Name That Country!

I thought it was Iran, but missed.
It is Afganistan (Kabul= Capital City.)

Looking forward to your first story! I think most people do not know as much as they should about Afghanistan. I need to know more myself…

Oh my. What should Obama do? As far as I know, no one has conquered Afghanistan and had it last.

It seemed right to go in in 2001 and find OBL, but that never happened. I hate the way the Taliban treat women. I’d like to see it overturned for that reason alone. But we have been there for, what, 8 years and what have we really accomplished?

Our President says we are losing. What would a win look like???

Naming Afghanistan was much easier than the countries bordering it! I’m looking forward to learning more than the talking points the media uses (as opposed to in depth info).

Get the region involved in solving the dire situation.. involve all the neighboring countries possible, get Russia, China, ME involved. Sort of the North Korea model Bush used, plus more. After all, we are in a globalized world.

The only positive stats is the growth rate. And if the 44% under 14 years of age population can be reached and saved in the next decade, maybe the country has a chance, imo.

Looking forward to the upcoming material.

This is going to be good to learn about Afghanistan because we certainly can’t count on the main stream media. Thanks in advance.

Grim statistics. I’ll be interested in forthcoming info.

Maybe they should put all the males in detention for awhile and let the women rebuild.

Very interesting article pointing out just how little most of us know about a country who originally attacked us and we have been involved with for years. A country where we supposedly went in to fight our enemy and won and yet the fight has continued for years, because now we are fighting to protect a friend of the U.S.? If you do not first win the war on poverty, ignorance, and the harts and mind of the people, we will never be able to get out no matter how many solders and arms we send.

I bet you do not find many countries with the kinds of statistics described in your article exist where the people are not open to the Taliban or others like that. In countries like the one described I bet the majority of the people do not feel like the government is on their side so what do they have to loose. Just like in our country when teens feel that their parents, police, schools, and the government are not on their side they turn to gangs for a sense of belonging and a feeling of some kind of power.

I fear that unless the entire world joins in was on poverty the war on terror will not end. I know for sure the United States can not do it alone.

Rich

Niaf Sag Tan, salutations. I look forward to your work.

I believe that BO should not repeat the maistakes of the past.

Close the deal.

Your name gave it away! The Onion’s World Book re: Afghanistan is really funny.

Since the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddhas, I couldn’t care less how they get it under control.

Train pilots and make it a weapons testing site for all I care. Turn them into amazing glass objects to replace the artifacts they destroyed in the Kabul Museum with sledgehammers -

when they smashed 2,500 priceless artifacts stored there.

They already treat women, animals, gays, and infidels like shit. Screw them and their heroin hell hole.

Julie..Spot on!

Obama will resist leaving Afganistan for one reason only…Jobs
Afdganistan and our advance into Pakistan represents a giant overseas work program to keep our soldiers from coming home to unemployment lines.

Obama has launched a review of U.S policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan with a report to be delivered this month. His first major decision as commander in chief, however, was to authorize 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The British Defense Ministry thinks this will improve the Afghan security situation. But this may be putting the cart before he horse. Why rush in troops before a review of the situation is completed?

I am not sure we have any business being in Afghanistan. We don’t understand the culture and the tribal conficts that have existed for years in the region. Russia pulled out because they couldn’t find a military solution. I don’t think there is one.

I look forward to the report of the review underway and and approve of diplomatic efforts to stabilize the area. But I am inclined to agree with with the assessment of a former British special forces commander who described Britain’s military efforts in southern Afghanistan as “worthless.”

I have a strong feeling that our involvement will be interminable and worthless, as well. I see another Iraq shaping up and a war we can’t afford, especially as our eonomy at home is in shambles.

I don’t think we can afford to try to solve all the world’s problems with military action. All we do is further alienate the Muslims and Arabs with our arrogant stance. Might doesn’t always make right.

I’ve been thinking along those same lines, Rich. I’m also wondering what happened to the billions of dollars pledged by various countries to restore and create a new infrastructure for Afghanistan and repair years of destruction by the Soviets first and later this war. Fanatics have a hard time gaining a permanent foothold in a prosperous and healthy environment.

Barackistan?

I had the (dis)pleasure of going to Afghanistan a while back. I went to one of the new “stores” in Kabul. It consisted of a smelly guy, a card table, a tent and a lightbulb somehow attached to a large car-looking battery. I was not sure what actually was for sale.

The main hotel, there was one at that time, lost power because some journalist plugged in a space heater. The entire hotel. It was freezing. We had a minor earthquake and I thought the building was done for.

The saddest part is that without the scumbag humans it actually looks like it could be Switzerland. Huge mountains looming right outside of town, ski resorts would be everywhere, attached to great public transport. Cafes everywhere. But nope, not gonna happen. Instead people dig holes in the hills and live there.

The best was that although Afghans have a lot of (pretty good) food, the UN would give them some free food if they could show a family member was starving. We called it the “Starve a Daughter” program, because to get free food that what many families did. Hopefully someone somewhere noticed that this program was a bad idea.

Looking forward to your articles.

When I read that Brzezinski was one of Obama’s advisors for Foreign Affairs, I knew there was a serious problem with Obama.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html

Centre for Research on Globalisation

According to this 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the CIA’s intervention in Afghanistan preceded the 1979 Soviet invasion. This decision of the Carter Administration in 1979 to intervene and destabilize Afghanistan is the root cause of Afghanistan’s destruction as a nation.

M.C.

The CIA’s Intervention in Afghanistan
Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,
President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser

Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998
Posted at globalresearch.ca 15 October 2001

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

Translated from the French by Bill Blum

The URL of this article is:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html

Copyright, Le Nouvel Observateur and Bill Blum. For fair use only.

Knowing very little about the country, the only thing I would state with any degree of certainty is that the people of this country are hardened and stoic.
No one has been successful at overcoming them, and that probably will not change.
These people need to make the changes necessary to improve and modernize their lives!

Dear Readers:

Thank you for your comments and thoughts. I am just stuck on Afghanistan as I know it is not in our interest to be there, and I can’t stand Genocide.
The Russians killed over 1 Million Afghani’s, and displaced over 1 Million more. When 44% of the population is under 14, I think that every one of them will have had such scars, with family members being killed, being starved and scared to death, that we will have created a marching army of Patriots that will throw the invaders out, or die trying.

Keep commenting on future articles. There have been lots of stories written in the past at NQ. Search the site for some interesting past stories. Thanks to you readers for the chance to share my thoughts with you.

Great post Niaf! I don’t envy YOUR work over there…

Women only have 4 years of education and males 11! Thanks to the religious fanatics of the Taliban. The Russians and the Brits before them couldn’t tame these mountaineering “insurgents”. I don’t see how Obama can. The troops should remain in there and do more of the other two “D”s Hillary spoke about. DEVELOPMENT and diplomacy. Then their hearts will be won first perhaps….I have a feeling that the presence of American troops helping out with their development needs will be welcomed more than strictly tanks in their roads….

Yes, Niaf, it’s hard to forget when your family’s been extinguished by the Russian (or any other) army. But it’s different when you teach the people there SKILLS and EDUCATE them.

I read that last year the Greek army had provided a HOSPITAL-TANK and was treating people. Why can’t the Army provide surgeons, doctors, nurses and Obama actually–rather than sending money that’s going to Karza’i's family pockets–sends Hillary with a billion to CONSTRUCT HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL with emphasis on GIRLS’ EDUCATION….but…no visible guns or tanks….That’s how you’d win the “War”–rather than provide bodyguards for the oil companies’ pipeline interests in the Caspian!!!

Sassy
How can these poor people, always under siege and attack by foreign interests, ever make those changes needed? They need concrete help in education,esp. for girls, hospitals, nursing and diplomatic skills (send HIllary!) are needed there to be employed by soldiers and civilians than anything else. That’s how you win people’s hearts and ensure their future. Not sending tanks to destroy them! the Russians tried, The Brits before them, hte Chinese….need to listen to Hillary’s 3 D’s Diplomacy and Development are needed–forget phony defence for the pipelines of George Soros’ companies….taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to subsidize these companies…

Precisely Don!

Why did sneaky Obama –when he told the CBC journalist day he visited Canada that he doesn’t “believe in military solutions, only development!–send in the troops of 17,000!!! His agenda was to distract the media with his phony 6-hour trip to Ottawa so he could send in the troops! What a phony! What a phony war….

After having read everyone’s great posts, I’m surprised that no one has suggested retraining the population into growing profitable crops and get rid of poppy (heroin) production.

I had an uncle who was a PhD college prof who was hired by the Ford Foundation to live in a variety of countries and teach college students how to grow crops suitable for their soil and climate variations, and in some countries to plant and raise 2 or more crops per year, thus increasing the food supply as well as some for exportation. The students would then go out to teach the populace to learn a new way to earn a living. Some of his stops were Philippines, Thailand, & Uganda. From what I understand Afghanistan has a hot/cold climate, and that some hardy fruit and vegetable crops could substitute for the poppies.

Perhaps it would give the people an alternative life style and they could become interested in living, instead of “war-ing”. IMHO the population needs to be re-energized into another life style. Would this be something several colleges/universities (each furnishing one educator, along with some of the military personnel, could form an “Extension service” similar to what we have in the US, to help the Afghans, instead of carrying guns and ammo to shoot-up the country? I dunno, but it might be worth a try.

What has been tried so far, has failed.