AMERICAblog: Bush's failures fester: Afghanistan erupts and terrorists reconstitute
Sage24
· 1 year ago
No one else seems to be saying it, but Bush and Cheney have failed miserably in Afghanistan too. We have NOT got Bin Laden, despite Bush's big talk about going into caves and getting him, dead or alive, we have not been able to wipe out the Taliban - they keep raising their ugly heads, again, and again, and our troops are getting killed by untrained militants. Yes, Bush has installed a puppet for President, but he is totally incompetent, and unable to control most parts of his country.
Bush and Cheney have only been successful in making their defense contractor buddies wealthy beyond all dreams. Good job, Republicans.
brb915
· 1 year ago
I'll say it with you Sage........this is by far the absolute worst president/administration this country has had the displeasure to endure. The question is, can we survive it?
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
I don't think so. The damage started a long time ago, and is just reaching its culmination in the financial bankruptcy of the US. I hope all those Rethug voters are happy as they lose jobs, homes and everything they ever dreamed of; it's hard to feel sorry for them if they continue listening to rightwing propaganda on radio and TV, through corrupt politicians, etc. They must be terribly naive, or just stupid.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
The funny thing is, the little greedhead bush voters are the ones who are about to lose the most. I have absolutely no sympathy for them. Matter of fact, they can choke on their on vomit face down on the street and die and do the world some good, finally. That's the point after all these years I've reached with them.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
Feel that tapping on your shoulder, wingnuts? That's reality trying to get your attention.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
We tried to warn you, wingnuts. And you howled and called us traitors for that for nearly 8 years. What is wrong with you people? Seriously. You're not normal type people. You should all be apologizing and trying to make amends or something. Not always blaming others like Schumer or Murtha or whoever the next one will be. We know you're lying and you know you're lying and you know we know you know you're lying. lol Aren't you christians too?
Oh well, enjoy what you have sown, I guess. What else can you say to those like you?
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
Actually, you've been screaming hatefully at us since ray gun. Well, enjoy the republican policy you demanded since then without any safety net.
randysmith
· 1 year ago
Glasses, If it were only THEM that was going down, I'd be first in line to say "I told you so!", but they're taking the rest of us down with them.
Some will no doubt blame US for being so "unpatriotic". If only we'd allowed ... more drilling, more pollution, more surveillance, more risky investments, privatized Social Security, less bank oversight, .... none of this would have happened.
In any case, they don't equate Bush's policies with the present problems. And they certainly don't see Iraq being the cause of any of it. Nor do they see McSame as continuing them... years?
If they did, he and Obama wouldn't be in a dead heat... They really do take the cake....
Is it merely the fault of the US education system -- or did Karl Rove really guarantee the Republican agenda for the next 50
Bush_Bites
· 1 year ago
Larry Kudlow says it's Obama's fault.
(Well, he says that in between snorts of cocaine.)
OlderAndWiser
· 1 year ago
OT, but Bush lackey Undersecretary for Natural Resources on CSPAN is giving entire credit for containing wildfires in CA to US Forest Service.
These assholes are incredible.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
Oh, and wingnuts, there ain't no god, either. LOL
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
LOL Sometimes you just have to be cruel to be kind...
Sage24
· 1 year ago
The wingnuts did call the anti war crowd "unpatriotic" and "cowards". So who is right now? These are the twits who voted not once, but TWICE for the worst, incompetent administration in our history. They make Nixon and Bush senior look good. They should be on their knees begging for forgiveness from this country, for voting for these war criminals, for the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, and for bankrupting this country.
Is that silence I hear?
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
Yeah, that's silence. And it really pissed me off having to apologize a number of times for this country to other nationalities because of them. But you have to because the wingnuts absolutely never will.
They have confirmed with indentification 94,000 dead Iraqi's. The unidentified or so badly blown up to be identified is another matter. Some numbers go as high as 500,00. Russia had its ass kicked from one end of the country to the other and so are we. The only area we truly control is Kabul where all our troops are massed. Karzai, our little caped crusader with the wedge hat sits as a Monarch counts his American blood money and our troops get blown up for what purpose I fail to see. We cannot win a war when we can't identify who we are fighting.
randysmith
· 1 year ago
I am reminded of the classic newsphoto from Vietnam which showed the American GI sweeping the road for mines while the locals rode by on their bikes or walked by carrying heavy loads. They knew EXACTLY where not to step.
Same with the Afghans. They don't want us there. They are perfectly happy to be ruled by Taliban. They have no clue what "democracy" is, nor do they care.
America is just another of the hundreds of occupiers that have come -- and hopefully, gone! -- through their country over the ages. We bring them nothing but grief and take nothing but their families [lives!].
I have become fully convinced that the terms "Moslem" and "Democracy" do not belong in the same paragraph. Those people are socially and culturally incapable of self-governance in any form we would recognize as "democratic". We should let them live their 12th century life. They pose no threat to us or our way of life.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
I totally agree. No doubt many of them also see democracy as just another word for dictatorship. Our democracy gives the illusion that we are electing representatives of the will of the people regardless of their party affiliation. In fact we are electing people whose agenda is about their own interests and the interests of the corporations and lobbyists who finance them. Our democracy has spawned countless wars and a depression as well as a number of recessions all controlled by Corporations and a government which follows the wishes of its masters the CEO's of American capitalism. We in America have abdicated our rights to a group of individuals who have no knowledge of working for a living and in fact at every turn have shown us they don't care what we want. They have raped the Social Security system of Billions of dollars, they have screwed up Medicare, allowed companies to outsource and pay no taxes in America and then shrug and say we are whiners. We have pissed away $1 Trillion in Iraq with another couple of Trillion to come and no one is accountable. That is the new definition of Democracy-----NO ACCOUNTABILITY
randysmith
· 1 year ago
lynchie,
The US is supposed to be a "republic". We send REPRESENTATIVES to CONGRESS to REPRESENT our interests. The fact that we as citizens have forfeited that right does not make "democracy" a bad word.
Democracy requires a reasonably educated populace. See the question in my other note: Is this the fault of the US education system or have the Karl Rove's et al actually achieved their objective.
I first voted for President in 1968. I have never been able to vote for ANYONE who I really thought represented my interests. "Least worst of the bad alternatives".
But to my original point: I don't think the typical Afghani sees "democracy" as anything. I don't think they recognize their current form of government as "dictatorial". They live a tribal existence. The local chief takes care of their needs, and they essentially give him their all. That's the way it's always been; that's the way it will always be.
Education to the rural Afghani is knowing the Koran. Few have ever seen a book. Fewer have seen TV. I suspect none have seen a "computer" or the Internet. I suspect many have never seen an automobile.
The "politicians" in Kabul or Kandahar are as likely to influence their lives as a Martian. Indeed, I suspect that few Kabul politicians have ever been to rural Afghanistan.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
I didn't say that democracy was a bad word, rather it is a word that means nothing. The dictionary's definition is: : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
Whether we are a republic or not is irrelevant. We are a democracy where the majority rules. We have an illusion of a democracy because no one cares what the majority think. I agree that Afghans could care less about democracy, but that is the horseshit we swallowed in Iraq and Afghanistan we were bringing them democracy. For both countries it boils down to the name of the new dictator and is he any more vile than the last one. Karzai is our man as is Maliki in Iraq. Neither give a shit about anything but their monthly checks from Washington along with the power the cling to in their respective countries. The population looks at these new governments as impediments in their attempts to grow more poppies and to live a simple life with occasional hassles from whom ever is the local madman.
Õ¿Õ
· 1 year ago
You can't fight a-symmetrical warfare no matter how many trillions you spend. The Taliban Afghanis are becoming much more clever in their guerilla warfare just like the Vietnamese did. They hit US troops at a time, early in the morning, when they were most vulnerable.
dougg
· 1 year ago
For Immediate Release --- Office of the Press Secretary --- November 24, 2003
''Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever.'' (Applause.)
jr
· 1 year ago
McCain's glad the troops are dying so they Megan can't "marry down"
PrahaPartizan
· 1 year ago
And, so it begins. Go take a look at the "Timeline" section in the Wikipedia write-up of the First Indo-China War on the events in 1950 (the link is: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War > ). The recent results in Afghanistan sound eerily like the French experience in losing Lai Khe in Tonkin just south of the Chinese border, followed by Cao Bank and Donk Khe. By the time the Viet Minh had taken Lang Son and forced the French to retreat, the French had lost a complete demi-brigade in a humilating, terrible retreat across mountain jungle wilderness. The whole border with China was replete with razorback ridges and steep ravines. Kinda like the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That was 1950. Four years later the Viet Minh had showed the French how the game was played. We didn't learn anything when we went to bat in 1955 and we clearly haven't learned anything in the intervening fifty years. Why else did we suck to Soviets into Afghanistan other than to give them a chance to play in the same punk's game.
All Comments
Bush and Cheney have only been successful in making their defense contractor buddies wealthy beyond all dreams. Good job, Republicans.
Oh well, enjoy what you have sown, I guess. What else can you say to those like you?
If it were only THEM that was going down, I'd be first in line to say "I told you so!", but they're taking the rest of us down with them.
Some will no doubt blame US for being so "unpatriotic". If only we'd allowed ... more drilling, more pollution, more surveillance, more risky investments, privatized Social Security, less bank oversight, .... none of this would have happened.
In any case, they don't equate Bush's policies with the present problems. And they certainly don't see Iraq being the cause of any of it. Nor do they see McSame as continuing them...
years?
If they did, he and Obama wouldn't be in a dead heat... They really do take the cake....
Is it merely the fault of the US education system -- or did Karl Rove really guarantee the Republican agenda for the next 50
(Well, he says that in between snorts of cocaine.)
These assholes are incredible.
Is that silence I hear?
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
They have confirmed with indentification 94,000 dead Iraqi's. The unidentified or so badly blown up to be identified is another matter. Some numbers go as high as 500,00. Russia had its ass kicked from one end of the country to the other and so are we. The only area we truly control is Kabul where all our troops are massed. Karzai, our little caped crusader with the wedge hat sits as a Monarch counts his American blood money and our troops get blown up for what purpose I fail to see.
We cannot win a war when we can't identify who we are fighting.
Same with the Afghans. They don't want us there. They are perfectly happy to be ruled by Taliban. They have no clue what "democracy" is, nor do they care.
America is just another of the hundreds of occupiers that have come -- and hopefully, gone! -- through their country over the ages. We bring them nothing but grief and take nothing but their families [lives!].
I have become fully convinced that the terms "Moslem" and "Democracy" do not belong in the same paragraph. Those people are socially and culturally incapable of self-governance in any form we would recognize as "democratic". We should let them live their 12th century life. They pose no threat to us or our way of life.
That is the new definition of Democracy-----NO ACCOUNTABILITY
The US is supposed to be a "republic". We send REPRESENTATIVES to CONGRESS to REPRESENT our interests. The fact that we as citizens have forfeited that right does not make "democracy" a bad word.
Democracy requires a reasonably educated populace. See the question in my other note: Is this the fault of the US education system or have the Karl Rove's et al actually achieved their objective.
I first voted for President in 1968. I have never been able to vote for ANYONE who I really thought represented my interests. "Least worst of the bad alternatives".
But to my original point: I don't think the typical Afghani sees "democracy" as anything. I don't think they recognize their current form of government as "dictatorial". They live a tribal existence. The local chief takes care of their needs, and they essentially give him their all. That's the way it's always been; that's the way it will always be.
Education to the rural Afghani is knowing the Koran. Few have ever seen a book. Fewer have seen TV. I suspect none have seen a "computer" or the Internet. I suspect many have never seen an automobile.
The "politicians" in Kabul or Kandahar are as likely to influence their lives as a Martian. Indeed, I suspect that few Kabul politicians have ever been to rural Afghanistan.
Whether we are a republic or not is irrelevant. We are a democracy where the majority rules. We have an illusion of a democracy because no one cares what the majority think. I agree that Afghans could care less about democracy, but that is the horseshit we swallowed in Iraq and Afghanistan we were bringing them democracy. For both countries it boils down to the name of the new dictator and is he any more vile than the last one. Karzai is our man as is Maliki in Iraq. Neither give a shit about anything but their monthly checks from Washington along with the power the cling to in their respective countries. The population looks at these new governments as impediments in their attempts to grow more poppies and to live a simple life with occasional hassles from whom ever is the local madman.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11...
''Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever.'' (Applause.)
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War > ). The recent results in Afghanistan sound eerily like the French experience in losing Lai Khe in Tonkin just south of the Chinese border, followed by Cao Bank and Donk Khe. By the time the Viet Minh had taken Lang Son and forced the French to retreat, the French had lost a complete demi-brigade in a humilating, terrible retreat across mountain jungle wilderness. The whole border with China was replete with razorback ridges and steep ravines. Kinda like the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. That was 1950. Four years later the Viet Minh had showed the French how the game was played. We didn't learn anything when we went to bat in 1955 and we clearly haven't learned anything in the intervening fifty years. Why else did we suck to Soviets into Afghanistan other than to give them a chance to play in the same punk's game.