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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (166415)	7/18/2005 12:34:38 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Exactly! You've pretty much made my case. The gist of your argument is that Afghanistan had always been a lawless badland and never before supported international terrorism so that was not a predictable outcome. In other words, you were content to see them go back to killing each other so long as they did not affect us. But this is an argument for self-interest and not noble humanity you spoke of earlier. My question was why did we not help them to organize as a unified front at the table with Russians? And why did we not give them aid, hospitals, and schools, conditioned on forming a somewhat tolerant civil front? This would have been a noble goal and in complete accordance with American principles you are so proud of and ultimately in our self interest (though not obvious at the time). But your argument seems to be that since self interest was not so obvious at the time, we dropped the moral principles and that was ok, but now we see our self interest in nation building in Iraq so we are at it...where does the nobility come into play, then or now?

To: one_less who wrote (166415)	7/18/2005 12:44:07 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Right, not rocket science, and after the fact any child can figure it out. However, this region had been 'rife' for centuries, while repelling every global power that saw them as a hurdle along the path to world domination. The threat posed by the Taliban had not resulted in the past, and for the life of me I don't remember a single person predicting it prior to the build up of the Taliban. Maybe because in the past the 'rife' situation had resulted in a nation so wrought with inner conflict that it could pose no threat to the rest of the world. The Taliban was/is a ghost rider that showed up at an opportune time that was unlike any that preceded it. Now it seems there is no end of the people jumping in line to claim it should have been common sense. How about listing some of the brutal dictators that rise to power when there's longstanding internal strife... Stalin Hitler Pol Pot Now try listing the good guys that rise to power when there's longstanding internal strife. jttmab