Babak, I can understand your indignation, but I really do believe it is misplaced. Why do you so offhandedly dismiss reasoned voices of dissent as "truly pathetic"? Could it be because their implications rock your entire world view? What do you have to lose by listening and trying to understand? Just how "new" is Afghanistan? It's still the same old war lords roaming the countryside. Many former Taliban included. The biggest difference is Afghanistan contains a lot less humans than it did 2 years ago. Even though Americans uniformly close their eyes to this, the fact is the Afghan regime was a US creation gone awry. Thus once again human beings became a throw away luxury for a US government that has no moral compunction about destroying lives whatsoever. "Democracy" will be Iraq's swan song as a nation, as the rival ethnicities and factions rip it apart. So much for providing "stability" to the region. Tom Friedman -- the Arab Yugoslavia. At least that's what a real democracy is most likely to create. On the other hand, and probably more likely, the new leader will just be some US puppet -- Saddam lite -- whose number one mission is to create a secure environment for the oil interests, all the while paying lip service to democracy (with the US spin machine at his disposal) but in reality quelling it.
"Babak, I can understand your indignation, but I really do believe it is misplaced." You don't understand anything. You have no idea. But after this is over and Iraq is rebuilding there will be reporters from all over the world in every nook and cranny of Iraq. Then the whole world will see the truth, and many will never forget.
Msfe you posted an article titled "It will end in disaster" [George Monbiot Tuesday April 1, 2003 The Guardian ] It may have been lost on you so please notice the date of this article !!! At worst Iraq may indeed finish being in two or three parts. If that were to happen so what. freealways
Now where do you get ideas like this? Among other things, you've just eliminated all of the refugees and exiles who've returned to Afghanistan, and you seem to be implying that you believe the Taliban-Al Qaeda terror regime offered any hope to Afghanistan, whose oppressed population was on the verge of starvation in the millions when the US intervened. You appear to be another one of those individuals who is incapable of accepting facts that do not square with your prejudices. A massive oversimplification that has the sole virtue of propping up your presumptions - as though the Russians, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Saudis, among others, had no role in what went wrong in Afghanistan. Of course, the US also had a role in creating the situation that eventually, after many steps, led to the Taliban-Al Qaeda, but what would you have had us do after the Soviets left? Intervene directly? Isn't that what you're against America doing in Iraq? Those aren't arguments, those are predictions. Tom Friedman supported this war, by the way, and saw the "Arab Yugoslavia" possibility as a danger, not as a likelihood. You're an apologist for Saddam Hussein - applying the obnoxiously childish term "yucky" as a description for the crimes against humanity perpetrated by his regime. On another thread, you asked us to consider the possibility that his regime wasn't really so "intolerable." Repeatedly, you've spoken up in admiration of suicide bombers (I say, better for the US Marines to deal with these deluded lunatics than for civilians to have to do it - but that's another issue). Is there any evil in the world you won't embrace for the sake of attacking on the US? Now YOU are going to tell us what a "real democracy" is? I see you've finally begun to prepare yourself to survive a coalition victory with all of your immature presumptions, flagrant biases, and sheer lack of respect for the real victims intact. As a former leftist radical (years ago), I'll say this to you: You may someday grow up, and feel embarrassed about your former opinions.
Even though Americans uniformly close their eyes to this, the fact is the Afghan regime was a US creation gone awry. Thus once again human beings became a throw away luxury for a US government that has no moral compunction about destroying lives whatsoever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's funny.....I could have sworn an unmitigated Russian invasion in 1978 was the cause for the rise of the Taliban and OSAMA???....Im always amazed at how the US gets blamed for everything....and Commie/socialist countries that invaded a land for no reason get to walk away scott free AND ....voice an opposition opinion to any US war in Iraq....kind of like a thief calling somebody a liar....but Please stop re-writing history....that's what Stanford University is for.
Actually Kymar, I'm writing my thoughts as a former conservative, Objectivist apologist, who could see no wrong in having the US export the "happiness is a SUV" concept, by any means possible, to every corner of the world. Any broken eggs along the way were inevitable in attempting to shape "a better future for the world"; any windfalls for the self-interest motives were brushed aside as "somone's gotta do it", and "ah, it ain't that bad". If waking up from the "if it makes money, it's gotta be good" dreamworld is a move to "left wing radicalism", then so be it. Perhaps you won't believe me, but I would ask you, as one of the few mature adults here who has restrained from attacking me with off base insults, to give me the benefit of the doubt regarding this.
[ Perhaps you won't believe me, but I would ask you, as one of the few mature adults here who has restrained from attacking me with off base insults, to give me the benefit of the doubt regarding this. [/B][/QUOTE] I take excpetion to that....I have never insulted you...I merely mentioned that your name is very popular in S. Beach and San Francisco!!!!
No, money doesn't matter, let's burn the IMF loans and the World Bank aid to argentina or let's just wire it to a numbered swiss bank account... What would the argentine people need money for? I don't care what they eat where they live or what they put on their shoulders.