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Subscribe to RSSNATO and Pakistan leaders were scrambling to downplay a leaked report Wednesday featuring testimony by Taliban detainees who claim they are winning the war in Afghanistan, and poised to take over again once international forces leave, thanks in large measure to help from Pakistan’s security services.
NATO officials confirmed the existence of the report, called the State of Taliban, was which obtained by the BBC and The Times of London and is based on 27,000 interrogations of 4,000 Taliban prisoners.
Claims that Pakistan’s top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, commonly known as the ISI, support the Taliban in Afghanistan are not new, but the report can still be regarded as a damning assessment of the war dragging into its 11th year.
So it was not surprising to see myriad responses to the allegations – not just from NATO and Pakistani leaders, but Taliban sources, too.
Here are some of the responses to the report compiled by NBC News reporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday:
Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, Spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan
“The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions based on interviews and comments they have made while detained. It’s not an analysis, nor is it meant to be an analysis of the current operational situation.”
Siamak Herawi, Presidential Hamid Karzai’s Deputy Spokesman
"This is not something new, we have said many times in the past that groups inside of Pakistan are helping terrorist organizations."
BBC: Secret report reveals Pakistan-Taliban ties
Taliban commanders:
Three senior Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan's troubled provinces Paktika, Khost and Kunar told NBC News they could neither confirm nor deny any support from Pakistan.
They said only that they received support in the form of financing, weapons, and fighters from "various Islamic countries" to continue their "jihad." They said financing and the availability of weapons were no longer problems for them.
The Taliban leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said seizing control of Afghanistan will be easy once foreign forces withdraw from the country.
"There are pro-mujahedeen Islamic countries and a large number of kindhearted people who have been supporting us in this jihad against the non-Muslims who had invaded our homeland," one commander based in Paktika, near the border with Pakistan, told NBC News.
The mujahedeen refers to Islamic fighters who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
The Taliban stopped trusting Pakistan after it joined U.S. and helped remove them from power, the Paktika commander said.
Another Taliban commander in Kunar's Watapur areas said the United States has lost the war against Taliban and was now coming up with excuses to explain its defeat.
"We are back in power now because of our sacrifices and support of mujahedeen from all over the world, including Europe. Even the Afghan government and those influential Afghans who had earlier supported Americans in their occupation of Afghanistan had accepted us as the next rulers of the country. We had set up sharia (Islamic) courts in Kunar and Nuristan and have our own police and governors. The Afghan police and government officials are referring cases to us," the Kunar commander said.
Another Taliban leader, known as explosives expert, said "gone are the days when Taliban suffered from shortages of resources and weapons to fight against their enemy."
The group had now developed good contacts with "mujahedeen groups and their sympathizers" in every corner of the world, he claimed.
"The Americans are leaving soon and that's why they started financing and strengthening all groups that are against us. The Americans wanted to create the same situation that emerged after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and all former mujahedeen groups indulged in internal fighting and caused heavy losses to the Afghan people," he added.
Pakistan's response
The report was revealed at an inopportune time for Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar who was in Kabul on a diplomatic visit on Wednesday. "I can disregard this as a potentially strategic leak ... This is old wine in an even older bottle," she told reporters in Kabul, reiterating Pakistan's denials it backs militant groups.
Three Pakistani security officials tell NBC News that without having seen the report, they would be unable to comment in any detail. None, however, said that they were surprised by the nature of the leaked information.
"The theme of the article is not new," said one senior Pakistani security official, referring to the BBC report. "So, what's new?" said another, when asked about the NATO report.
There is a widely-held belief among Pakistan's security establishment that their country has played the role of scapegoat for what they see as a failed U.S. mission in Afghanistan, and today's news seemed to fit that pattern, to many.
"The report has not been made available," said Pakistan Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. "And leaks are not worth us commenting on."
Khalid Pashtoon, member of Afghanistan’s parliament
“I thought this had been leaked ages ago!” he laughed at the NATO report stating that these findings are nothing new.
“[NATO] reiterated again the ISI involvement with Taliban. Everyone obviously knew that ISI is supporting the Taliban.”
“ISI is not just supporting them but they are controlling them. Everything we see and hear from the Taliban is organized and written by the ISI. This is something pretty obvious and this has been going on since 1994.”
“Right now, there is a huge rift between the Taliban. The Taliban who are fighting inside of Afghanistan are against reconciliation. And they’re angry at their leadership.”
Pashtoon said this is good news for stability. He says that Taliban fighters feel betrayed by their leaders and the ISI for supporting peace talks after they have shed so much blood fighting for the cause.
Afghan Foreign Ministry: “NO COMMENT.”
NBC News’ Atia Abawi contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan. Amna Nawaz and Fakhar Rehman contributed to this report from Islamabad and Mushtaq Yusufzai contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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Down play it all you friggin' want scum-bags.... The United Nations is and always will be a failure.... talk, talk, talk. ZZZzzzz!
Why bother to 'spin' what is self-evident. The Taliban and other extremist Islamic groups have taken over all aspects of civil and military administration in the tribal areas of Pakistan and ethnically linked adjacent areas of Afghanistan. And the Pakistani government have funded them and given them a free hand. Chaos and a weak central government in the area marked on Western maps as Afghanistan is an advantage to all of the neighbouring countries - or so they presently think.
NATO, the UN, and every NGO should simply get right out NOW with a view to trying again in another two hundred years. Of course, there will be a bloodbath as soon as NATO leaves and the human rights abuses (including despicable treatment of women) will sky-rocket. It's what the they think they want, so until they begin to think differently, we should make like Evel Knievel . . . simply rev up and phuck off.
Packistan is in an interesting position: They love US aid, but openly dislike us. They are against terrorism, yet harbored OBL. They have nuclear weapons, yet can't control them nor their nuclear scientists from selling secrets. They dislike the Talliban, but have been known to harbor them.
Is it that they don't want to deal with the Talliban, so they provide a safe area for them for a promise of "we won't come after you later"? Who knows. What we do know though is that there is a lot going on and everyone is denying everything. Guess we'll have to wait and see....
Unfortunately this is hardly news. It is as if we never learned our lesson in Viet Nam. I imagine if W. ever left Texas during that war he might have made a different decision. Then again maybe not, there is money to be made provisioning our troops engaged in an ultimately senseless police action.
Yes, they were a horrible government and they did harbor terrorists who posed a very real threat to the US (all too real). That is why we develop things like cruise missles, drones, and every other imaginable technologically superior weapon system. Why do we have our kids walking around hoping to avoid IED's and sniper bullets? Do we want to make it easier for them? In war, we shouldn't be interested in a fair fight.
I don't care if we have to resort to carpet bombing, get our kids out now. Otherwise, I hope there is room in the National Mall for another large memorial.
Natural Resources, and nothing more. Pipelines, natural deposits, poppy. Oil Drugs and Money. "America's finest" are fighting for nothing less. YOUR so called freedom included.
I wish it were just natural resources, but we aren't buying/investing. Our friends the Chinese owe way more mineral rights in Afghanistand and Iraq than US companies do. And some of the investments are very startegic like the minerals needed to make high capacity batteries, which if we ever do go green we are going to need in abundance--so the road to green technologies goes through China. We do all the fighting and dying and then we don't even exploit what success we do achieve. Pathetic!
This is nothing new. The ISI has been supporting the Taliban for a very long time. Anyone with a brain knows this. The fact that a non-US main stream media organization like the BBC has come out and said it publicly does little to change the facts on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We should just go ahead and pull our troops out now. All we are doing by remaining there is delaying the inevitable. The Karzai government is a joke. They barely have any control within the capitol of Kabul and have absolutely no control anywhere else. In the provinces things are controlled by local warlords and tribal leaders, many of whom either support, or at least tolerate the Taliban. Once the US pulls out the Karzai government will be history and Afghanistan will descend into chaos for a short period. Then the Taliban, through intimidation and bribery will once again take control of the country.
To downplay the statement by the Taliban is foolish at best and just plain stupid at worst.
The issue of Afghanistan is like that in Libya, it is made up of many tribes but in Afghanistan you also have many sub-tribes and cross tribal bonds relating to religious ideology. There is no such thing as a "tribal" area because the whole country is a mix of tribes! No one single tribe has enough strength or unity to control the whole country. Tribal rulers/warlords of the other tribes will fight for their own little kingdoms and get wealthy off drug money. They will also fight for religious views, which was what Afghanistan was partially divided on before the US/UN took over after 911.
Once the US and UN leave the groups that make up the Taliban will join together against the government (as before) and a civil war will resume (as it has for 1000's of years), until they settle on some very porous borders within the country. Pakistan, who wants to control Afghanistan will support the Taliban taking over as a unified Afghanistan is a threat to Pakistan's sovereignty. The outer regions of Pakistan are much more closely aligned with Afghan tribes than the majority in Pakistan. That's part of why Pakistan is so angry at the US, we're seen as meddling in their internal affairs. The illegal drug trade, which finances the Taliban will again grow and take over a majority of the countryside and strict Islamic law will be imposed.
The only change is that many of the Arabic groups that formed the basis for Al Qaeda have been rooted out. Thus it will take a while before they move back in to set up camp. So in the end we've accomplished very little.
Pakistan is "two faced" and won't change. I am sick of the State Dept. kissing its a**. Maybe Hillary should give it one of her famous "this is our final, absolute final, definitely final demand or we will consider taking appropriate action. If you don't comply, we will not back off and will consider more appropriate action -- take me seriously -- this time I mean it"
Are we still sending money to Pakistan...?
Yup. And still complaining that they don't do enough to fight the Taliban in their country. And still griping that we can't pursue or strike at Taliban targets in Pakistan. And still pretending that they're not actively supporting the very group they're "helping" to fight against. And still hoping that their government will grow a backbone and take control of the country that has sacrificed its civil institutions, economy, and future for the sake of satisfying its paranoid military obsession with India.
Same old, same old.
..and still doing it despite the fact that almost every citizen (right and left) in this country agrees that we shouldn't be. In fact, this may be the one issue we all can agree on: STOP SENDING MONEY TO PAKISTAN!
The reality is that most of the so-called foreign aid we send to countries like Pakistan, Egypt and (yes) to Israel is just another form of corporate welfare. We put billions on a credit card that the military in those countries can use to purchase American made weapons. We paid General Dynamics for al those M1 tanks we saw in the streets of Cairo; we paid Lockheed for those F16's flying over Pakistan and Israel, etc. While I'm sure some cash money wound up inthe Swiss accounts of Mubarak or some of his fellow exploiters, most of it was distributed to our MIC, which is why you'll see them constantly lobbying to protect "foreign aid".
I'm glad to see that Pakistan claims to be anti-Taliban. This means that when the US forces leave Afghanistan that Pakistan will destroy any Taliban attempt to regain power. Let's see their commitment to this goal. If not, then their duplicity will be exposed and the worst suspicions realized. If they allow a resurgence of the Taliban then they will seal the deal and be perpetual enemies. Any subterfuge against them will be justifiable. Pakistan has many enemies at it's doorstep, they don't need more.
The responsibility for resisting the reemergence of the Taliban from Pakistani soil, will be the sole responsibility of Pakistan and nobody else.
Friends for Pakistan are hard to come by amongst the unbelievers they've declared war upon. It's up to them to make the change.
Reports probably obtained by waterboarding, illigal under International Law, where people will tell you anything you want to hear. It is most likely propaganda to continue endless wars so that the 1% profits and the rest pays with blood and treasure. We need to get out of Afganistan ASAP, save lives and money. The whole phoney " War On Terror" begins to stink. The only sanity left on our country is Ron Paul. If you think that you are a patriot -vote Ron Paul 2012, he is our only hope.
Why would we want to hear that we're getting our asses kicked, being played by an important ally, and that everything we've fought and paid for in Afghanistan is going up in smoke the moment we turn around?
And please, spare me the "1%" rhetoric. Can't you just go back to saying "corporate slavemasters" or "capitalist pigs"? Or how about good old "warmongers"? That one actually sounds kind of accurate!
I rather doubt that waterboarding would have been necessary to get these opinions from the detainees. Heck, if they really believe that they are whupping our collective butts, they would be proud to say so. Considering the murky (at best) situation out there, I really don't think anyone can say authoritatively who's got the upper hand militarily. In this kind of conflict, everybody is hurting. The Taliban is severly weakened, but I suspect so is the rest of the country, so it will almost certainly devolve into a civil war again after we leave.
Regarding sanity and good ol' Ron Paul: WTH? You really want to revert back to where we were a hundred years ago? I agree that some things have got to change, but wholesale dismantling of the government and any kind of oversight of business, coupled with complete withdrawl from the global economy? I don't know about you, but I prefer the 21st century. We've already been down that road, and it was pretty nasty at the start and into the middle of the 20th.
lmao @ Joe. Did you read the article, buddy?
"There are pro-mujahedeen Islamic countries and a large number of kindhearted people who have been supporting us in this jihad against the non-Muslims who had invaded our homeland,"
Homeland???
Considering Afganistan was Buddhist for over a century before Islam was invented.......
It was probably alot nicer when it was a Buddhist country too. Not the @!$%#hole it is now and probably always will be!!!!!!
Like many of the areas in that region.. The people in charge get to claim that they have always owned the land.
A fellow student who was from Saudi Arabia, that I met while attending UF in mid 80's, was surprised when we got into a discussion and he learned that much of Europe wasn't originally Islamic. He thought that Spain, France, Romania, Greece, etc was all Muslim until it was taken by force by Christian armies. It was the evil Christian invaders who killed the Muslims and destroyed their lands. That's what they were taught in their religious schools, was the basis for generating hatred toward others, and why many believed that it was their right to take back their lands in Europe. Have to love skewed history!
@positrondave - So just because their ancestors were Buddhists, it's not their homeland anymore? What if the Buddhists converted or migrated? These people have lived in that place for centuries..you think they give a f*** who lived there before they were born or before even their great granddads were born? You call a place homeland too...I am sure you were not the first person there..so don't you dare call it your homeland. Heck, everybody moved and got settled somewhere...grow up and stop living in the past.
The taliban are playing a waiting game until the U.S. leaves. Once the announcement was made, the fate was sealed.
317 americans were killed in afganistan in 2009
499 in 2010
418 in 2011
25 have been americans have died in combat in afganistan so far this year.
why does the obama administration hide this ?
why does the media hide this ?
.....if a republican gets elected will the media start reporting the death tolls again every day ?
Obama said he would have a open Government.. Just did not tell us who it was going to be open for..
If it were truly hidden, then you wouldn't have that information.... just sayin
it's not front page news like it was three years ago. so what does that tell you...
why dont the media report americans killed in action every day ?
why did they stop reporting casualties in 2008 ?
americans killed in afghanistan have increased 300% since obama took office.
...somethings not right.
Well Mr. Keck (or Dr. Strangelove) let me explain it to you. President Obama shifted troops from Iraq, where we had no business going in the first place to Afgahnistan, where we at least were retaliating for 9-11. Increasing the force levels in Afghanistan has increased our casualties there, and those of the Taliban as well. It has also reduced our casualties in Iraq to zero, where they would have been if Bush hadn't taken us there. Many of us would like to see us out of Afghanistan as well, and the President has started that process. In contrast, John McCain's policy was to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan forever, or at least as long as we've been in Germany or Korea. Seems to me we made the right choice.
why dont we see casualty numbers daily ?
when was the last time you saw the death toll in the news ?
418 americans died in afghanistan last year....did you even know ?
just this month 25 americans were killed in combat.....no one cares to report it.
...you explained nothing cal, you dont have any explanation why americans killed in action are not front page news in obamas america.
Cal USA
So you think Obama is better than McCain? I say no frigging difference. BO said he would get us out of Iraq as soon as he got in office then dragged it on for a few more years, shifted the troops to Afghanistan to keep the war spending at a level that would keep the war profiteers happy. BO got us involved in Libya which cost a few billion while at the same time we debate how to keep the government running here at home. SIgned the Patriot act twice after promising he would get rid of it then signed MCCAINS NDAA bill that strips Americans of the constitutional rights of due process. No, I think it is pretty obvious the BO is a total sellout.
You can't send a army in to play police,it's either all out war or nothing.In Vietnam we could have achieved at least a North,South like Korea,had we used are air power like we did in Iraq,but it too was a limited war.Let's stay out of other countries unless they do harm to us and our allies,if they do, send in the UAV's to hunt down those responsible one by one.Make them forever look to the sky,run from house to house,carry 10 cell phones,only to be taken out by a missile when they least expect it.Hell from the sky.
What do you consider Carpet Bombing, Agent Orange, Daisy-Cutters, and Rolling Thunder? Air power was used to the maximum in Vietnam - except for the Atomic Bomb! Do some reading, or know someone.
[PS: Over 1Million Vietnamese were killed, and 9Million injured, maimed, blinded and crippled. What would have satisfied you? Whatever the number, the US would still have lost that False-Flag Criminal Operation. And the US did NOT win in Iraq...or have you NOT noticed?]
We should not care what the Taliban do after we leave. We know how to monitor the place now and can react with deadly efficiency if they again provide a home for terrorists who want to attack the U.S. (Drones). We need to honor our heroes who have fought and fallen there by getting out as soon as possible, minimizing the amount of money we spend there, let Karzai manage it on his own if he can or fail if he does. The Taliban were not supposed to be our enemy. That was Al Qaida and they are finished for the foreseable future. If they come back there, we will now know and have a much better way to destroy them again.
The Taliban are our enemy ......They were running terrorist training camps for years ......They were supporting Ben Laden and they fought us tooth and nail when we went after them.........They are the bad guys make no mistake about it.
Have you seen Afghanistan..........who in the hell would want it?
When we leave (and the sooner the better) the Pakistani's will have no use for the Taliban and they will kill them all.
I'm shocked!!! Shocked...do you hear me?!?!
Leave afghanistan and stop funding pakistan. Can it be explained any easier?
Vote for Obama. If you are planning for America to fail.
I'm afraid the answer isn't in the present GOP candidates either.
It's simply mesmerizing that our great leader still has places with over 50% approval rate. When he was elected he promised 2.8 million jobs. I guess he forgot to mention that those will be losses. People still trust him? Shame on those poeple.
25 americans have died in afghanistan since new years day.
americans need to know an american is killed every day in afghanistan.
The Taliban have what I call an "unfair advantage" in that they have no problem with killing civilians to accomplish their goals. We don't have that "advantage". This war could be won in the same way we defeated Japan during WWII, but that would mean killing innocent people along with the insurgents. Again, something the insurgents have no problem with, yet cry "Outrage!" when it happens from our end.
I fear the end of this will resemble the fall of Saigon.
Actually the US has destroyed far more Afghan families, and has killed far more elderly, women, children and infants than is locally disclosed...and very few actual fighters, who are way up in the hills and ravines and NOT sleeping at home where the bombs fall on their families and friends.
This can be denied as you please but the Taliban resurgence speaks for itself, for the facts on the ground. The torture, humiliations, urination and beheading and souvenirs of ears, noses, fingers from dead bodies, and indiscriminate bombing by Drones make for an excellent recruiting tool for the Taliban...and the results are in. And in the end the Taliban will win. A total victory.
There are only about 25,000 Taliban fighters...wait till the whole Afghan People are mobilised by this ongoing brutality cleverly camouflaged from the average American Joe...what happened to the Soviets would look like kids play.
Have patience and you will see the US defeated on the battleground and routed for yourselves.Just wait.
The sad thing Hamzsque is that the Afghan people lose no matter what. No one wants to endure a war in their midst,but no one wants to endure the oppression and brutality that will come after if the country reverts to prewar conditions.
Hamzsque
The Taliban need to hide behind school houses when they fire at NATO troops. That way they rely on the reluctance of NATO. They can't defeat the armies of NATO wearing the uniforms of soldiers so they attack in civilian clothes. they attack civilians and hide amongst civilians firing as terrorists, hoping that the return fire will hit soft targets.
One needs to ask themselves about the urinating soldiers, why were there dead Taliban in civilian clothes in the first place? Were they attacking against the rules of warfare?
The Taliban are nothing more than a hoarde of rabid assassins.
Not correct. The Taliban are up in the hills or in ravines...they are not at home where their families are killed by the falling bombs, missiles, and drones.
It is the NATO Crusaders who are hiding behind heavy state of the art body armour, super tanks and fortress...and remote controlled technologies - As one Taliban commander pointed out that the Americans are the most cowardly soldiers Allah ever made.
NATO is not reluctant...the women and children have been killed in thousands...and very few Taliban fighters have been touched. Otherwise they could not still be fighting and winning each skirmish after over ten long years, 1Trillion dollars at the rate of 2Billion a week spent to kill them.
NATO has been defeated. You will be given the result eventually, when the US government considers it appropriate, incrementally, piece meal. A little at a time. With a face saving formuls...so as not to depress you.
The Taliban is NOT an army. They are local people trying to defend their homeland against foreign invasion. They don't have resources for uniforms. They are volunteer freedom fighters, fighting a guerrilla war for freedom with what little they have. Uniforms are not the top priority, bullets are.
The so called soft targets are their fathers and mothers, sisters and daughters, elderly and small children. They are not hiding. They are repeatedly attacking the hardened bunkers and fortresses where the invader hides and pees in their pants.
Pamper diapers have become requisite for the US soldiers because of this fear of combat. When Pakistan stopped the transit of supplies, a special request was made by the US ambassador requisting to at least allow the release of the diaper trucks...the US soldier has become a laughing stock and pitied in Pakistan for their cowardice under fire.
As I said they are volunteers not unformed soldiers. Afghans are a martial people. Grow up with guns and learn shooting skills and the art of fighting at an early age.
Actually, the Taliban are the finest guerrilla fighters, the most courageous warriors in the world. Jut look at the facts: 25,000 Taliban fighters are winning against 150,000NATO, 110,000 Pakistani, 90,000 mercenary contractors, 37 Nations and the most advanced war technologies the world has ever known.
The Taliban will defeat NATO and the US in the battlefield and will send the foreign invaders packing, scared and peeing in their pants with their tails between their legs. And will prod them out of their homeland at the business end of their Kalashnikov.
Wait till the general Afghan populace risses up on their side due to the atrocities and war crimes being committed on civilians by the Crusaders...remember what they did to the Soviets 500,000Troop invading super fighting force!
So lets get out this year. If they leave us alone, we can leave them alone. If they don't, we can swat them hard enough that they won't do it without thinking again. I believe the nuts in the Middle East have learned that. Yes, they took down the twin towers, but if they'd known how painful it would be in the end, they likely wouldn't have done it. I don't think they'd do it again. Meanwhile, even foaming-at-the-mouth Taliban want to eat, sleep, and get fat watching Al Jazeera, and that means they have to do business with those who have the money...
I am so sick of politically correct wars. I don't necessarily agree with our involvement, but if we do get involved, do it right. B-52's and fuel air bombs would have done the trick ten years ago. And if the international community didn't like it too bad, don't attack us.
Except for the use of nuclear weapons, all that you describe and much much more has been used on the Afghan people.
And they did not attack you. Nor did the Iraqi's. The Saudis did. They are being killed and their dead bodies desecrated because they are Muslim, nothing else.
Nevertheless, the US defeat in the battlefield is certain. You may note down this prediction.
Screw whether or not the Taliban can predict who will win in Afghanistan, how about predicting something that matters. The Superbowl, Yep the Superbowl. I can just see commentators from Al Gazers giving "color" commentary during the game, the announcer turns towards the screen and say "take it away Ahmed down on the field" and then they go to camera#3 with Ahmed standing on the sidelines talking with Eli or Tom getting some finesse points on a flair out or over the middle crossing pattern. No...wait...we have Mahmoud down on the trading floor in Chicago guessing if Orange Juice crops this year will balance out problems in Brazil" We're expect OJ to move up 0.5 and then drop to more traditional..." Yep, when I start listening to the Taliban predicting anything it's going to have to be something worth predicting.
The Taliban just wants control to kill more women. To enslave and mistreat women. To treat them as second class or third class citizens. To marry 9 year old girls. They are stone-age freaks who want to keep the Islamic world in the pre-historic.
We cannot change that. If people want freedom, it will mean nothing if they are not willing to fight for it themselves. Society in the middle east has to stand up to them and tell them what they are doing is wrong, and demand rights.
As I wrote, we can't instill what freedom should mean through force. People must fight for freedom with their soul, not with someone else's.
First things first! You people that are spouting about Obama and the left...take it somewhere else! The same goes for the Ron Paul kool aid drinkers and the republican conspiracy theorists!
Now as for the point of the article, this is not surprising to me at all! Afghanistan has been a thorn in our side as soon as we took our eye off of it and headed to Iraq! We had Afghanistan under control but as soon as we turned our attention elsewhere Pakistan saw an opportuity to throw a monkey wrench in the works! We would have been out of Iraq and back to Afgahnistan alot sooner if it had not been for Iran's safe harboring of Jihadist and Pakistan funneling $$ and weapons to the fighters! Both countries need a swift kick in the ass! Forget sending in ground troops let's let the might of the US Air Force reign down upon them! I am sorry that innocent lives will be lost but war is hell and you can't fight a precison no civilian casualty war if the other side has no regard for civilian life. It is the equvalent of taking a knife to a gun fight...you lose every time. The Taliban knows that we can't fight back against an enemy with no formal army or regard for any military law. They laugh at the Geneva Convention... to them it is just a book of words with no meaning!
Look at Iraq, as soon as we pull out completely they are right back to fighting amongst themsleves. Afghanistan will be no different except this time there will be no fighting, it will just be mass Genocide!
As for Pakistan we need to make it perfectly clear that if you wnat to continue to suckle on Lady Liberty's tit you had better clean up your act or we will do it for you and Lady Liberty will pull up her cloak and cut you off! No way Pakistan caouls survive without our $$$ pouring into them.
USAF, I don't think anyone died and put you in charge of who could post here, so feel free to follow your own dictates and take it somewhere else. Us Obamy bashers will continue unabated.
As for your last paragraph, it comes totally out of LEFT field, and I find it extremely apt, coming from someone who would have the experience at suckling Lady Libery's tit... LOL
Regarding the rest of your post, I agree. Except that the expression should be "... raining down" and not "reigning down."
Why wait? We should get out now and make sure we take everything we brought with us when we leave. All aid should immediately end now as we pull out.
If we don't take it, destroy it. Leave nothing behind to give the slightest indication we were ever there. Let the Taliban take over if they want, just make sure we don't do anything to make it easy for them once they do regain control.
i knew it wouldnt take long until the OBAMA hating retard small minded moronic minions started blaming our prez for anything bad thats taking place in afghanistan.......THE DRUNK CRIMINAL VILLAGE IDIOT got us into this war and as usual the dems have to clean up the f.....g mess that the war criminals created.....what the F..K do we need to stay in ANY country for more than 5 years today......exept to steal resources from that country or to keep feeding the industrial military complex that makes a hand full of cronies A LOT OF MONEY .....you take oil out of the equation and there would of never been an afghanistan or iraq war, PERIOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and since when do we have to keep policing the rest of the world ? just because chicken hawk darth dick says so ?!?
yes, the chicken hawk joe biden (who got 4 deferments) started saying "sadaam was stockpiling tons of WMDs in 1994, 95, 96,97, 98 (this is when joe biden voted for 'the regime change act of 1998') 99, 00, 01, 02, 03
all democrats during the clinton years said "sadaam has wmds"
...maybe you are too young to know, maybe you should look it up.
"blame bush" or "bush lied" is not going to pass muster anymore.
sorry.
Pakistan is scum and has been the cause of the evil. It is difficult to understand why we still fund this scum.
I believe we need Pakistan more than they need us. They may like our money,but we can not afford to not be on the ground in Pakistan.How would we get our intel otherwise?
We should not be there in the first place. It is the fundamental error to believe that America has to control the rest of the world and everybody is dancing to our pipe. Why do we need to be in Pakistan? There are the Saudis, the Indians, the Chinese that always veto, nearby and let them fight the fight if needed. America has never been asked to fight the worlds fight, it has always assumed everybody wants us there. We should be here, clean up our country, defend our borders, build out nation instead of Afghanistan.
Joachim - I think we are in Pakistan not so much as to fight their war,but rather to get intel on terrorist agents that are planning to attack us here in the US. I read that al Qaeda has specifically recruited and are training people who have American passports so that they can enter the United States and attack targets here -the one man,one bomb technique. Having agents on the ground in Pakistan gives us the best chance at finding out information to thwart them.