The Decline of David Ignatius
I used to respect David Ignatius and enjoy his columns. I enjoyed his narration between Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski in "America and the World." Then he took a few helicopter rides with Gen. Petraeus and I think they replaced him with a pod person. That's the only rationale I can think of with his recent comments about President Obama's speech about an Afghanistan strategy.
Military commanders appear comfortable with Obama's decision, although they wish it hadn't taken so long.
You mean that after six years of asking for reinforcements, to include the immediate predecessor to Gen. McChrystal, that the military officers are upset about six-month strategy review? Hmmmmm.
The most important question about Obama's strategy isn't political but pragmatic: Will it succeed? He has defined success downward, by focusing on the ability to transfer control to the Afghans. He shows little interest in the big ideas of counterinsurgency and insists he will avoid "a nation-building commitment in Afghanistan." That will make it easier to declare a "good enough" outcome in July 2011, if not victory.
What exactly did Ignatius think was the point of military operations in Afghanistan if not to create the conditions where the Afghans could take charge of their own security? Did he think that we were just supposed to coddle the Afghani security forces forever, or until we kill every living Taliban? President Obama doesn't show interest in COIN because IT'S AN OPERATIONAL TACTIC - that's what the generals are paid to do. He just tells them what the end result is supposed to be, and whatever he decides is "good enough" is what we call victory conditions. It's not a hard concept.
Obama thinks that setting deadlines will force the Afghans to get their act together at last. That strikes me as the most dubious premise of his strategy. He is telling his adversary that he will start leaving on a certain date, and telling his ally to be ready to take over then, or else. That's the weak link in an otherwise admirable decision -- the idea that we strengthen our hand by announcing in advance that we plan to fold it.
Yeah, it's not as if setting a deadline worked in Iraq, right? Oh wait, it did. If we set the conditions for leaving, it does, at the least, allow the US government to plan resources and understand that this isn't an endless death spiral. It does force Karzai and company to understand that they won't have the US military as the palace guard forever. Here's a newsflash for David - the goal is al Qaeda. The Taliban aren't taking flying lessons or planning to smuggle themselves into the United States. We need to stop thinking that every nation needs the US military to hold their hand, and maybe, just maybe, people who live in a country can actually make a way toward their own goals and ambitions (even if they aren't the same as our own).
Goalessness is actually a buddhist ideal.
Al Wall Street is our problem.
'Cause otherwise, how would they learn to handle weapons?
And the "goal" is only Al Qaeda until Al Qaeda no longer justifies what the warmongers want to do. When that justification peters out to only dozens of fighters, a new bogeyman must be found. The warmongers have settled on the Taliban. When the Taliban no longer justify endless war, Obama will just have to find something else.
But don't worry, a serious warmonger can always come up with something....
Corruption favors the wealthy.
(via Dkos)
I don't like, want, endorse or even tolerate BS military actions - so I take this as a little ray of light. He might not stick to the schedule exactly but he isn't a liar like Bush.
He set the withdrawl deadline in the context of escalation. A sly bit of stage/statecraft if you ask me.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
and it will be her problem.
I want to meet the bitch that fucked you up.
was The Great Communicator anything goes.
All this time I thought they were saying "Grape Communicator"
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
...who were more optimistic than you appear to be.
Another 3 years of being ripped off and lied to? Then another 4 or 8 years of being ripped off and lied to?
Whats optimistic about that?
Without making a poltical comment, don't you think the absence of hand lotion alone explains the chafing?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
the Public. Look what happened to Carter.
Carter was such a downer. With all that talk about responsibility, destruction of the environmnet and our over-dependence on oil. Such an unpatriotic traitor.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
You really need to stop listening to Limbaugh.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
humidor.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
holding Americans hostage than killer rabbits.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
but the bitch that fucked me up is named Merka.
Barack fires McCrystal and gets someone who can oversee the withdrawl. NBD
You see, Barack has McCrystal by the short hairs now.
McCrystal has to achieve the goals because McCrystal got the troops he asked for and 18 months to do it.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
The president must submit to the generals! That's what all the conservatives are saying and we must please the conservatives to be taken seriously! (If they had their way, McCrystal could fire Obama).
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
if you take the long view.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
If they had their way General Smedley Butler would have taken over for FDR - they haven't changed one bit.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
America Owned by Its Army
http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/arti...
Realism about Al Qaeda
http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/arti...
far left loon >.<
To be truly a success in America, one must be a complete sell out.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Depends on how you define success.
I like to apply this idea to both material and emotional poverty.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
"The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved."
Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
. . . into which the "public" can't opt.
How I define success?
Society defines success.
I don't define MYSELF by society's views or its view of me. I don't adhere to the tenets of society.
However, I am surrounded by those that do, so they are not difficult to identify.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Society's definition of success is pretty distressing. Being on a reality show, being a celebrity, being wealthy and having the biggest shiniest things is success by societal standards.
A while back I was traveling Nicaragua with a friend. When people there asked us what we did for work I told them I am a filmmaker and my friend said she is a teacher. In America, I usually have people excited about my career because of the celebrity worship and she usually has people scoff at her and comment about how little teachers are paid or how she must have wanted to do something more. But in Nicaragua (and most developing nations I've been) it is the opposite. The could care less about my career and looked at her like she was a celebrity. Knowledge is a valued trait in much of the world still. Sadly, in America it is becoming something to be scorned and/or feared.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
"Freedom From the Known" by J. Krishnamurti
Might be a book for you. I've read it 6 or 8 times and keep going back. (about 100 pages)
far left loon >.<
Never let it be said that the Democrats cannot be every bit the warmongers and war criminals that the Republicans were (and are).
Warmongers rejoice, your days are yet to be numbered.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"Military commanders appear comfortable with Obama's decision"
Afghanistan, Neighbors React to the Obama Plan
India wanted to be mentioned but it seems like most are supportive.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
looks like I hit the wrong button.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
There's a wrong button?
Yikes, I might be hitting it all the time.
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
screw the rest of us. Why would terrorists want to be bothered attacking our pathetic country when it is tanking under its own weight? All they have to do is sit tight while eating popcorn.
it did? i missed the headline that we pulled out of iraq... glad to hear that everything worked out in iraq...
Combat troops out by August 2010
They might not meet the deadline but so far so good.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
but don't share in it...
combat troops... non-combat troops, mega-bases, mercs, etc... i would bet that we will have a permenant military presence in iraq. and, to me, that is not victory nor success.
Beltway mindset, as spoken by McSame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reE-IhS2DGU
far left loon >.<
Maybe Ignatius suffers from writer's crock.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I read the book. Both Scowcroft and Brezinski corrected Ignatius on his twisted views more than once.
The striking thing about the book is the intellectual gap between the generations.
The real message of the book is how stupid we are becoming.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I got that impression, that Ignatius was the schoolboy between two old professors. No doubt they schooled him on more than a few things. But I liked the way he kept the conversation going, that he had at least boned up on the material. He's not a dumb guy, but his views are, shall we say, unenlightened for a journalist who professes to do international topics.
But yeah, bottom line, the general understanding level of the US population keeps dropping, huh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XTCKTBqNak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3h4o5AiLuM&NR=1
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That was the headline in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.
Hmmm. "Break the Taliban", eh?
Then today's headline is, "Confusion Swirls Around New War Plan".
Why am I not surprised by the last headline?
In order to understand the "truth" behind Obama saying he (via the U.S. military) plans to "break the Taliban", we need to realize that the Taliban was once a political force that U.S. oil corporations respected so much that they flew Taliban representatives to Texas for meetings related to an oil pipeline that was to be built across Afghanistan. When the deal went south the Taliban were told, "We will either carpet your country in cash or carpet it in bombs."
Bush/Cheney got "selected" and Cheney's little secret "Energy Pow-Wows" went down at The White House. From what I have read there were corporate oil CEO's at those meetings and a "new strategy" for obtaining our much needed oil was formally hatched. That strategy basically became the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war for oil.
So now the Taliban are getting their carpet of bombs and drones and death and mayhem and destruction. The only problem with Obama's "strategy" of BREAKING the Taliban is that to Afghanistan the Taliban are sort of like our National Guard in a time of war/emergency. The Afghani's now know that at the beginning of 2010 their country will be under a fresh military assault. The Taliban leadership has said that those troops will be running into a nest of "thorns". It is very safe to assume here that the Taliban will be growing in strength in preparation for our assault on their country. They are proud nationalists and they will go down fighting and hiding and killing what ever way they can to avoid the United States from ever getting it's precious pipeline.
I don't believe for one New York minute that any of this is about "Al Queda" and the events of 9/11 being performed by 19 Arabs from Saudi Arabia. I believe this is U.S. militarism dominating the oil rich regions of the globe in order for it to continue it's create global hegemony for the ruling elite.
I am no fan of the Taliban in Afghanistan as probably many of their people are not either. As a woman I would not be happy running around in a burka my whole life like cousin It. But I also realize that the majority of people in Afghanistan (from the various interviews I have heard on NPR) look at the United States as an invading and occupying force that they do NOT want to have in their country.
And one more thing. We will NEVER leave Iraq. We have built the biggest base in the world there and there is no way we will ever walk away from it or that country. So long as international oil conglomerates are there they will need "protection" and either the U.S. military or private contracting corporations like "Xe" (Blackwater) and Triple Canopy etc. will ALWAYS occupy that country.
This is ALL about oil and as to the "terrorism", well....
Which country murdered a million people in the last eight years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Which country illegally invaded and occupied Iraq and used depleted uranium which is now causing a wave of ugly birth defects and cancers?
The American People need to do their homework then hit the streets.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Xinhua) Oil ministers from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) signed a draft framework Thursday, agreeing to start construction work of the TAPI gas pipeline project in 2010. The project cost has risen to $7.6 billion from an originally estimated $3.3 billion in 2004, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asi...
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\05\14\story_14-5-2009_pg7_16
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asi...
I followed your link to Thaindian News and found their current stories are dominated by Earl Wood's famous offspring.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
.
Maybe a large construction project and continuous maintenance needed after they get done building it, starts the place on some kind of road to recovery. The thing is, the country isn't that much differant than when the "great game" was goimg on. So ask the question, where do you bomb someone if they're already in the stoneage?
A war that can’t be won
The Taliban aren’t so tribal
NOVEMBER 2009
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I found the discussion interesting. √
Study the symptoms not the virus...
... Why do you hate our troops?
Nice post.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
.
who could, conceivably become "the troops"
over my dead body."The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
from President Lincobama and maybe a good movie about your fourth.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Give the machine hell, mom.
Rock on....
Corruption favors the wealthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCfVFxRsKQc
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY&fe...
Corruption favors the wealthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHUz99l-eo
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The Saudi nationals who called themselves "Al Queda" did their planning in Germany and their training in the United States. Our beef with the Taliban is that Bin Laden was hiding there and they refused to hand him over.
The notion that US troops can somehow prevent attacks like 9/11 is misguided. It is all just an excuse for us to keep on business as usual post-Soviet Union. 9/11 was a fairly limited and minor attack (compare NYC post 9/11 to Baghdad post GW1 or GW2.) The IRA's terrorist attacks in Britian continued for decades, and the Algerians in France are still at it. You can't really stop terrorists any more than we can guarentee that guys don't walk into coffee shops and kill a bunch of cops.
What we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq is a useless waste of lives, at least with respect to terrorism.
"What we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq is a useless waste of lives, at least with respect to terrorism."
Useless waste of lives no matter what. IMO
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
After the speech I heard Campbell Brown (along with the other appalled warmongers) shouting "Where is the overwhelming force?" We should ask her why she hates the troops. 100,000 American soldiers are not overwhelming force when put up against fighters from the poorest nation in the world?
You mean Sr. Senor's missus?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
forget it . .
Run for your life.
are all on the same team.
The guts of U.S. political "strategery" have not changed one wit since Obama took the baton from Bush.
Obama is even about to sign off on the latest parts of the U.S. Patriot Act that are due to expire. No debate. Let's just sign a Presidential Directive and move on.
Those of us who consider ourselves to be Progressives voted for Obama in the "hopes" that there would be an "Obama Doctrine". Instead what we are realizing is that there is only one doctrine in the United States: The Military/Corporate Doctrine.
And Obama, the DNC and the Republican Party are all on the same side. They just like to put on a bicker for the audience to make us think they "disagree".
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Either way, it's still the mob.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I prefer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFT9eQR4Xg
Und
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ausCX4qZBQ
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
So waddya think of the movie the other night I recommended?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...Welcome to the teabaggers club!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
People have been arguing Tweedledee and Tweedledum since
Well...Tweedledee and Tweedledum
Or as I prefer to call them, Beavis and Butthead.
Teabaggers are a recent publicity stunt by well funded conservative groups.
Try again...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"...Absolute power corrupts absolutely..."
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (the first Acton-Figure sold).
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Here's a bumpersticker for you Abbywood:
Teabaggers are Carpetbaggers.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Acton took a great interest in America, considering its Federal structure the perfect guarantor of individual liberties. During the American Civil War, his sympathies lay entirely with the Confederacy, for their defense of States' Rights against a centralized government that, by all historical precedent, would inevitably turn tyrannical. His notes to Gladstone on the subject helped sway many in the British government to sympathize with the South. After the South's surrender, he wrote to Robert E. Lee that "I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo."
...co-opted by republicans thats for sure...
but so has the democratic party.
Just look!... is Arlen Specter really a democrat?
how about Joe Lieberman?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
No, monied interests have co-opted both.
That's why I still say third parties, or more, are pointless until we reform the election process, otherwise any new ones will eventually be co-opted.
But in the teabaggers case they were co-opted at inception as a form of deception.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...mostly agree with that.
I always considered Libertarians to be the first teabaggers...the first teaparty was last april 15th.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
They've already been co-opted by disgruntled republicans, who felt booshco besmeared their name
By being too liberal.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I thought it was in the 1770's.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Libertarians are the former nouveau riche.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
its not so much that the teabaggers have been co-opted by the GOP. its that the teabaggers have become useful tools/fools for moneyed interests. see, astroturfing
milktoes. I know you lot like to claim good stuff as your own, But quite a few of us here have been saying that for a couple of years now, and we weren't funded by FOX 'News' or promoted by Glen Beck like you teabagging zombies, who REALLY LIKE a lot of asshats who refer to themselves as 'Republican' or 'conservative.'
Don't insult Abbybwood.
me-oww!
One can clearly see that the teabaggers are against reforming anything, least of all politics
They're about returning republicans to power.
It's part of this new faux-populism.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I like Abbey! (she drops some good comments!)
Lots of liberal teabaggers...I'm one of them.
I hate the fact that Glenn Beck and Dick Armey crashed the party but what can you do?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
RUN AWAY!!1!!!!11!!!
me-oww!
They are the party.
You ought to change your name to toast.
Grover Norquist was the first major tax protester (on the rich), he who said, "We want to make government small enough to drown in the bathtub."
Well they succeeded, the Government was too small to regulate the business/economics quarters properly leading to the massive failure last year. This was all the while they were stripping away our Civil Protections.
It's all part of neo-liberalism, another empty phrase that sounds good on the surface, but is only about liberalism for corporations, not individuals, and is also a part of the whole World Trade, free-market scam that helps corporations greatly lower their costs, to the CEO's massive profits, producing shoddier goods, far less work for Americans, and a collapsing economy.
And you and your teabaggers are supporting this, usurping a name from American history that you don't even understand.
The original teabaggers weren't even protesting a tax tea or any tax per se, but were protesting that those with the connections to the Crown who could get waivers while they could not. Kind of like corporations now with their tax breaks.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...you are a total fool if you voted for Obama.
Obama has not yet lived up to his campaign promises, yes, you're surely correct. But to equate him with sociopathic liars and global mass murderers is bullshit.
Read the article I posted above. (America Owned by Its Army)
Some excerpts:
Professional armies have often been considered a threat to their own societies…
Considering the portion of the U.S. national budget that is now consumed by the Pentagon, much the same could be said of the United States….
The new army also has political ambitions. It now dominates U.S. foreign relations with a thousand bases worldwide and regional commanders like imperial proconsuls.
far left loon >.<
Read the article I posted above. (America Owned by Its Army)
Some excerpts:
Professional armies have often been considered a threat to their own societies…
Considering the portion of the U.S. national budget that is now consumed by the Pentagon, much the same could be said of the United States….
The new army also has political ambitions. It now dominates U.S. foreign relations with a thousand bases worldwide and regional commanders like imperial proconsuls.
far left loon >.<
I prefer semi-proconsuls.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Isn't it amazing how Gingrich has become branded as a moderate and reasonable Republican now days by our press? If that's not a sign of how far to the right American politics has moved, I don't know what is. At this rate in ten years Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin will be considered dirty hippies.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
the other cannot hold a job.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Those darn hippies just have no values!
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
... but for a piece entitled "The Decline of David Ignatius," wouldn't Gordonskene have been the logical choice as author?
I mean, this is pretty old news.... :)
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Color me a dreamer for hoping that Ignatius comes to his senses.
I don't see anyone stating what I think is the obvious question. The one side says that, if we leave, we'll just have to go back there in several years. So if that is the case, and we don't know for sure if it is, but if it is, what is the cost of staying there over several years compared to gearing up and going back? If we stay over those several years, we continue to spend lives and treasure to prevent something that may or may not happen. Since we went in there, we changed things. There is no guarantee that the terrorists and Taliban will again take over and revert back to their old bag of tricks. Besides, who is not to say that will happen no matter when we leave. It may not be the Taliban or Bin Laden, but it may be other crazy fundamentalists who decide to make trouble around the world. The Muslim extremists are everywhere, now. Our staying in Afghanistan is only meant to stop Bin Laden from gaining power there again. Who is to say that he will?
I think we should tell Karzai that we are leaving in one year. He must get his act together by then, or at least meet some min expectations, or we will definitely be gone. If he shows significant progress and needs a few more months at the end of that, we'll give it to him, but no more. Then, if they don't have their act together, they never will, and we would be foolish to hang around anymore. We tried, but they did not live up to their responsibilities.
I didn't know that. I thought he was protected there. Allowed to hide there. If anyone thinks he's hiding behind some rocks in Pakistan with his dialysis machine and his bank book, I suggest you use your imagination. I think he could be at the Harlem Globetrotter's Retirement Home.
... although there's probably room at Kennebunkport.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
...that every nation needs the US military to hold their hand, and maybe, just maybe, people who live in a country can actually make a way toward their own goals and ambitions (even if they aren't the same as our own).
-------------------------------------------------------------------
America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.--Barack Obama
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.--Thomas Jefferson
Study the symptoms not the virus...
It occurred to me this morning..
The best outcome for us is to have the Taliban and AQ wait us out.
Consider they reasons the Taliban exerts influence in Afghanistan.
After decades of on-again, off-again war the Afghani people want, most of all, order and stability. This is what the Taliban offers. They may impose an oppressive order, but civilian houses aren't bombed by Predator Drones and Doors aren't kicked in by Foreign soldiers who don't even speak the local language.
Ironically the Taliban causes the instability when they're in conflict with Coalition forces but they impose order when they control an area (they move in and things get 'better',.. not being able to wear pants, fly kites or shave is better than being in firefights).
Additionally, most insurgent [Taliban] fighters aren't true adherents. Rather they're paid mercenaries.
If you can't find work and your choices are insurgency or starvation for your family.. you'll fight.
What would happen if the Taliban and AQ reserved their forces and stood down for 18 months?
- Order would be restored.. Afghani government and Coalition order, not Taliban order.
- Afghani security forces would continue to get training. Expansion of security forces would create jobs.
- Infrastructure creation could begin in earnest. Currently more is spent on security for infrastructure programs than for construction. Infrastructure creation requires labor.
18 months will peal away quickly but it's more than enough time to dull the desire for Taliban-style stability.
18 months of work for locals, real jobs will certainly be preferable to getting shot at.
If the Taliban were smart, they would do anything but hide for the next year and a half. They would perpetuate the violence, in fact they would increase the violence. They're well financed and local paid fighters are expendable.
"Are you going to enter our houses?" asked 25-year old Mohammad Nabi, who was there with five of his younger brothers. "We are afraid that you will leave, and the Taliban will come back," he said. And they all described the police as predatory thieves not to be trusted.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
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