“NATO-led forces in Afghanistan do not have the means to secure the country in the face of a barrage of insurgent attacks, a senior French general with the force has warned.
“The 41,OOO soldiers in ISAF are largely insufficient to ensure security,” said Brigadier General Vincent Lafontaine, the chief of planning for the International Security Assistance Force deployed here under a UN mandate. “That does not mean we are going to lose this operation, but it is going to take a lot longer for us to finish the job.”
http://images.military.com/slideshows/yir-2007.htm?ESRC=army.nl

Are our Special Forces poised to seize Pakistan’s nukes if and when the government falls in the face of the present political unrest…? This could rapidly deteriorate into a “who flung dung into the fan” situation.

Olde soldier queries…?

Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa

His citations appear detailed yet, I was curious if any had read any his writing and what your take on it was. I’d hate to be stuck going up the Khyber Pass….

Thanks in advance.

Also, I don’t condone the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan anymore than I do US imperialism, But I would much rather be an Afghan women under their rule than that of the US’s friends.

The movie is as much a period piece as it is an attempt to be accurate.

Truth is the first casualty in any political action anyways… Hollywood sells a three letter word for truth called ‘lie’ better than anyone could as well.

See also Rambo.

The Soviet Union was about to implode on its own, but this did effectively help establish a barrier to expansion of influence in the region, that was deemed key. Ironically we used China as a plausible lever to be part of the support and now they own the largest market sectors there.

Disclosure is what this movie helps establish.

That said, more items were going parallel to this timeline.
Triangulation was occuring, even with opposition support. Saddam got help to fight Iran, the Northern Alliance was getting money to become complicit in the pipeline ventures, and the Taliban and ISI elements were getting our share of cash as well.

Colin Powell took 42 million there before 9-11 as Sec. Of State.

Lots of bananna republics got laundered through the Wilson war(s). Kingpins made their money at the behest of being anticastro in another hemisphere.

Zbiginiew admits we created a need to invade the country. We were supporting coverts there in Afghanistan prior to the invasion.

One thing all of the action in retrospect has proven, is that those silly liberals with their concern on women’s rights with regard to the Taliban were really weak and wrong for considering them to be dangerous…

Hoffman plays someone who was not PC. A competent person for his job capacity, just not someone who said the right things. He wasn’t in ‘it to win it, just like Tenet’ so he didn’t move up the ladder.

Now we have worse ass kissers ready to say what the executive wants to hear. More so even in the FBI.

A new kind of plurality is emerging. Awareness and interaction are occurring online. People are deepening ties with humanity’s greater values through forms of altruism and business such as microcredit, or helping otherwise to their personal favorite cause.

In time we’ll exceed the capacity of the infrastructure to prevent this. No more Cold War fogs. The market will shape to the mindset of internationlists and human rights advocacy as they exchange within the model.

It will only accelerate if we return to merit models within the ranks of our established political channels. Americanism itself will try and deny that, our own culture has morphed into one of colonial privlege.

There was a dual model that emerged there too, plural value will win the day as it did in Revolutionary Declarations of Independence. A certain Ambassador, who has made posts here, highlights the emerging awareness and interaction that will become an important part of the human experience. We are in a partnership of shared interests.

The sooner we can shape the conversation to show that America adopts the needs of community as a peer, and not from some self perceived elevated perch, the sooner we can be seen as part of the solution instead of being today thought part of the problem.

As for the film topic, who would ever have though we’d have everyone in praise of Wilsonian narratives?

Ironic, indeed.

A different Wilson, unique, in a league of his own. One who was also an internationalist, who views all items through more narrow a channel. One that was always focused upon his own interests but that still saw some kind of broad emerging narrative, a background that would come to overshadow future decades.

If anything one could deconstruct his work to see how best to counter reactionaries. We have to quit promoting bad guys vs. bads guys, in other words.

http://tinyurl.com/yq5j55

I echo Chris’s remarks above – Happy NEW Year to No Quarter, Larry, Susan, Joe and Val, and the rest – you guys are the best resources in the blogosphere!

I did catch the History Channel 2 hr bit last week and was rivetted by its coverage because I really didn’t know it came down to such a small cadre of people who got that started.

It was also sad in a way to have to tell my dear as we watched it that yes the Soviets were indeed that brutal and that it boggles the mind what they did. I proceeded to pull 2 old headlines about a young officer who was told so stab a 14 yr old in the back as he was defenseless.

But the ins and outs of the History channel were in that docudrama fashion and with Charlie Wilson and others commenting. Catch it if you can.

And yes, I’m in my upper 30s and this is sorta sketchy for my memory because I was just a kid still. I did pay attention to Reagan, and of course we had the movie Red Dawn, Rambo, and others to show us Rushkies and all the hype. Of course the key chopper in those flicks to scare us were MiMi HindDs too.

The area is so historic, I believe the average American cannot fathom that region. Hindu Kush and all, it has seen epic events and it will see more. It might help to have a bit more humble approach to such an ancient region, but no…we have rhetoric to spew…onward Obama, Guilliani, McCain, et al.

Happy NEW Year to No Quarter, Larry, Susan, Joe and Val, and the rest of all.

AND WE really want a visit with Larry, Joseph, and Valerie in Houston on the Italian Letter, Niger Visit, Outing to today, panel….we’ll keep pushing.