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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: LindyBill who wrote (92022)4/10/2003 10:26:25 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
I get so tired of this attitude. The only people who can "save" Afghanistan are the Afghans. We cleaned out the oppressors.

I think many people underestimate the hidden costs of "keeping order" even in a democratic country like the USA, let alone a disaster like Afghanistan, or to cite another example, South Africa around the Townships.

I think the latest statistics are that 1 person in 142 or something is in prison here in the US. Part of this is because we misuse prisons for a kind of polyvalent function, many people probably don't really belong in the general prison population, but at any rate they're there.

I actually witnessed an armed robbery around a month ago (I was having lunch and saw the commotion at the Cumberland Farms convenience store across the street from my window seat in a restaurant.) At first it wasn't clear to any of us what was going on, but within minutes you should have seen the patrol cars, State police, and there was even a police helicopter, they managed to apprehend the idiot(s) within a half hour.

That's here in the civilized Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. Not a country like Afghanistan.

People should just keep this kind of thing in perspective when talking about how easy it is to restore order in some of these countries.

Iraq is not Afghanistan in any case, there are problems unique to the country and I wouldn't generalize overly on what to expect.
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