This is just fine with me:
In his final address to Afghanistan’s parliament Saturday, President Hamid Karzai said U.S. soldiers can leave at the end of the year because his military already protects 93 percent of the country and was ready to take over entirely.
He reiterated his stance that he will not sign a pact with the United States that would provide for a residual force of U.S. troops to remain behind.
Except:
All 10 candidates seeking the presidency in the April 5 election have said they would sign the security agreement, but Karzai himself does not appear to want his legacy to include a commitment to a longer foreign troop presence in his country.
It’s my impression that Afghanistan doesn’t have anywhere near the tax base they would need to field an army that could secure 93% of their territory. Hamid Karzai makes less sense than Toronto mayor Rob Ford. But he’s right about one thing.
“I want to say to all those foreign countries who maybe out of habit or because they want to interfere, that they should not interfere,” he said.
We’ve been interfering for 13 years, and it hasn’t served our national interests. It’s time to break the habit.
Eh, that’s okay. The purpose has been served for the hawks. Besides, we now have John McCain publicly lobbying for a confrontation with Russia. Karzai is small potatoes. Yeah, baby! The Russian Bear is back!!!
I’m sure there are high fives all around at the Neocon Clubhouse.
I knew you’d begin to agree w/the Pauls!!!
Why?
Because they are right.
Ron Paul, 2011:
Next you’ll be admitting the the Federal Reserve is just a big-time boondoggle.
Why?
‘Cuz it is, Booman.
‘Cuz it is.
AG
Oooh — in 2011 (when a Democrat and non-white one as well was in the WH) Ron Paul said the US miliary shouldn’t be in Afghanistan. What a shame that when voices of dissent mattered and were real, your freaking hero wasn’t just AWOL but actively supported the first of Bush/Cheney’s “excellent adventures.”
The only member of Congress that exhibited any wisdom on that question was Barbara Lee. That Mr. Paul gained a bit of sanity a year later along with 131 other House members and the still wise Rep. Lee is hardly the mark of a “leader.”
If you get paid by Ron/RandPaulInc to continuously pitch the time these two stopped clocks are correct, would question your ethics but not your sanity. Otherwise, …
Let’s not let facts get in the way of the libertarian fantasy world. 😉
In fairness, they have come to agree with me, not the other way around.
Oh, dear. Rand Paul made a sad joke of Arthur’s representations. And in Time Magazine, the dreaded MSM:
http://time.com/17648/sen-rand-paul-u-s-must-take-strong-action-against-putins-aggression/
That reads like it was written by a PermaGov empire-worshipping toad. Missle-defense shields? Shoving the world around to do our bidding? What happened to the MIC-defying, anti-imperialist hero?
It’s like he was an insincere GOP tool all this time. Shocked, I am not.
I started an answer to this leftiness kneejerkery post. It grew. Read it here if you have the stomach for it.
Russia…How Shall We Proceed?
AG
The Mayor Kabul has spoken..
So, let’s go!!
We should never of went into Afghanistan in the first place. My father had over 27 years in the military.He always said that the quickest way to weaken the USA is go into the middle east. These people have been killing each other for generations and they will not stop.
They are not worth one drop of our military Personnel blood.
My opinion the next time neo-cons want a war we ship all of them over to the country they want to fight and never let them back.
Nothing racist or xenophobic about that at all because generations of white folks haven’t been killing each other … Well, except for WWII, WWI, US Civil War, War of 1812, Revolutionary War. And it doesn’t count when white (christian) folks invade any country of color and do the killing since that’s been going on for at least a thousand years.
In (a bit of) fairness, that’s why America’s policy for the first hundred years or so was to avoid alliances that would result in us getting pulled into Europe’s wars.
The US was also at that time bit busy fighting wars of conquest against native nations and communities in the western hemisphere.
Very true.
At the same time the Russians were doing the same thing, only to the east. Kind of interesting consider current events.
Not unimpeded nor uninvaded unless one discounts Napoleon, the Brits, and Ottoman Empire.
I’m talking about Siberia.
Also, I’ll grant you 1877 could have gone either way if they hadn’t screwed up but the I don’t think you can count the Ottomans as a significant opposition after the early 1700s until after 1877.
All 10 candidates seeking the presidency in the April 5 election have said they would sign the security agreement, ..
What a choice they have!! On the other hand, they all say that now. We’ll see what they say when they realize the job they’re really running for is Mayor of Kabul.
And when the “duly elected” Abdullah Abdullah signs the bilateral security agreement and asks for more advisers and military equipment, what will our “get out of Afghanistan” by the end of 2014 President do?
Karzai is very close to a lame duck.
On ending the war in Vietnam, he said “Declare victory and exit” or something of the sort.
That’s the answer here.