As we ponder what to do in Iraq and Afghanistan we do well to remember our failed attempt to impose democray in Somalia. The fighting is still going on and the United Nations is still making noises about it [UN urges end to Somalia fighting].Would it have been any better if 50,000 western troops have tried to establish law and order? Was cut-and-run a good strategy for Somalia? I think so, and I think it might be the best strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq as well. Let them sort out their own problems and stop complicating things by giving the people a reason to unite against a common enemy (foreign invaders).
I feel your pain. They closed the campus Tim's in Ann Arbor last spring, making expat life much more miserable. At least yours reopened!
ReplyDeleteTOTALLY WRONG.
ReplyDeleteWe should never have been in Iraq in the first place.
Afghanistan, with the Taliban disembowelling people who dare to teach girls, then ripping them apart with mptorbikes .... ugh.
No, this cannot be permitted.
I note that Ethiopia, backed by the African Union, is doing something about Somalia.
Please remember, that the Taliban, and Al-quaeda are Nazis, through and through.
If they are not stopped now, it will get a lot more expensive later.
Oh, and there's that nutter Ahmenidjad on the losse, as well. Though he is becoming steadily more unpopular in Presia (Iran) so we might get lucky there .......
G. Tingey says,
ReplyDeletePlease remember, that the Taliban, and Al-quaeda are Nazis, through and through.
It must be a tremendous comfort to you to inhabit a world that's so black and white.
No, it isn't, and it isn't.
ReplyDeleteIn Persia, there is real hope that Ahmenidjad will blow it, internally before he gets a nuclear weapon to use on Tel Aviv .......
I suggest you go back and actually look at what the Taliban have done, and are still trying to do, with regard to female education, and liberty.
And to the legacy and direct line from the old Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, leaving Berlin in 1945 through the muslim brotherhood, to Hizboolah, who actually use the Nazi salute .....
I made no claim whatsover for our purity or "ggodness", and I already said we have no business in Iraq, at all.
But, do you really think that the muslim religious loonies will leave us alone, if we leave them alone? ......
Erm, no.
Any more than Shrub's US christian froends want to leave atheists like me alone .....