedom ...." Yeah, Grenada was about my freedom. WWII can be construed as being about freedom. Grenada? Panama? (I asked him about the irony of the Panama invasion, and his response had to do with defending my freedom in Grenada ... about typical for the military culture in this country.) Maybe in those communities, but it wasn't about mine. The inability of the military solution to present itself with integrity is part of the problem. Take you, for instance: we're defending American processes that would ignore in order to encourage a state of war, and in addition we have people calling for genocide. Such a state of idiocy is only brought about by warfare. I think you missed where this was touched on in the "Bin Laden on his way to Victory" thread. Really, Brad ... had we coughed up the proof to the Taliban and they rejected it, the international community would have turned the thumbscrews, so to speak, and by sometime around now the bombing would have started and the US would have gone forward with the credibility of having stood for its best due process. Too bad we blew that. Really, we could still blow things up. When the less violent channels had all failed, you wouldn't hear me objecting to the bombings. That's what you fail to understand: even pacifists know that it sometimes comes to blows. The point is to learn from those situations so that we can avoid them in the future. It seems we fought "the war to end all wars" last century. It seems we were wrong about its finality. But you've said that America is blameless, and seem to have no concerns about the manner of our foreign policy abroad. You've called for genocide, and declared that the very American processes we're defending should be trashed (due process & civil liberty). You've pretty much explained what's wrong with the warfare culture in general. I highly doubt any of this post will make sense to you, and never carry the illusion that it will affect your opinion at all. But I thought I'd ask you if you actually had a point other than characterizing that part of the American experience which so pisses off the world that some of them are willing to resort to violence. Well, do you? --Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
