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TechnoratiMassive US Assault to Seize Taleban Heartland
Thousands of US Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the first major military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taleban-held territory.
![[Marines walk towards helicopters as they launch offensive. (AFP photo)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/afghanistan_0.JPG "afghanistan.JPG")
Operation Khanjar, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, a heartland of the Taleban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region.
It is the biggest operation launched by the US Marines Corps since the retaking of Fallujah in 2004 and seeks to break the grinding stalemate between Nato forces and the Taleban in the province.
US commanders stressed this morning their desire to move quickly and decisively with overwhelming force to seize the entire southern Helmand River valley from Taleban control ahead of the delayed Afghan Presidential elections on August 20.
"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan said in a statement.
He told his staff before the operation: "The intent is to go big, go strong and go fast, and by doing so we are going to save lives on both sides."
The 4,000 men from US 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade enjoy the support of their own integrated air wing, giving them more air support than the entire 8,000 strong British force has had at its disposal.
The US force went into action with the support of 650 Afghan troops, an operation by foreign ground troops on a scale unseen in Afghanistan since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
The operation would have an initial highly aggressive stage lasting 36 hours, AFP reported.
This morning wave upon wave of helicopters landed Marines in darkness at locations throughout the fertile river valley, a crescent of opium and wheat fields criss-crossed by canals and dotted with mud-brick homes.
Meanwhile hundreds more Marines raced by ground in convoys through the barren desert region that abuts the irrigated areas of the province. Known in the local Pashto language as the ‘Desert of Death', temperatures reach 50C at this time of year.
Captain Bill Pelletier, a spokesman for the Marines, said no clashes with Taleban troops had been reported, but a Marine had been slightly injured by a roadside bomb.
The operation was aimed at putting pressure on insurgents "and to show our commitment to the Afghan people that when we come in we are going to stay long enough to set up their own institutions," Captain Pelletier said.
He said the US military was prepared for casualties, but stressed that "it is absolutely essential that no civilians be harmed".
"We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy, we want to protect them from the enemy," he said.
The Marines hope by appearing suddenly and in overwhelming numbers, they can capture some of the Taleban's firmest strongholds with little resistance.
"Towns that were the Taleban heartland will fall. They will fall quickly. And hopefully they will fall without a shot. That's our intent," Brigadier General Nicholson said.
However, the greater challenge will be holding and stabilising such gains against Taleban re-infiltration and convincing a highly sceptical local population that Western forces will offer long-term security and improvements to their lives. The developing symbiotic relationship between the Taleban and Helmand's drugs mafia will further complicate that process. The province is the largest producer of opium in the world, the raw base for 90 per cent of the heroin used by British drug addicts. Drugs money has become a major source of Taleban funding and hundreds of thousands of local people are involved in the production and harvesting of opium poppy.
The insurgents have proved adept at reinfiltrating behind Western forces using the local civilian populace as cover. It is a problem that has beset the 8,000 British troops who have been thinly spread across Helmand, the country's largest province and roughly akin to twice the size of Wales, since they were deployed to the region in 2006.
Though Britain has doubled its troop presence since an initial deployment in 2006, they have been too few in number to do more than take and hold a few key islands of territory in the province.
Nato internal documents seen by the Times concede that 5 of the 13 districts of the province currently have no Afghan government presence at all. Ahead of the August elections Western forces are likely to attempt to cut the Taleban's supply lines southward, across the border to safe havens in Pakistan, whilst deluging the highly populated central parts of the province with Western troops.
The 10,000 Marines in Helmand Province, 8,500 of whom arrived in the last two months, form the biggest wave of an escalation ordered by President Obama.
He has declared the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan to be America's main foreign threat. Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are at their highest since the militants were toppled in 2001.
Under President Obama the US force in Afghanistan is more than doubling this year, from 32,000 at the start of 2009 to an anticipated 68,000 troops by the end of the year, many of them diverted from Iraq. Other Western countries have about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Addressing Marine commanders days before the assault, Dutch Major-General Mart de Kruif compared it to the D-Day invasion that changed the course of World War Two.
"We have people out there who do not realise that progress is about to come to them," he said. "We have enemies out there who do not yet realise that they are going to lose."
The governor of Helmand province, Gulab Mangal predicted the operation would be "very effective".
"The security forces will build bases to provide security for the local people so that they can carry out every activity with this favourable background and take their lives forward in peace," the governor said in a Pentagon news release.
Local phone masts in the area affected by the operation appeared to have been switched off this morning, though it was not clear whether this was due to US or Taleban action.
84 Comments so far
Show AllLook out! You're surrounded by photographers.
yes mordicai they will make that into a recruitment commercial
and some more young and inexperienced kids will be murdered
as a result! lino very funny. don't screw around with
ollie north's business huh? you sure got that right.
trouble with human beings is that we are notoriously
slow learners and never are able to remember to learn
from our history.i saw noam chomsky speak a few weeks back
and he has very little faith that we are going to make it
as a species. we will end up like t rex or more likely
like the do do bird.
I remember a very similar situation in Vietnem. We Americans moved in in great force and overan the country.
The result: uncounted deaths of innocents
uncounted US addicts
uncounted costs
25 years later the discovery of oil in Vietnam
But, we're doing it for our country, aren't we?
Like SHELL....Holland
BP.......England
Petrocan....Canada
and all the others who hide the money away from taxation while shafting us.
Well go out and find the dope, guys, and get a gorilla on your back if you can. Don't forget to bring lots back to the USA to save your brothers and sisters from poverty. If you fail, we'll put your name on a wall somewhere and make a stash of your a**.
one would guess the cia is really pissed at the marines right about now. how dare the military to fuck with the cia's drug trafficking.
I think it would be hilarious if the CIA and the Marines got into a massive firefight over the poppy fields.
Actually the supply of heroin needs to be limited so as to maximize profits with high prices and retain monopolies on supply.
That would be funny. The sad part is that invariably, some kid looking out the window at a wedding party is the one that is going to get the bullet, or worse yet, a 2,000 lb. bomb.
For those of you who don't know about or remember Hamburger Hill during the Vietnam War, please read about it. This little fracas sounds amazingly similar.
"Go big, go strong, go fast." Sounds like an ad line for the next installment of "The Fast and the Furious". The military is typically so full of shit!
And just to show you how stupid the American military is, google "pork chop hill" and see how the same stupidity prevailed in Korea nearly 15 years or so earlier. years earlier.
Poet
I had a history teacher who said he was an officer on Hamburger Hill. He later did embassy duty for the Marines in Latin America. He had the most amazing stories...the attempted Nazi coup in Brazil is my favorite.
The Taliban are a hell of a lot smarter than the West can even imagine. The Marines are wasting their time and our taxpayer money. Bring 'em home already !
One small nitpick with many of the comments above. An Afghani is a unit of currency used in Afghanistan. An Afghan is a person who was born in Afghanistan or has Afghan heritage. We "Americans" (as though there is only one country in all of North and South America) wouldn't want to be called "dollars" although that might actually make more sense.
Watch out Afghans, here come the Dollars.
Hmmmmm....
Actually an Afghani is the tourist term for an Afghan Rupee.
"make more sense."
Make more cents, you mean.
Early reports indicate very light to no resistance, just as you might expect. "Insurgents" ( nationalists fighting to remove foreign occupiers from their native soil) are well-informed enough to anticipate these big shows of force and melt into the hills. Then they will infiltrate back in and start planting their road-side bombs, doing hit and run attacks, or focusing their efforts in areas where there is no large counter-insurgenct forces. Or, like Iraq, they may simply wait it out for a longer period, conserving and building up their resources, infiltrating and lulling the enemy into complacency and then striking again when the time is ripe.
It's classic. This is why counter-insurgency warfare is so unsuccessful. You can kill all the Afghans you want, it just re-enforces their courage and determination. "Winning over their hearts and minds" is a futile endeavor, ill-concieved as only Americans could, thinking that Afghans are going to give up their self-determination for the "goodies" of consumer culture; the same old "arrogance of power" remarked on by Senator Fulbright during the war in Vietnam. And we have the very same condundrums: bomb from high altitudes with devastating consequences for civilian populations, growing hatred and resistance week by week or refrain from bombing and being unable to get at significant concentrations of the "enemy's" forces.
This has been spelled out over and over again but nobody listens or takes the lessons to heart. In fact, what I see, is just another replay of the exterminating campaigns waged against the natives of North America in the 19th century, only now there is no practical limit to the perimeters of the conflict.
"In fact, what I see, is just another replay of the exterminating campaigns waged against the natives of North America in the 19th century ... "
That, basically, seems to be what we DO. We kill non-caucasians for the caucasian agenda. If some black and brown and yellow people want to help out from time to time that's fine, happy to have 'em aboard, but mostly its caucasians running around the world trying to subjugate and steal from and slaughter indigenous non-caucasian peoples. Its for their own good. We are only there to help them.
I couldn’t agree more with Abendland, and his quote from Woody, or Johntwodogs above and many others here, and in that vein let me get this strait in my mind?
A bunch of gung ho marines and the rest of NATO’s yahoos are liberating Afghanistan from the Taliban. They have been working on this project for…. a few too many years?
Most Afghans see these foreigners as infidel alien invaders, colonising their country. They are not far off the mark.
As airstrikes and other “mistakes” kill more civilians, and the Taliban plus war-lords control more of the country, most reconstruction funds evaporate or go into the corrupt pockets of the chosen few in the “Government” in Kabul, more and more Afghan men, mostly from the rural hinterland join the Taliban to fight against the invaders.
Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, says they are fighting and “working” (that is marine talk for killing Afghans) so that they can “transition … all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,”
Which brings me to the question:
Why are these Afghans who fight for the Taliban willing to fight stupidly lead but well equipped foreigners, (many of whom are going to die) plus their own Afghan brothers supposedly fighting along side, if they believed for one moment that the foreigners were just going to hand over to Afghan forces and leave, having “liberated” Afghanistan.
Why? Well perhaps these Taliban really know what British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has said about what is going on. "The task of standing up a government of Afghanistan that is sustainable is going to take a very long time……… we should be thinking in terms of decades."
He said in effect that the people of Afghanistan have tried the Taliban and now want the foreign forces to prevail and impose, support, assist, in establishing a government HE or his cronies in London or Washington considers sustainable. Do they really, Sir?
I think the Taliban gets stronger the longer they stay. The Russians were no better or worse than this lot are. What you consider “sustainable” is really only what you and your friends can control, Isn't it, Sir?.
Sir Sherard, no Marine or British or US administration, will ever control Afghanistan and if Afghans really want to rid themselves of Taliban or the puppets you give them they will, in their time and in their way, but first they have to get rid of another pesky foreign foe, yet again….
Get all your foreign forces out of Afghanistan….. NOW.
Dorothy, Toto and friends down The Yellow Brick Road.
Where we go we will stay, where the poppy grows in the land of Oz.
"Where we go we will stay"
I think that comment sums it up nicely. As long as we stay there forever, our gas pipeline will will always be safe.
Isn't it wonderful that the peace candidate won the election.
Really, aren't you glad McCain didn't win?
No. And I say this as someone who contributed to, campaigned for, and voted for Obama. I bought the "change we can believe in" lies. At least with McCain, there would be vigorous opposition and some hope for a turnaround in 2012.
The one good thing Obama has done for us is to make us realize that the Democrats are as corrupt and venal as the Republicans.
Just follow the money on the Opium crop and drug trade and that is the real explanation why the U.S. Marines have been sent there, although most of them likely believe it is to fight "the enemy" and secure the area from the Taleban who, last I had read, were against growing opium poppies and the drug trade.
Just follow the money--who profits on the Opium/Heroin sales; the expenditures and urgent requests from the Pentagon for more money; and follow the money on weapons manufacturing in this country and sales or giveaways to those who will appropriately keep the pot boiling by fighting each others or overthowing and killing whomever so that the U.S. military can go to the rescue of whatever, whomever and wherever.
It's all about business at the very top, inclusive of the IMF and World Bank, and as a country of honor and those "fundamental moral values," Obama speaks of, we are finished because we have already been taken over without the bombs and massacres, and Obama has a ring in his nose.
++++++
All the many flags are flying already along Main Street in the little town area I live in and the outlying areas to celebrate the 4th of July.
In a few days the townspeople, families, children and grandchildren, sated from the picnics and backyard barbecues, will wend their way to the local high school sports' field stadium to watch the fireworks' display after being pumped up by the school choirs and bands, respectively singing and playing THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC and GOD BLESS AMERICA.
OOOOOHHHH, AHHHHH, OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH and squeals from the children ... at the ROCKETS RED GLARE in the night sky ... while elsewhere on the other side of the world THE BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR will chop up some more people who we are protecting from whatever it is we are protecting them from and deliver their death message to the innocent, confused, and to some who know enough to be totally enraged and want vengeance and are in the process of getting it.
And when, Mr. Commander in Chief Obama, you stand on the field in Washington D.C. with your wife, Michelle, and your lovely young daughters, Sasha and Malia, both dancing around and ooooohhhhing and ahhhhhhing over the fireworks, may the Spirits of all the Soldiers who have fought so valiantly and suffered and were killed through the centuries, but so often for the wrong reasons unbeknownst to them; may all the Spirits of the innocents wrongfully killed and murdered; may all the Spirits of the now-gone loved ones who suffered because of their terrible losses; may all those Spirits who have suffered such injustices MOAN and GROAN, SCREAM and SHRIEK in your ears until, with your head in your hands, you fall to your knees with your heart bursting, tears flowing and unstoppable, and you GET IT! GET IT! GET IT! in one intense Righteous Revelation that will change you and what you do and decide for the rest of your life, whether that life happens to be long or short.
Happy 4th of July, Mr. Commander in Chief Obama. MAY YOU GET IT!
How 'bout it, Great Spirit? How 'bout some real fireworks?
++++++++++
Carol K. Littlebrant, Citizen
The United States of America
That was beautiful.
Wow Carol that is some piece of impassioned writing! i can't write that good but i do get it. And i was just thinking that besides our "leaders" being so wrong headed, and our media too, maybe somehow it matters just as much that their language is so cold and bloodless, abstract and indistinct. as long as they can think and talk like that, they never have to feel anything.
i'd like to take that piece, starting with "All the many flags..." and go to washington and find where they are doing their 4th of july thing, and grab the microphone and scream the whole thing at him, at them.
thanks
Something almost as amazing as what you wish for Carol happened to Nikita Khruschev when in the late 50's or very early 60's. He witnessed the explosion of the Soviets 100 megaton H-bomb as the guest of the Russian military (they thought he wouild really be impressed!).
As verified by his son Sergei's memoir of his father, he was shaken to his core and (as reported by JFK in his announcement of a nuclear test ban treaty in July of'63)..."A full-scale nuclear exchange, lasting less than 60 minutes, with the weapons now in existence, could wipe out more than 300 million Americans, Europeans, and Russians, as well as untold numbers elsewhere. And the survivors, as Chairman Khrushchev warned the Communist Chinese, "the survivors would envy the dead."
This sobriety led to a willingneass on the part of both men (Kennedy and Khruschev) to seriously explore and ultimately consummate a nuclear test ban treaty in less
than 2 months time.
The Godless Commie and the rich young philandering Playboy President--who'd a thunk it.
Poet
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Tennyson
Thank You
Notice the emphasis on opium production? This article is spinning a justification for the stepped up intervention. What the Times doesn't tell you is that opium production had decreased under the Taliban:
U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer. (February 15, 2001)
The destruction and ensuing poverty caused the US has lead to a massive increase in opium cultivation. These devils, currently Obama, create the very conditions they ostensibly oppose.
The corrupt Karzai's US puppet government is complicit as well. At least one member of his family is reputedly a drug lord.
"According to the [UNODC] report, 2007 also saw the number of heroin laboratories in Afghanistan increase. In the south and eastern parts of Afghanistan, opiate and precursor trafficking is mainly controlled by tribes whereas in the northern provinces they are controlled by local commanders—most of whom have the official approval of the US-backed Karzai government."
Nothing wrong with opium. Just buy it and turn it into morphine and distribute it freely to poor countries where people suffer from terminal illnesses with no painkillers.
I would just like to know what the Taliban did to us. They had nothing to do with 9/11, Osama Bin Laden was a guest who overstayed his welcome in Afghanistan. Couldn't we have pursued Al Quaeda and left the Taliban alone?
I would also like to know what we are doing there now. The Taliban are extremists, but they are natives of the country. How can we wage war on the population of the country in order to liberate it?????
Reading911;
It was this reticent and complicit corporate media, who shortly after 9-11 spun the web of deceit, and continued to conflate the connection between the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Sadly, a credulous America swallowed the mendacity hook, line and sinker.
The outraged "sheople" now wanted "REVENGE", and they didn't care who was responsible for bringing those buildings down. The media said Afghanistan and the sheople said "kill them," even if it meant killing and maiming innocent Afghan men, woman, children pets and animals, while the soil of Afghanistan was being contaminated with Depleted Uranium, as it still is today. Not to mention our troops who're being killed and maimed needlessly, and who are also breathing in the DU particles.
So we fast forward to 2009, the illegal war in Afghanistan continues, and draconian laws are being implemented against "We the People" of this so called United States, who I should mention, had "NOTHING" whatsoever to do with what happened on September eleventh, two thousand and one, as did either Afghanistan or Iraq. But evertyhing to do with Middle East hegemony and control of that Black Gold, Texas Tea.
The question I have, is why isn't this same feckless media covering the over 700 prominent architects and engineers (AE911Truth) who believe the buildings were brought down with explosives?
They won't
Actually MUNICH, there is some hope.
A FOX TV station (of all things) out in California aired an interview with Richard Gage, an architect from that very organization you mention. It should also be noted that the newspeople did not castigate him, and it was a great presentation by him.
Additionally, not even a month ago, public TV station KBDI out here in Denver aired the "9/11 Press For Truth" documentary. It was the first station in the country to air a 9/11 truth video.
Here are two YouTube links for both of those stories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO2yT0uBQbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxWMDTuhxdI
Check 'em out!
US commanders stressed this morning their desire to move quickly and decisively with overwhelming force to seize the entire southern Helmand River valley from Taleban control...
---------------------
Yeah! Hip Hip Hooray!
We've seized the Helmand River!!
It's ours! We got it!
Now if only I knew why we were at War with the Taliban!!!
It either has to be to wrest bin Laden away from them, wherever they have stashed him. If its not that, then its a war against Islam, rather unpopular I would imagine in that part of the world. If it's for oil, or pipelines, then we should be told up front. We are lied to by this government constantly and we all know it. How much longer? How much longer? Be sure and VOTE, now, because that will fix everything. How much longer?
Good point.
What if Obama simply told the truth.
That we'll continue bombing Afghanistan until we can run our oil-carrying pipelines through and control the poppy fields.
Might he get more public support for his honesty?
Then there is the old joke about putting in electricity to a toilet on the Indian land in our old west, ie. Wire a head for a reservation.
If this program is really good, then we might want to try it in say Ohio.
This long term commitment to build up their society and provide them security, schools, maybe even jobs was something that I though capitalism was supposed to do. However, our new military may have to do that job now that we have socialized banks and all that old capitalistic stuff.
We do have some long term results of such programs, as western South Dakota is part of an abrogated treaty that our government signed with the native people back before gold was discovered in the black hills. The Indians are living on the reservation peacefully now and are even trying to build some energy infrastructure with wind. The thing that works best on reservations though are casinos. I haven't seen anything concerning casinos for either Afghanistan or Iraq. That maybe only plan "B" when oil isn't discovered or the gold gives out.
Obama is just as bad as Bush. They are just puppets who have their strings pulled by the same power. Maybe that is why there is very little difference between Bush and Obama?
I just hope people start to wake up and realize they are not going to see REAL Change with Obama and that he is just another face of the same power who controls our government.
Yes, Custer's last stand may very well be a fitting image in my mind. We are allowing ourselves as a nation to be destroyed by those who are so conceited that they won't see the truth but charge on anyway to their and our own destruction.
We will see how long it is going to take for the US military to understand the phrase 'graveyard of empires'.
If "they" have been conducting a war on drugs for decades, how come there are always more drugs on the market and consumption in the United States is the highest in the world?
Another bed time story of our Empire. If we put them all together in a book and call it One Thousand and One massacres, I wander if Hollywood would change the name to American Nightmares and a make a movie out of it?
"The operation was aimed at putting pressure on insurgents "and to show our commitment to the Afghan people that when we come in we are going to stay long enough to set up their own institutions," Captain Pelletier said."
Let's see if I understand this, it's about putting pressure on the people who live there and don't want us there to show our commitment to them that we will stay there until we say so, like the Russians did.
"War is the health of the nation", "business is war", "the business of America is business", therefore the business of America is war.
"War is the health of the nation", "business is war", "the business of America is business", therefore the business of America is war.
Hmm...interesting flow of logic. Can't fault it.
Anyone who disagrees should watch Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."
Nicely stated.
LOL and it aint funny!
"This morning wave upon wave of helicopters landed Marines in darkness at locations throughout the fertile river valley, a crescent of opium and wheat fields criss-crossed by canals and dotted with mud-brick homes."
Without the wave upon wave of marines, this valley sounds relatively nice and quiet...
Short of exterminating all humanity within its borders (which ain't gonna happen)there is no number of American troops that will be able to subdue Afghanistan. Juat like there were no number of Russian, British, Greek, or any other troops that have been able to do so throughout its history.
But a lot of fortunes will be made by war-profiteers, oil companies just drooling over the prospect of completing their transhipment pipelines, and politicians on the take--just like in Iraq. Many Americans and Afghanis will be slaughtered and three years from now the Beige Bush and his apologists will shrugging their collective shoulders whining about "who could have possibly known..."
Poet
"there is no number of American troops that will be able to subdue Afghanistan."
The vaunted greatest military that has ever graced the face of the earth has not been able to "pacify" even ONE CITY in Iraq.
Your last paragraph applies fully, and outlines completely the reasons this country has decided to occupy Afghanistan.
Don't worry, no "civilians" will be harmed as we bestow the blessings of freedom on the impoverished people of Afganistan. Anyone injured or killed will be, by definition, a "terrorist" or "militant."
War is peace, up is down, death is life.
Thus begins the long litany of lies as to how we're going to smash the Taliban, free the world of the heroin menace and bring democracy, freedom, peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. This scenario can be played out to disastrous consequences and utter failure a thousand times, and STILL our idiot leaders, Obama included, will repeat it, over and over again. It's all we do. We have nothing else to offer humanity but lies, destruction and death. Now Obama's shilling for a war we can believe in.
"It's all we do."
It's about all we can do. Something like 60% of the workforce is employed, at least peripherally, by the military industrial complex. Harley-Davidson, for example, manufactures bomb casings at its York, PA, plant. Anyone working in the petroleum industry depends on military sales. All kinds of food processors depend on military sales. Its not just the bullet makers and the airplane and shipbuilders. It is all pervasive within the economy. WAR! IT IS WHAT WE DO!
GOT WAR?
Nothing but blue skies from now on.
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The American soldier abducted in southeastern Afghanistan is now being held by a notorious militant clan, a senior U.S. military official said.
Thanks to Rumsfeld we will find out if this GI is 'dishwasher' safe.
If he was captured by "the taliban" he can be legally waterboarded, because this is simply an enhanced, yet humane, interrogation technique, far, far from some sort of imagined "torture".
I suppose the Marines are yet again going to "make the world safe for democracy," as Woodrow Wilson used to say. Remarkable how democracy has been progressing all over the world thanks to the United States armed forces' tireless dedication to the task.
Here's a little wisdom from our buddy Woody:
"Every man now knows that the world is to be changed -- changed according to an ordering of Providence [...]. The East is to be opened and transformed [...]. The standards of the West are to be imposed upon it; nations and peoples that have stood still for centuries are to be quickened, and made part of the universal world of commerce and ideas which has so steadily been a-making by the advance of European power from age to age. It is our peculiar duty...to moderate the process in the interests of liberty [...]." (cited from Woodrow Wilson, "Democracy and Efficiency" (October 1st, 1900), vol. 12 of "Papers of Woodrow Wilson" (Princeton, 1966), pp. 18-19)
It's an old story, as you may see. Naturally, our Savior Obama has convinced himself and many others that his policies are the embodiment of change.
That's an interesting photo. I suppose one shouldn't read too much symbolism into a "massive assult" being led by a dog.
Massive insult.
A massive insult to people who are injured, killed, tortured...a massive insult to those who mourn. A massive insult to anyone who tries to think with a sane purpose in mind...
Assaulted, insulted, raped, murdered, plundered and pillaged.
God Damn Amerika.
The dog is a Volunteer no doubt.
It will get blown apart sniffing out IEDS and get a full Military funeral so the "good people" can feel all mushy inside about its "sacrifice" for "freedom and liberty".
Good American Patriots can now send ALPO to Afghanistan so that they can show how they are "Supporting the troops".
I wouldn't compare this it custers last stand at all really - just another step in the slow defeat of the talian in afganistan.
leadership
leadershipexpert, you wrote "I wouldn't compare this it custers last stand at all really - just another step in the slow defeat of the talian in afganistan".
You can't defeat an enemy like the Taliban by attacking civilians, unless you are willing to massacre all of them, including the children. Unless you kill everyone( I'm not saying that this should be done ), the children will grow up hating the USA, with good reason, and became the next generation of Taliban warriors fighting against us and prolonging the engagement in order to financially ruin the USA. Apart from the morality issues, we can't sustain these wars any longer. We need to turn our attention to the domestic problems, and funnel the money going to these stupid wars for control of resources, into developing a new source of energy and providing health care for all. You will not live long enough to see the end of the Taliban, they have the support of the majority of the civilians in that region and will outlast our empire, unless our army commits another horrible atrocity.
'Custer's Last Stand"?
It was for the British...several times.
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
I wonder which Israeli agent poured poison in Obama's ear to launch this ill-fated adventure.
He said the US military was prepared for casualties, but stressed that "it is absolutely essential that no civilians be harmed".
So, does this mean that there will be a media blackout; more cover ups; more lies? Do the Taliban wear uniforms now? How does one determine a civilian from a fighter, when most men have guns. The NRA would be so proud! That is a country without gun control, and religion runs amok. What a good lesson for the USA. I sure as fuck don't want that! Thankfully they can't come over here and try to force THEIR beliefs and values on us.
"We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy, we want to protect them from the enemy," he said.
I'm sure the Soviet Union had the same line. Must they be made our friends so that the old adage of "the enemy of my friend is my enemy", even if it is themselves? The Taliban, even if they are a horrible religious fundamentalist group, are made up of Afghanis. They are from that region, and that is how life is over there. We can't force our beliefs and values on all of the world.
"Thankfully they can't come over here and try to force THEIR beliefs and values on us."
That, of course, is why we are fighting them there, so we don't have to fight them here.
Is here the US? Who, the Afghanis or the Marines?
Well said. "Here" is the US. But, maybe it IS a good idea to have the marines over there ...
Pretty easy not to harm "civilians." Conclude that ANYONE (child. woman,or man) harmed by "our" brave boys (and the DUTCH????...I'm sure the US Marine commanders were very respectful of a Dutch Maj. General's advice...news headline: "Taliban Surrenders: Taliban commander,"Sure...Afghani warriors have defeated every foreign invader since Alexander...but the DUTCH...not even WE couldn't withstand an onslaught of armed, ferocious Dutchmen.") "harmed" was not a "civilian."
War by Orwell, not by Eisenhower or Montgomery.
Yep, good comment.
Brave is a poor adjective for robokiller stormtroopers. They are mostly, desperate, ignorant and/or demented.
They are war criminals as much as are the poiticians.
"They are war criminals as much as are the poiticians."
Don't agree. They are mostly desperate, ignorant, and/or poor. They are also very young.
These are mere pawns. The criminals are sitting in offices in Washington and in the top floors of weapons manufacturing companies.
Robots. Robots. Robots.
Robots all, taking the life from living things....
"We have people out there who do not realise that progress is about to come to them,"
Oh, happy happy, joy joy, the Marines have landed in Afghanistan to "bring progress" to the natives. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, here come the Americans to shove progress down their throats via the barrel of a gun.
Or, up their ass...
With that barrel.
And the end of the fight,
Is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased.
And an epitaph dr'er,
A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East.
Kipling
Yes... I think they will find that after they build the forts and confiscate housing and for security have to search every Native to see what weapons they have and question them on their loyalty to Obama and the new occupation, the blowback of this nightmare will look like Gaza in a few months.... except our troops will be surrounded by ghostly spirits of resistance to empire and these ghosts are well armed.
This is insane.... endless insanity.
Remember Custer
Love the revolution.
"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan said in a statement.
confusing. if you're going someplace to stay, what purpose does it serve to work toward transition of all security responsibilities to native forces? didn't we just try this in a neighboring country? oh wait, we just left there, day before yesterday. perfect timing, barackstar.
it's amazing to watch this country's ongoing face-first slide into the history books.
Afghanistan!... the graveyard of Empires.
How fitting is this?
"Amazing what great stupidity ignorance spawns."
Have a great day y'all.
I would say Gods speed, but I am done with the USA version of Right Wing Crusadeing Christian Gods. My Gods oppose war and tell me to do the same.
Thank you Bush / Chenney , for not listning to all the reports handed to you by our law enforcment agencies about a possible attack by Osama using planes.
Hey George, you should have stayed in the Kindergarten Class you were visiting while the nation suffered through 9-11. And you should have had Cheney ,the war neocons and banking execs join you.
War crimes, lies, stealing money, and the death of millions of people are on your greedy hands, including brave American soldiers.
And now , a new saga unfolds. In Afghanistan. The never ending war gifts from Bush/Chenney.
To our military soldiers, kick ass, and come home, cause we need you here to clean out our treasonus leaders.
BornFreeMen
Fighting on your behalf to reinstate the constitution as law of the land. I thank you for your service , and hope that by the time you get back, the patriot acts will be abolished, Americans will stop living in the shadows of fearmongering, and common sense and rule of law will dictate American politics.We need a new sense of hope and courage to to fight the military industrial complex war mongers.Your sacrifice is what drives me to speak out, the only weapons I have in my arsenal, my voice and pen.
Thank You for your sacrifice.I wont let you down.I've got yor back at home.
Stealing the oil is one thing--but messing with drugs is very dangerous--these people will not roll over without a fight. If Obomber thinks tobacco is hard to withdraw from--wait till he sees what H can do to the troops who might dabble in it. Oh God help us!
Ohhh, this is just swell.
Everything is swell now.
Yep.
If you can stand the sarcasm.
I like what a poster said recently, I think here on CD: 'Chains we can believe in.'
Everything is going to just keep turning out more and more swell.