Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

I found this quote on a blog and wonder how true it really is.

Quote:

The war in Afghanistan is a mistake. Al-Qaeda is operating in Pakistan, and elsewhere. Afghanistan cannot be pacified (ask the Russians, the British, the Mogols, Alexander...). The central government is, as Lincoln would say, "highly metaphysical," as most of the country is governed by regional chieftains.

I mean technology has created a lot of strenghts since the days of Alexander. The Russians weren't just fighting the Afghans, they were fighting the rest of the world who didn't agree them.

Billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, Intel and training from Pakistan, Ex and Current Special Forces from the US, Britain, etc. They all helped conquer the Soviets. Thats not the same today/

Plus we aren't fighting Afghanistan, we are fighting the Pashtuns and a few others who are doing it for money or ideology. Many other ethnic groups are not that anti us, just wanting peace. Actually thats why the Taliban won the first time with Pakistani help. They provided strict rules and peace that gave people a breather from warlordism.

Afghanistan is winnable depending on how you classify a win, though when you consider that 911 occured in part because the Extremists and thier supporters believed the legend they created for themselves after the Russians left.

The question is what limits will they go too if Nato and the International community is seen to have been defeated by the extremists, (no matter how unlikely that really is the case).

[zipper]

I really think that peace and change has to come from within and not from without for it to be genuine change. Many afghans consider the US and the other NATO forces as nothing more than occupiers.

[Summer Wine]

Quote:

I really think that peace and change has to come from within and not from without for it to be genuine change.

That may be true, but they haven't really had that in the last 30 yrs or so. The Taliban came from Pakistan, maybe made up of some Afghan Pashtuns, but also helped by many who weren't.

Even in the last few years of the Taliban attacks against the Northern Alliance, many of them weren't Afghans.

Plus I remember watching on TV an interview of a Taliban driving a tank in the original attack on th Warlords and the officer was a pakistana officer who was on leave/ been seconded to the unit.

Therefore, how afghan really are they? My friends supported the taliban at first because they brought peace to the region, but later they proved themselves unwelcome for many and only held position by the strenght of the gun and that they brought 'peace to the region'.

[zipper]

What sent fear into my mind about the Taliban was the public executions they held for violations of actions that we might consider minor in the West. Because I like to wind down and go out a pub, I have chosen to never travel to Afghanistan.

[Summer Wine]

I guess when I think about it, the reason that I asked the question is that I hate people saying 'lets leave Afghanistan for the Afghans', "we cant win there".

The non Afghans already did that and look what it did for them or us. The Northern Alliance are Afghan, they sure didn't want the taliban ruling them. Man, I miss Ahmad Shah Massoud,(Āmir Sāhib-e Shahīd) its a pity he didn't get to see a new country.

He wasn't the best but I guess who is. Though he was a good strategist. If we leave, how much better will the Afghan people be?

Personally if we do leave, then we need to arm, train and support those people who don't accept the taliban and then it will be the afghan people making a decesion for thier own lives.

[Kuros]

[zipper]

[Hater Depot]

The US and its allies are spending several times Afghanistan's entire GDP to fight the Taliban, which isn't receiving anything resembling that amount of support. Afghans know life under the Taliban, and life under Karzai. If they don't want life under the Taliban, then with those resources, why are we having so much trouble getting them to fight the Taliban?

[mises]

how do you ask a man, to be the last man, to die for a mistake

[ytuque]