Tuesday, October 27, 2009
News Over There
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Extra depressing to read this...
Eight American troops were killed in two separate bomb attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban.
...right after reading this:
But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel.... [Many] Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there—a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.
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3
@1: Yep, more American youth dying because our government has commanded them to kill brown people far away from home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmc…
What was it Santayana said about not remembering the past?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmc…
What was it Santayana said about not remembering the past?
4
GMA completely misconstrued the resignation this morning, making it sound as though the resignation were because of the delay in authorizing more troops.
7
Dan, is your appetite for freeing people and reforming their oppressive societies waning? So long as our addiction to oil goes untreated you'll see more American plans to bring democracy to the middle east.
8
Sorry, I was distracted by the conference on explosive attacks on naval ships the US Navy put on today in the Mezzanine.
Did I miss another unnecessary war that isn't against al-Qaeda and serves no real purpose other than selling weapons systems and other fancy stuff?
Did I miss another unnecessary war that isn't against al-Qaeda and serves no real purpose other than selling weapons systems and other fancy stuff?
9
Just a few more months and the Afghanistan adventure will have gone on longer than Vietnam.
And we're over there to juice the profits of America's War Inc., duh.
And we're over there to juice the profits of America's War Inc., duh.
12
post is spot on. the war in afghanistan makes no sense. al queda is in pakistan, and the war on terror should have always been an intelligence and law enforcement war. this "war" makes no sense.
if al queda comes back to afghanistan than go get them, this war is just another iraq, creating more future suicide bombers.
didnt eli sanders support this "war?" as a justifiable one?
if al queda comes back to afghanistan than go get them, this war is just another iraq, creating more future suicide bombers.
didnt eli sanders support this "war?" as a justifiable one?
14
This is exactly why I would not (maybe never) give my life for this country...at least not on behalf of these types of causes. With all do respect to the soldiers, too many of them have bought into the "us vs. them" idea of absolute-ness. People are dying in the meantime while the others figure out how to correct the madness.
Killing & dying for a government that has the wrong strategy, tactics or perspective on a conflict means that despite your valor and integrity, your death is not justified. I believe there is no honor in unjust killing and death.
Killing & dying for a government that has the wrong strategy, tactics or perspective on a conflict means that despite your valor and integrity, your death is not justified. I believe there is no honor in unjust killing and death.
15
The sad truth of it is that as soon as the "White Devil" is no longer in their back yard, they will return to ours. So whatever your point of view, be prepared to deal with another 911.
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