--- Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Deborah Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > > Is that the peace of warlords who are fighting for > > control of the country outside of Kabul and a few > > other cities? I'm really not trying to be snide > > here, but having to run a gauntlet of various armed > > factions outside of the major cities is not in my > definition of a country at peace. > > Me: > Debbi, what on earth do you think life was like in > Afghanistan before we went in? I'm being serious, > not > sarcastic, but as far as I can tell, you think we > failed in Afghanistan because it's not Switzerland. > Let me tell you, it's not Switzerland. It's not > going > to be Switzerland in my lifetime. It probably isn't > _ever_ going to be Switzerland. Afghanistan, right > now, is probably in better shape than it has been at > any time in recorded history. Running a gauntlet of > various factions outside of major cities is the > normal > state of affairs in Afghanistan. It has _always_ > been > like that. The fact that people usually make it > through the gauntlet, the fact that things are more > stable now than they have been historically - that > is a tribute to the success of American power. You > keep posting stuff about piddly-little fighting in > Afghanistan - why don't you ever compare that to the > way things were before we intervened? Why isn't > that your yardstick?
<wryly> I clearly said in my post that things *are* better than they were under the Taliban (did you miss my "duh!" ?) - and posted a UN report (excerpt & link) that details both the improvements, and how far there is yet to go. I didn't say that we have failed - I said it's going to take ongoing commitment of money and manpower to dig them out of the hole they're in -- part of which is the fault of US government policy post-Russians-kicked-out. We left a power vacuum - the Taliban stepped in, and that led eventually to the hateful terrorists who caused 9/11. Of course I think that the US has been primarily a force for good - but there *have* been serious mistakes made WRT intervention in foreign countries/governments (and Iraq is one of those). Anyone who thinks that dealing with Iraq AND Afghanistan AND world-wide terrorism will be easy or cheap is wearing rose-colored glasses, particularly when you add the domestic goals of tax cuts AND prescription drug benefits (among others). As others have said, so far Americans have been asked to go out and shop; it's going to take a lot more than that to support these programs. Debbi __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
