In fact China seems to be moving in where timid western companies see only risk.
In other words, his view happens to coincide with yours now, so of course he ought to be listened to… just as long as we ignore all those times he was spectacularly wrong and you didn’t agree with him.
This is where these sort of discussions get silly. This “I’ve fought for my country, hence my opinions are more valid than yours”, is a pile of shite. My bet is there are as many morons and incompetents in the military as there is is in any other large societal group.
Taliban? I thought you were describing the tea baggers.
Not at all. I think most people in his position are coming from a bias. They train in army for 4 decades. I think that is enough to color your position. do not totally accept everything he says. But I find retired military men often change their views when they retire. What would you attribute that to?
The “White Man’s Burden”, huh?
No, in this case we have the “It’s Not a Conspiracy” theory, the mirror image of Conspiracy Theory thinking where no matter how blatant and unsubtle, the agenda of the people behind the conquest is denied.
There’s the fact that we have no genuine interest in actually helping them, for one.
And any progress that South Korea has made has been in spite of us, not because of us given our track record.
If you fail to see what end result can be achieved with “our” current policy then I’m afraid my proselytizing will not change your current point of view. It’s all subjective really. Ask the Dutch if they’re better off for being liberated by (chiefly) Canadians on the 5th of May 1945. Maybe we should have just let them be?
I’m telling you, the Afghans I’ve spoken with, the ones who were fortunate enough to escape the country, are very thankful for the freedom the coalition is bringing to their country right now.
Well, they would wouldn’t they. Because they wanted to leave.
But guess what the view might be of those who didn’t leave, who chose to stay?
We killed somewhere between two and three million people in Vietnam. If you’re deciding whose system is worse on the basis of them being mass murdering motherfuckers, on the number of dead bodies they produce then the US is clearly far worse than the Viet Minh, no?
The Taliban have beards so you can tell them apart easily.
Even Saddam had to pay off the various tribes whose land Iraq’s millions of miles of oil pipelines/infrastructure ran through. If those people had wanted to blow the pipelines up every day they would have done. Also, exactly how do we steal the oil? The Iraqis aren’t going to turn up for work and pump their oil for us. Where do we get tens of thousands of highly specialised employees to manage Iraq’s oilfields? How likely are highly sought-after people already employed in safe parts of the world to relocate into a war zone? How well would OPEC countries take the US invading an OPEC country and stealing their oil? Turn their spigots off till we left perhaps? How would the US becoming a rogue nation work for us in the world in general? It’s ridiculous to think we could just take their oilfields over and pump their oil out.
That’s simply not true. US foreign aid/training/consultation to South Korea was a huge impetus for the buildup of their infrastructure and transformation from an agricultural society into an industrial one in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
South Korea still views the USA in a very positive light. We actually, really and truly helped them enormously to become what they are today, with our American lives liberating them in the Korean War, our money, other aid and advice, as well as our ongoing protection in terms of our own military from a hostile, backwards, brainwashed neighbor in North Korea.
You couldn’t be more wrong on that issue. Yes, they did a lot of development on their own through nationalistic policies of their finance and industry, but it wouldn’t have been possible without US dollars, help and military protection.
No, my opinions are not more valid because I am militant. But it is an effective foil to the personal attack I was replying to.
I was asked if an of the sacrifice would be mine. I explained I had done my bit.
(You are following the comments in context, aren’t you?)
No, the Afghanis allowed their territory to be used to attack us. We will ensure that never happens again. We decided that their culture needed to be razed because the one they have now is a menace.
Let me check the title of the thread for you. (Pause) Nope, we are talking about Afghanistan, not Iraq.
Afghanistan will stay what it has always been, a thieving cesspit. It will be one of the last places of earth otherwise rare diseases breed. It will be a place that protects people who fly planes into our buildings. Its women will be held as slaves; its children will be raped. They will grow opium. They will attack the world’s cultural heritage.
They will be a drain on the world’s charity and a general pest.
They will be what they have always have been.
Strange, 17 of the 19 highjackers were from Saudi Arabia. They funded it. It was planned there, Germany, Miami and a couple other places not including Afghanistan. Quit buying what the politicians and TV sell. They lie.
Remember what a relief it was when America got out of Vietnam ?
This present use of ground forces in combat in Afghanistan (2001 to 2010) has already taken longer than what was endured in Vietnam from 1965 to 1972.
No. Afghanistan is not worth it.
Remember the reeducation camps? Remember the one-party rule? Remember the police state?