Not going well:
Brig. Gen. Mohayden Ghori, who commands the Afghan forces involved in the operation and joined [the newly appointed mayor of Marja, Haji] Zahir at the meeting, told the men that “I understand some of your houses have burned. But let’s solve our problems with negotiations, not with weapons.”
Is it me? Or does that strike you as a tough sell?
Depends on how you say it, I s’pose….
Say it with a dozen heavily-armed soldiers behind you at the time, and don’t allow the men to leave until an agreement is hammered out, and you just might be money ahead….
But, in general, I’m with you–the statement in itself seems a little silly, given the stated circumstances…
Reminds me of someone’s tagline that was something along the lines of “Speak kindly of America or we’ll bring democracy to your country…”
Perhaps he’s very pursuasive. < coughing >
Depends on what the date for rebuilding the houses is.
Also depends on the quality of the translation; I doubt that this conversation was conducted in English.
This has no supporting evidence other than what we know about the region:
And the reporter knows this how?
I’d have to say offer is probably going to be followed up by the Afghan equivalent of “fuck you.”
As it should be!
really?
You automatically think the Taliban are preferable to this Afghan mayor and Brigadier General?
Care to elaborate on why you assume that?
You are asking the wrong question.
PS Are you suggesting that the Taliban are not as Afghan as the Americans’ hand-picked mayor and Brigadier General are?
No, I am not suggesting that, although some of the Taliban are in fact Pakistani. I am wondering why you assume the appropriate response to the Karzai government is fuck you when the alternative is the Taliban. Seems to me that fuck you is appropriate all around, but if you’re forced to make a choice, you’d probably side with the crooks that don’t treat women as chattel.
The Taliban are overwhelmingly Afghan. And I consider fuck you to be the appropriate response to all of them. Choice? What choice? Do you want your arms or your legs cut off? That’s a choice?!
well, yeah, they are overwhelmingly Afghan, but that can be a bit deceiving. Number one, in the areas of border-Pashtun areas of Afghanistan the meaning of being an Afghan versus a Pakistani is really pretty overrated. Number two, most of the original Taliban were actually raised and educated in Pakistan. So, they might be ethnically Afghan, but they’re really (for the most part) ethnically Pashtun and raised in Pakistan.
After many years of Taliban rule and another decade of insurgency, the kids in the Taliban today are probably more made up of born and raised Afghans.
“the meaning of being an Afghan versus a Pakistani is really pretty overrated.“
Exactly. So, then why would you expect them to care that the mayor and brigadier general hand-picked by the Americans to serve the Americans’ interests in their town, and brought to them by days and days of fire, blood and destruction are Afghan?
And what does their being ethnically Pashtun have to do with the issue? Afghanistan is made up of a number of different tribes/nations/ethnicities, one of the major ones is Pashtun, and none of them is any more or less Afghan than another.
Sounds to me like a heaping, steaming pile of hypocritical imperialist bullshit. But you know how sensitive I am about these things.
Like how do you negotiate about burnt homes when almost thirty humans were inside them.
Exactly. And how dare he condescendingly lecture people to use negotiations and not weapons when he is the one who used his weapons to burn their homes and the people who were inside them?
.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan jobs bill cleared a GOP filibuster on Monday with critical momentum provided by the Senate’s newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
The 62-30 tally to advance the measure to a final vote on Wednesday gives both President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats a much-needed victory — even though the measure in question is likely to have only a modest boost on hiring.
Brown and four other Republicans broke with GOP leaders to advance the measure.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Cheney in hospital.
http://www.journal-post.com/2010/02/22/3771/former-vp-dick-cheney-hospitalized-with-chest-pains/
Bummer.
Hurria,
I`m still laughing.
But only because you caught me by surprise.
The other thing that bothers me is the apology last week when I posted this comment.
“Re: A Better Afghanistan Strategy, But Still… (none / 0)
What I don`t get is why is Mccrystal meth apologizing to Karzai, the lamb-fetus hat wearing puppet. As a commander, he should resign in shame immediately & beg forgiveness from the any remaining family of those so callously killed.
I say callous because he apologized to someone who could care less about the peasants so far away from Kabul where he has no influence whatsoever.
This whole project was a fiasco from the start & is now making 10/15,000 troops look like total fucking idiots for being so cleverly played by 400/1000 “insurgents”, Taliban, or what ever boogey boogey you want to call them.
The military are even now crying foul because the enemy doesn`t want to stand up & fight.
When you step into the ring, you don`t ever have the advantage of telling your opponent how to fight.
Any such mention, makes you a loser.”
And now another apology, by the same commander, to the same puppet, for the same reason, differing solely in the number of civilians murdered.
He can`t keep apologizing, but he could resign, although, then he`d have to admit their god is pretty tough compared to his, something he`d never admit to himself.
The other number that`s changed is now there are 40 tough fighters holding up the works against thousands of their enemy, the best equipped & best trained, in the world.
Something is wrong in Denmark.
It’s all such a sham, isn’t it?
Hurria,
It`s actually a Sham Wow.
Buy now & get another one free.
Two apologies for the price of some humans.
It`s propaganda at it`s crassest.
And the scary part is that so many people are buying it hook, line, and sinker. I doubt many Afghans are impressed, however.
One should always be careful.
At one point one will have to wonder who is doing the fishing.
Often it`s too late to throw the hook.
A few more bombed wedding parties might do it, though I`d prefer a peaceful bait cutting.
Get out now, would work for most Afghanis I think.
I always wonder about the stolen baby incubator stories & those who report the women as chattel & acid burnt little girls.
I want to hear more about white phosphorus burning children & who was doing that.
Cast ye not the first stone.
Well, we KNOW the babies thrown out of incubator story was a lie concocted by George H.W. Bush’s multi-million-dollar P.R. campaign run by the firm Hill & Knowlton, part of whose fees were paid, if I remember correctly, but the Kuwaiti royal family. The girl, Nayirah, was, if memory serves, in fact a member of said royal family who had not even been in Kuwait at the time of the alleged baby murders.
I can’t speak one way or the other about the Afghan horror stories regarding women, but I can tell you that 1) how Muslim women dress is not necessarily an indication of how oppressed they are or are not, 2) according to RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, and other groups and individuals, overall the conditions girls and women are facing in Afghanistan have not noticeably improved, and in many respects they have worsened as a direct result of the war.
That`s why i said,”cast not the first stone”.
Nice talking to you.
I`m outta here to get some sleep.