Previous posts noted that popular buttinski Jesse Jackson was an apparent no-show in all of this. This morning on NPR it was reported that he’s planning a trip to Pakistan to negotiate with the Taliban. nautually US gummint officials aren’t happy about this but have taken no official action to stop him. Jesse claims the Taliban initiated this but the Taliban says that he did.
Hey, Taliban, if we give you Jesse Jackson will you give us bin Laden?
Sounds like a “win-win” situation to me.
¿Que?
I was wondering when that idiot was going to show up. I think we should either trade him for bin laden or let him go over then blow the crap out of the country. Two problems solved at once! 
A more relavent Jesse Jackson thread is in GQ http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=89729
I’m listening to MSNBC, and I swear, I just heard Jesse Jackson say that we recently gave $43 million dollars to the Taliban for the war on drugs.
Did anyone else hear that? Oh please, someone tell me that I heard that wrong…
Just to clarify: I know we didn’t do that. :eek:
I had heard last week that up until a certain point we were giving Afghanistan $143 million/year in aid. Let’s hope that stopped.
My problem isn’t with us giving Afghanistan money. It’s been my understanding that the money has not been going to the Taliban–it’s going to organizations and agencies that provide humanitarian aid, and the Taliban doesn’t get one red cent. I’m okay with that.
But I do have a problem with Jesse Jackson saying otherwise. And telling everyone that we gave money to the Taliban to help them fight their “war on drugs,” when all I’ve been hearing lately is how the Taliban makes their money from drugs–specifically heroin & opium. (I have no hard cite for that–I’ve just heard it on MSNBC a lot over the last couple of days).
If Jesse’s going to be the negotiator, he really needs to a) get his facts straight, or b) just keep his mouth shut altogether and speak through an interpreter who has his/her facts straight.