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Politics : BuSab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (2071)	10/7/2009 3:05:19 PM
From: SmoothSail	2 Recommendations Respond to of 23934

The illusion is that we can "win" this "war". There is no way EVER that anyone is going to change the century's old culture in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is no way anyone is going to inflict Western thinking and Western culture on these people anymore than they can inflict their culture on us. There is no "war" to "win". So, what is the end game? What are we trying to do? Nation building? Democracy? Ain't gonna happen in this lifetime. The tribal chiefs are in charge and everyone likes it that way - been the way of life for centuries. Flush out Al Qaeda? Possible, if we take Oral's approach and get the cooperation of the natives who will rat them out. Again, it's the trial chiefs who will make that decision. The tribal chiefs are the ones who make the determination as to whether the Taliban gets to operate or not. They use them as their police force. There are all kinds of "terror" groups in the Mideast - and around the world for that matter. en.wikipedia.org The main ones operating in Afghanistan are the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Mujahideen. They have separate purposes. Al Qaeda's mission is killing us - as is the purpose of the mullahs and government of Iran. (The common folks in Iran like the Western way of life and would like more of it.) The Taliban are mostly concerned with controlling their own people. Again, they operate at the pleasure of the tribal chiefs. They like Sharia Law because they can control the population with it. They are fighting us because we are there. If we weren't there, doubt they would be coming after us. That's Al Qaeda's job. The Mujahideen in Afghanistan are freedom fighters that formed in response to the Soviet invasion. They are different from the Mujahadine in Iran who at first fought against the shah and then Khomeini, who killed hundreds of thousands of them and those "suspected" as being Mujahadine. There are several branches of the Mujahadine, just like Acorn, and they have cross-purposes. They will fight us, Al Qaeda if they have to or anyone else who threatens their beliefs. You can't make nice-nice with any of these groups. There's no Afghan army. No general commanding activities. No organization. These are separate groups that are well-funded and well-armed. Who is arming and funding them? How are they getting their supplies? How are they feeding all these people? It's a land-locked land. As soon as life is made more miserable than it already is for Afghans, this conflict will be over. All we have to do is decide what we want - i.e. OBL and Al Qaeda - get it and get out. When we leave, everything will go back to the way it was. They will go back to fighting each other like they have forever.