they didn't help, nimrod, they just rented them some space in the sand!

Everyone knows that Afghans are always available to look the other way for a fair price (say $1 or $2)

The Pakistani government and their security agency helped a lot more and yet they are are buddies now. Most of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and fully funded by the royal family! Geez, sleeping with the enemy indeed!

actually, if we had only helped them rebuild their shattered economy/infrastructure they probably wouldn't be listening to the radicals right now. but we missed the boat.

Not true, most of the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, our goverment, George W, Dickhead Chaney, Donald Dumsfeld, and Karl Rove, put that scenario together. Oil, Money, Power. No wait, our guys in Washington would never lie to us, would they???

If any of you honestly think that the average American citizen actually knows all of the reasons why we are in Afghanistan you are truly ignorant. People tend to forget so quickly that the United States created the Taliban. We used their people, and their blood to do our dirty work during the cold war and now the bill has come due. It is easy for us as Americans to blindly love our country and just expect that every decision we make is the righteous one. However, our closets have more skeletons in them then anyone of us are aware of. If you were a neutral party and received all of the facts that were involved in the U.S. versus Taliban conflict in Afghanistan, I am not sure that some of you would feel the same way as you do now. If you truly want to be on the right side of this war, then I would suggest first stepping back and at least conceding that the United States is not totally innocent in this conflict. However, the violence that the Taliban has displayed and their backwards support of terrorist regimes has painted a target on their backs and they are as much at fault as anyone. I am not so sure that there are truly any victims of this battle outside of the Afghanistan people.

When is the U.S. going to learn. We are fighting a pointless war. Even if we bomb and kill the Taliban into submission, that will not solve the basic problem that the terrorist organizations hate our guts and want to kill us. In fact, the wars are likely only making it worse.

Honestly ask yourself this question. If we win the war in afghanistan - will terrorism be gone? Or will terrorists in Yemen and other places just change countries.

Bin Laden is succeeding. It started with 9/11 - but the real damage he has done to the U.S. is financial and economic and the lives of our soldiers- by getting us to spend over a trillion dollars on two unnecessary wars resulting in thousands of dead soldiers and untold numbers of wounded. The cost of the wars in lives and treasure trumps the losses on 9/11. That is exactly what Bin Laden wants.

Exactly right. Perfectly said. Amen- is all I could add.

Just curious...

Did anyone notice that Mullah Aminullah was showing the sole of his shoe to NBC News' reporter Mujeeb Ahmad? I believe that is an insult when you show the sole of your shoe to someone. If you can, view the picture in the article to see what I mean.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/04/5407856-taliban-leaders-aide-reports-of-peace-talks-nonsense

Damn tootin', Dennis.

OneThought1,

I don't believe a word this "Aminullah" says. I think he is just using this reporter as a mouthpiece for Taliban propaganda just as Jane Fonda was used as a mouthpiece for North Vietnamese propaganda during the Vietnam war. He wants to give us the impression that the Taliban are winning to influence American opinion about the war. He can't, of course, admit that they are negotiating because that would be admitting that they are losing. Don't be so easily taken in!

They're winning?

Right.....and I'm the Easter Bunny.

I know where this dude is hiding. Look in the bullpen for the San Francisco Giants. The torture is over!

Am I remembering wrong? Wasn't the Taliban dictating to a willing Afghani government at the time? There may be no one on New Orleans Saints team from New Orleans, but it's still New Orleans' team. I don't care where they were from, they were working for the Taliban and there was no difference between the Taliban and the Afghani gov't. Where we missed the boat was not nuking them into extinction on 9/12 when not one government on earth would have faulted us.

I think that is Joaquin Phoenix!

Come on...give me a break. What kind of society is he from. That should explain it all to us. It is only a matter of time until they have been obliverated. Not because of "us" USA...But because it will be God's will. Thank you.

These pictures were probably taken inside the pentagon when al-alwaki was there dining with the top brass. They probably made a big day out of it. And for those of you who dont know who al-alwaki is, he is the guy the US military has blamed for planning the times square attempt, underware bomb attempt, shoe bomb attempt, etc. that was reported by FOX news to be having dinner at the pentagon 2 months after 911. So go ahead and say its a conspiracy theory, and say we should blow all the muslims away, but you will never fix the problem if you keep attacking them.

How do we know they're not winning? They managed to get 'printer cartridge bombs' on planes bound for Chicago. Who knows what else they're capable of?

Probably just a made up story just make it look like there was progress there.

Yep they would have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had given bin ladin up. Oops.

Still, it sounds like some elements are having doubts, and want to get back to the basic business of torturing drinkers, beating women, and reaping huge profits off of the drug trade. It's hard to do that with NATO shooting at you. This all sounds like damage control and spin.

not if if the country has oil or natural gas reserves the US corporations want. Bin Laden just made it easy so they didn't have to spew lies at Americans to go to war!

rrobeson

No they only supported them then refused to turn them over when we asked them too. If they had given up Bin Laden and his henchmen when we asked there never would have been an invasion. And as for his closing line about us forcing them to wage war against the Soviets, what a propaganda piece of crap that is! They were at war with the soviets for months on their own before dollar one ever started to flow or any CIA operator ever approached them. They aren't winning they are getting shot to pieces every time they raise their heads. The only thing they are good for is maiming old men women and children to keep fear alive in the hearts of Afghani villagers.

Dennis

Bush didn't orchestrate the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. He did ask the Afghani government at the time to turn over Bin Laden before he issued any ultimatums about coming in to take him. I definitely believe that had they turned him over at any time after this mess started we would have pulled the troops out and gone home. So forget the blame game here or at least learn what you are talking about so you keep your foot out of your mouth.

archangel 3:16 - Yes, they were at war with the Soviets before we got involved arming them. But, we did get involved, trained and armed them, then we left as we always do when our objectives are met.

Kind of the same thing we did with Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, and every other thug we use, then turn our backs on. We create monsters, then complain about them.

I actually agree with this guy, we should get all foreign troops out. Then blanket the place with a heapin' helpin' of VX gas.

but we are leaving them alone just a few missliles and drones and exploding birthday cakes to kill them and their fellow taleban cell members and this creepy fellow is probably dead by now with a special missile with his name on it..and who is this dude from NBC..do we really need to know what this serpent or any terorists . says ? really NBC is this part of your news program to interview these demons ..we know what thet think and thats why we are killing as many of them as we can.. before they send more packages bombs etc to us.. at least I hope this reporter was able to kill a few terrorists when he was there..and got their address phone numbers aand where they torture everyone who doesn`t play along with theri perverted mass murdrering rampages just bite hard into the birthday cake!!

look at the picture closely this guy looks white plus he is wearing dark glasses. I think its part of the propaganda machine he is probably an American hired by the cia to make us support the war lol!

rrobeson: You are right. We are sleeping with most dangerous enemies: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. These two nations are the mother and father of Islamic radicals and terrorists. We have many Trojan horses in our nations who are subverting each and every effort we undertake from all angles including welfare system!

If one studied Islam and its followers' history, one would know that these "peace talks" were a mere charade to extract more money and arms. A good portion will in turn go into pockets of Islamic radicals and militants to kill our soldiers and drain our economy.

For the sake of Islam, many Muslims consider: looting, stealing, blackmails, backstabbing and other innovative ways to fool are acceptable and are the way to go! Here most Pakistanis and Saudis stand high in rankings of religious beasts!

Taliban leader's aide: Reports of peace talks 'nonsense'

Herein lies the WHOLE PROBLEM. Their "Our way or the road-side-bomb" attitude only shows their ignorance and lack of civilized sensibilities. It is the product of whole segments of the population being left UN-educated and UN-read, on anything other than religious texts FOR GENERATIONS.
Unless and until the fundamental rhetoric of violence is DENOUNCED from within, these events will continue to occur.

Tad.S

"unleash a hell storm of atomic weapons on the whole place'' : are you 13 years old? who does not know that much about everything!

if yes, I will pass and not read your comments....

I know plenty. I figure their lives are worth about a nickle each which means we need need to kill a few million of them to just start to recoup our 9/11 loses. This limited sissy warfare is the only reason they still exist. If we're going to be in a war, we should wage it with the tenacity to win. To many of our young men and women have died trying to follow ridiculous rules of engagement. We should either obliterate our enemies, or we should have never gone to war in the first place.

Tad.S, If you want to blame the deaths of those young men and women on someone, blame it on lying, WMD, Bush. Because he is definitely the one who orchestrated these wars, leading to the deaths of our troops. The Afghans did not start this war, they're just fighting it to the best of their ability. If anyone wants to punish the culprits, attack Saudi Arabia. Oh, I forgot they own America.

I agree with Tad.s We can and should just wipe that whole country off the map. Only one person in history has EVER beat the Afghans. anyone know who that is? Alexander the Great did. He killed and killed and killed them almost to the last man. the ones he didn't kill he married. Alexander knew what he was doing. Mushroom cloud the entire place.

yes i agree... any so called religon. that treats human life like its nothen. stoneing women just because they dont want you or love you or just for showing thier faces...we dont need to nuke them though. just give all of us americans a gun. line us all up side by side. we start walking through their country. like on a deer hunt. and just start shooting. we are all born with a gun in our hand. lets show them who they are messing with..he thinks he is winning...what a joke...

They should get it too. Honestly, I don't think that we should have gone to war without the will to win. This is the problem now, as it was in Vietnam. Bush's debacle, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, have been a waste of manpower and resources. Not even as much as they're unjust, but poorly executed. When you have an enemy that will die to the last man, you should hurry them along. Really at this point we should withdraw our troops and setup MAD with the baby rapers. Basically, if they attack any one in the western world including Israel, EVER, we start nuking their holy sites. Give them the choice, leave us alone, or suffer immensely. Either they're a religion of peace like some of the apologist claim, or they want a holy war. They'll self police if they like making their little pilgrimages.

Aren't all Gods pretend?

OneThought1

Aren't all Gods pretend?

In my opinion yes. I was trying to point out the folly of their motivation. They want to die for something they imagine. This is the 21st century, they need to get over it.

Tad, if you want WWIII, yes, then by all means, nuke them. Or do you have this fantasy that no other country will do anything to stop us from doing that? Picture China or Russia nuking another country without mercy. Are the U.S. and other countries just going to sit back, look the other way, and go about our business as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening?

Nukes always seem to be the simple answer. But if it's so simple, why haven't those on top done it yet? Maybe they know a bit more about the world and how it would react. No country can nuke another country into oblivion, without it bringing severe consequences.

I would not blame it solely on the US for these inexcusable rules of engagement. I mean the main reason is basically just public relations. WE want to look good in the eyes of the rest of the world. Well screw those p***ies in Europe and elsewhere. Just take a moment to think about it: WWII was basically won by the US alone, if we really shifted our focus to winning this war without regar for the methods, this would have been over in a few months. These farmers-turned-soldiers would never be able to stop the amercian war machine if we were dedicated to the success. Maybe even after razing much of the country the people will finally see they are siding with he wrong faction and turn against the taliban to protect themselves form us.

Yes, because the Russians love these guys. They have problems with these same Islamic extremist terrorist too. China has too much of a vested interest in our economy to go to war with us. The problem is that the people in charge do not have the courage to do what is necessary to win. We should encourage Russia and China to join a coalition to wipe out this real threat to peace everywhere. As far as I can tell we could have Russian planes dropping US bombs from Chinese airbases. All three countries would be better off without this part of the world. I agree our people are dieing for the sake of PR.

agree with tad- don't need to nuke them though- there are plenty of conventional weapons that will do the job, if we could just use them and quit the damn PC. Quit bowing to their customs, and making soldiers be careful who they are firing at for fear they might hit a civilian in the house where the fire is coming from, quit making our women soldiers stay out of their villages without wearing veils and all that other stupid crap. We have CKEM (continuous kinetic energy missile) which destroys everything in it's path with kinetic energy and doesn't even have explosives in it, we have Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) firepower on a wheeled chassis, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which can roll right in and fire multiple rockets at a single target or multiple targets at the same time and totally destroy an entire area, we have remote control predators that can destroy targets and let the pilot flying it here in the US go home for dinner, the array of weapons we can use is mind boggling. Waste them all with conventional weapons and get the hell out, and never look back.

I'd like to see that CKEM in action. Sounds like a real winner. If we could do the same job without the radiation, I am fine with that. I just want these guys dead, and my country men, and women, home. I manage an auto shop and two of my guys are over there right now. The fact that we don't wage this war to win, really makes me angry. These are good guys, 1 has a dad that's also active, but I think he's in Iraq. I just worry that while the politicians are wanking around, I'm gonna have to take one of them off my employment rolls.

Here is the problem. These are a bunch of men pretending to be soldiers. They are not capable of working, creating, inventing, taking care of their families, and contributing back to mankind in any meaningful way. So they pretend to have a purpose by creating a god that they think asks them to do what they WANT to do. They fit nowhere. That is why they hide in countries with no real central government. They do not care about their country and society, because they do not belong to any. If we leave that part of the world it will be chaotic because they cannot govern and there aren't enough bright and brave people in those countries to rise up against these mindless fools to control them. As much as I hate to say this we need to leave there now. When they get out of line with their terroristic tyraids we need to locate source, as best we can, and bomb the daylights out of them. Innocent lives will be lost as well, but at least they won't be our soldiers. Doesn't need to be nukes. China and Russia will understand this retaliation. Other countries will abandon businesses there because of lawlessness and they will spiral further into poverty. We need to begin to think of our own. Until the non-terrorist citizans rise up in those countries we cannot help.

If we shouldn't be there then why doesn't the almighty BO bring the troops home. Bush is out of the picture. It's BO's war now. He's the decision maker isn't he, or is he? I doubt it. There is more to this than we will ever be told unless wikileaks shares more information. More wars to come the way things are looking. I choose to keep my faith in GOD not man. This world has about had it.

Why don't you ask the "pretend" One(s)?

Oh, you mean BO? He's the best pretender we've got.

I hope God gives you a sign. I'm not being smart at you either. I really mean it. I've been in your shoes.

Please tell me that no one here is stupid enough or evil enough to believe that waging nuclear war on our Afghan friends is worth discussing.

Do any of you remember 9/11? Do any of you care? When the twin towers crashed to the ground and it seemed that a giant portion of the world was against us, it was the Northern Alliance that took a stand and gave us hope. Do you remember the Lion of Panjshir, who gave his life fighting the same enemy? Have you forgotten Dr. Abdullah?

Tad S.

We did have and still have the will to accomplish our original objective and that was to capture Bin Laden. The reason why Bush pulled all but a handful of troops out of Afghanistan after deposing the Taliban was because we were not at war with the Afghani people. We were searching for Bin Laden. Everyone thinks Bush dropped the ball, but it was by the recommendations of his military advisors that they chose a quieter route. Even if we had left all the troops there after we deposed the Taliban, Bin Laden still would have evaded us and ran to Pakistan. By reducing forces quickly Bush was daring him to come out and play so we could nab him as soon as he showed his face.

Yes Tad, nuke their holy cities, then all 1.5 Billion muslims in the world really will become terrorists! Not only that but you'll actually make it easier to be a muslim. Know why? Because one of the five pillars of Islam states that they have to make the pilgrimage to Mecca or Medina at least once in their lives if they are able to in order to enter Heaven. If you nuke the cities they won'te be there anymore, so people will not be able to make a pilgrimage to them, therefore in their minds they won't have to. Not only will you murderously piss off over 1/6th of the world's population, not only will you give them two cities worth of martyrs, you will have also made it easier for anyone in the world to be Muslim by virtue of not having to make that stupid pilgrimage. They will burn the world for the sake of those two cities.

So go ahead. See if you can't get a higher up to nuke those cities. See what happens. The real solutions to our world's problems are never simple. Are the guys in charge doing the right thing. No. But you sure as hell don't have any better suggestions. Genocide? Hell no. That is definitely not the answer. Isolationist policies? That sounds a little better. Quit policing the world and spend our resources on improving our country and protecting our borders. Maybe we sould even do what Australia did to the Muslim community. Then we wouldn't have to worry about them attacking our country from within our own borders. We don't have to deal with their problems and they don't have to be ours. But then again no matter who is in office or what political party is in power they are all too power hungry to stay out of "profitable" places. So the problem comes back to us.

You seem to think it matters if we anger people that are already at war with us. This is about winning and revenge. I don't know what kind of brilliant strategy you have, but 5/6 of the worlds population would benefit from wiping them out. I am completely happy with genocide if that is what is required to deal with these people. These are our enemies remember. These people stone people with rocks in public. Encourage the rape and abuse of little girls. Fly planes into our buildings. They want to make us all like them. They won't stop until we all bow to their little baby raper leaders, and pretend god. Am I missing something? Too me death is too good a fate, even our criminal consider the things this religion encourages to be heinous. I mean if you went to prison for stuff that Muhammad did here in the states you would be savagely beaten and raped to death by Bubba and his buddies, and the guards probably wouldn't bother to notice. We are not at war with Afghanistan, we are at war with Islam.

These people stone people with rocks

Okay, now I understand your advocacy of the use of nuclear weapons. What I don't understand is why 15 people and counting support your view.

Boy, Tad S., You're really quite the little war-monger. That tells me you have never seen death. Let me tell you, knower of nothing, your sugestions are those of a frustrated little boy, no matter your age. And just how many do you want to kill before you're satisfied. How about after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, where would you want to go next? Europe? Asia? How about if we just touch off total destruction? Would that work out your juvenile frustrations?

TruthThroughLogic

Just take a moment to think about it: WWII was basically won by the US alone,

BWHAHAHAHAH!!!! You are pretty wrong there, maybe you should stop getting your history from John Wayne movies. BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Tad,

we are at war with Islam

Do us all a favor and try to drag yourself from the 11th century to the 21st. The crusades ended a long time ago, and if you knew any history, which I doubt, you'd know it didn't go all that great for the Europeans. We would do well to heed that lesson.

Tad, there are between 300-400 million people in the US, about 1.8 million of which are Muslim. There are about 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world. Of these only about 100-200 thousand are militants who are actively trying to kill us. If ALL 1.5 billion decided to become active militants and actively try to wipe out the USA, they could overwhelm us by sheer force of numbers. And guess what. We would never drop nukes on our own country. The FACT that that hasn't happened yet proves that we are not at war with all 1.5 billion Muslims. If we were we would be screwed.

If we were isolationists then we wouldn't have to worry about them flying our planes into our buildings because we would not let them into the country to begin with, thus denying them the opportunity to do so. They lack the technology to effectively attack our country from without. To stage a proper military invasion of our borders. In order to attack us they HAVE to infiltrate our country as citizens and immigrants and attack it from within. THAT is why they are terrorists. THAT is why they resort to terrorist tactics. We could easily thwart their terrorist strategies and tactics in our country if we do like Australia and just not let them in. It is a lot easier and leaves less blood on our hands than genocide, which no matter what you think is not a simple flick of the switch/press of the button. Especially since a lot of them are in our country, Europe, China, India, etc. You know, places we DON'T want to nuke! You obviously have NO respect for nuclear weapons and the kind of power they have or the damage they can do.

Yes, they do some REALLY evil things to each other. And they are doing these REALLY evil things to each other whether or not our military is present in their country, the only difference are the different levels of impunity with which these actions are carried out. As bad as this sounds it's not our job to force everyone in the world to do the right thing, even if we could, which we CAN'T! And in trying we will both drive our economy into the dirt (it's not there yet believe it or not) and get the rest of the world pissed off at us to the point where WE might be the cause of World War 3! So, I'm sorry to say this, let them go back to living in tents on sand dunes, cutting each others heads off. We can't stop them from doing it so why should we leave our southern border open to attack while we try to make people on the other side of the planet behave. We should pull our troops out of places that they are not needed and establish a military blockade of our southern border to keep the Cartels out.

Tad S.,

Heil Hitler!!!

meltdown

Don't you mean, leave them in "pieces"?

Yes, sort-it-out... the problem is, everywhere they are, they don't want "infidels".

That would include but not be limited to - uhhhhh every civilized country, and all the ones they make uncilvilized.

Pull out tomorrow? Are you serious? You can not believe that they would just leave us alone if we leave them alone, do you? I don't believe they ever stop planning their terrorist attacks. What he says, sounds so easy, but how can he be trusted?

Yes Capitan they'll sort it out themselves quickly when we leave. If the Afghan people don't have a military and police force that can stand up to the Taliban, then they will reclaim power and every person that has helped us will die, every woman that has been educated will be beaten and killed. Every building we have helped them build will be demolished and all future generations of Afghani children will be schooled in jihad and bomb making. So yeah let's just up and leave them now and watch the genocide and murders just happen. Let's cut and run and leave the mess for those idiots in Iran to clean up.

lol

I was thinking... The guitarist from Faith No More. I always wondered what happened to him.

Do you really think they will leave others alone? How nieve.

Well, the Taliban didn't really do anything outside of Afghanistan before the invasion. They were pretty isolationist.

Yeah letting Al Queda train and attack the world from there is so isolationist!?

You can not blame them for letting Al Quada train there, we let militant groups train in the states every day it is part of our constitution to allow militias, what the taliban did do was refuse to turn over Bin Laden and his lackys this allowed them to have a target put on their backs.

Can someone explain to me what's so free about freedom that is imposed by way of war...?

sotired

Answer your own question, because our freedom was won by war. It was also challenged and reaffirmed by war. Are you free? Do you enjoy your freedom? Think about it for a moment. If not for the French giving us their aid we might not be free. Afghanistan wasn't about overthrowing the Taliban to give the Afghanis freedom, it was about and still should be about Bin Laden and Al Queda.

There's a mighty big difference from fighting for one's own freedom to imposing freedom on another country...just saying...

rearm? what makes you think they need to rearm? What makes you think they ever lost one of their weapons? The palestinians are rearming too, they've got all their kids out collecting stones.

As long as we are there they are being rearmed you have no idea how many weapons and munitions are currently unaccounted for

RE:"that job was botched by the Bush administration" WRONG Bin Laden was offered to the Clinton Administration and he refused to take him.

W had plenty of time to take care of Bin Laden himself, if fact he was warned about the threat by Clinton during the transition but did nothing.

By the way the attacks took place on W's watch, not Clinton or Obama, W's watch.

Sorry Fishydigit, Clinton was warned, hell he was even offerec Bin Laden on a silver platter, yet he passed...Incidentally it was at the same time he was having a little rendevouz with an intern...Guess he had his prorities straight.....

So what would you have President Bush do after he had been in office only a few months? Start a war when nothing happened to us? You people whine a scream about the war in Afghanistan even AFTER we were attacked...There's no pleasing you...even when the facts are laid at your feet. I get so irritated at the instigators..they don't want to look objectively at a solution and make a decision...first they see who is involved and what party they belong to then develope a fantasy scenario.....You guys are exhausting!

Bring the troops home now! We are the best and most technoligically advanced force to ever be seen on the face of this earth. We have drones that can luanch bombs. Hell, we have stealth planes and smart bombs as well. We need to quit spending billions on a war we can fight without all the damn cost. Iraq was GW Bush's war. This war we own and are going about it the wrong way. Totally! And there are no civillians there, anyone not participating can stay in protected areas until we bomb the Taliban and Bin Laden all the way to their beloved 77 virgins! Most of a "civillians" grow poppies and are involved in heroin production, another "war" we shouldn't pussy foot around about either.

dumbass- all the bombings bin laden was behind that happened on CLINTON'S watch were let go- the embassy bombings, the Marine barracks bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and bin laden himself was offered to the Clinton group and they said "release everyone who we cannot prove has blood on his hands"- if only they had looked harder.

With the republicans in charge and you wanted Clinton to go after Bin Laden. He did send cruise missiles to try and get Bin Laden and all he got was criticized. All they wanted to do is impeach him maybe miller needs to get all the facts.

You guys should check your dates on Clinton, the multiple bombing and his bj affair.

The WTC bombing in 1993 was long before the 1997 Clinton bombing on Lewinsky's blue dress. The Embassy bombing in 1998 and the USS Cole in 2000. He had plenty of reasons to accept the capture of Bin Ladin when he had the chance. Clinton caused alot of damage to thins country and to our military. But you just go ahead and keep blaming Bush. It's the liberal thing to do. Here, read this about Clinton's watch. If you care to admit and face truth! http://www.snopes.com/rumors/clinton.asp

Lucy, while you the dude and millerz argue over history I think that Keith and I offered a better solution.

We fought a fanatical enemy, similar to the islamic terrorists in the Pacific, in the 1940's. Do you remember how we ended that war? With some heavy explosives, from the air, we sent the troops into the homeland after they surrendered. I'm afraid this is the only solution here, as well.

W greatly underesimated what it would take to close this deal and left us without the resources to get the job done on the first go around, leaving behind a very difficult, unfinished, problem to solve. He seemed to have a debt to settle with Saddam, fine, but the fact is he took his eye off the target in Afganistan and wiffed. The taliban has already got stronger and more powerful in the last 5 or six years because of it and the war has now dragged on for almost 10 years and has had a big part in bankrupting our country.

We pull our troops, give them; the taliban and the Afgan government an ultimatum with a time limit and then start the campange from the air.

Send them one message after the other until they surrender, just like in the Pacific. Otherwise we're going to diddle around over there until the ski season.

If they get frisky again send some more messages.

So, I suppose you want to hang out over there for another 10 years, is that it?

Nice article Lucy and how many people are dead because of Bush. Bush was briefed about the threat from A-Qaeda when he came to office and did not take notice. So I suppose it was Clinton's fault for 9/11.

fishy

Please post your address so the terrorists know where to send thermite thank you card! If we let the chips fall where they may than Bin Laden and crew will be set up again inside a month and with no one hassling them we'll have another serious attack here in short order. Even with all the security and safety measures we have taken, it is still child's play to commit a major terrorist act in America.

They are already trying to attack in Europe and the US. So what 's your solution?

fishy

keep the pressure on until we root out the leaders. Either exterminating them or putting them on trial before the world. I personally prefer the former especially if it is done very violently with extreme prejudice. Once they understand that fighting us only brings them a painful and bloody death they'll give it up. It has worked for Israel for years because Israel indiscriminately kills any terrorist that attacks them and they never ever forget an attack.

So really, we are saying the same thing. Thanks

personally i seriously believe that Pakistan is not much of a problem, their leaders seem smart enough to realize the taliban and whatnot are a bane of man. If something were to happen where the Taliban got control Israel would handle it without mercy for their own safety. I firmly believe if say Omar admitted they are in control of Pakistan and that means Pakistan's nuke arsenal then I have a feeling Israel will turn the area of the planet into a smoldering hole.

One great thing about the Israelis; they don't piss around LOL.

Truth

You are operating on the assumption that the Israelis have nukes to drop and the means to get them all the way to Pakistan. Israel has never confirmed or denied that they have nukes. Pakistan however is a long way for a fighter to fly especially across hostile airspace. Israel doesn't have the Tanker assets in their Air force that we do, nor do they have long range bombers. How about all the innocents that would die in a preemptive nuclear strike? Pakistan is really not a problem but we do need to support them to keep terrorists from gaining nuclear materials or weapons. That is why it is important to keep Iran on a short leash too! Or do you salivate at the idea of a tactical nuke going off over say New York, Chicago or LA?

If we really wanted Bin Ladden, why did our government allow dozens of the Bin Ladden family to fly out of the US days after 9/11 at the same time that we have grounded all other air traffic?

Also remember that the Bin Ladden family have billions of dollars invested in the US. We are helping to fund the people that we publicly call our enemy....

oh dear jay please do not tell me you are one of those lunatic conspiracy theorists who think the US gov't was behind the attacks. If so please just leave you do nothing for our country except waste our time.

They refused in 2001 what makes you think that they would do it now? I am sure if they did just that we would leave. Our government doesn't like Karazi any more than the Afghanis do, but at least for now he is bought and paid for.

It's just as true as the stories about Karzai in serious peace talks? Hmm, I'm confused, if this is our war, our money, our soldiers lives, etc., then why aren't we in the peace talks? Oh, I forgot, Karzai is our commandeer in chief, and Betraeus reports to him! That explains my confusion. Those ROE are so hard to remember sometimes.

Hey Steve, please define who 'them' are! And then tell me why we're at war? Oh and while we're at it, I don't recall a declaration of war on 'them', so provide that too please. Thanks.

Turn in to another Vietnam, are you kidding. Don't you think it has been that all along. My personal opinion is that the powers that be are intentionally dragging their feet on this war. It is about maintaining the status quo. what would happen to the America that we know if the war ended and peace was truly here. Who would employ all the troops and what would the gov't do without the need for billion dollar contracts for weapons. There is far too much money invested in too many wars and weapons to support the wars to just end it. Peace is not an option.

hey rob those people (taliban fyi) are openly supported by much of the population. These same people are known to support Al-Quiada, who publicly declare death to America. That seems to be a solid base to make the assumption of a declaration of war. This probably will not happen anytime soon, or at least i hope not, but these militant groups are going to do something far worse than 9/11. and when that happens they may be putting their race in danger. Lets say the acquire a nuke and set it off in NYC. Our reaction to follow equally but multiply tenfold. Level all of the middle east, excluding Israel, then we will have peace because they will all be gone.

Steve

We are at war with the Taliban and Al Queda not the Afghani people. Carpet bombing won't do @!$%#! This isn't WWII with set industrial complexes to hurt the enemy war effort. These are predominantly innocent people that just want to live in peace. It is the Taliban leadership and the Al Queda Leadership that we need to target. Cut off the head and the snake will die. The way your talking was already tried by the Soviets and we see how successful they were.

No, from what I recall on it from years ago, is that we came along once they started fighting, our CIA backed them and trained them. Who really knows though, we could of had operatives there at the start telling them if they fought they would get support. But who knows really. All that is true is that America isn't as innocent as we like to pretend in global affairs. We have constantly stuck our nose where it doesn't belong when we didn't agree with a nations leader or policies, achieved our desired effect and left only to have it come back years later and bite us in the ass. Just look at Iran, who knows what type of government / leader they would of had now if we hadn't interfered with them back in the 50's when they were actually somewhat of a democratic government. Need other examples just look South of the United States border. One of our major problem is that we never learn from our mistakes, the 2nd is that we as Americans are way too short sighted. We are so busy going for the fastest simplest solution we never look into the possible outcomes down the road. Todays Allies, tomorrows enemies.

If the unlikely event that we capture Osama Bin Laden, can we execute him during Superbowl halftime?

Not According to the ACLU!

good idea!

make sure don't send a white man fake mesenger ! or he will be deceased.

If only we had a Ben Franklin around today. The late senator Byrd tried to play the role his colleagues would not heed his warnings-we were rushing off to do the wrong thing.

jaysbaker

The article states it very well. The US recruited and armed these people as our "friends" so they could fight for us against Russia. The US has now sent thousands of armed forces to invade and occupy two different countries 1/2 around the world for the purpose taking their oil. Our behavior is not new, remember the Shaw of Iran who was brutal dictator setup by the US and deposed in a popular uprising decades ago.

Show me your proof that we have invaded for oil! Afghanistan has little of it and I don't see the spigot in Iraq turned wide open to America either. Loose the BS propaganda and realize that there were real reasons that we went to war with both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.

Which Brutal dictatorship are you referring to?

Quoting Ben Franklin is admirable and all wars are unfortunate stupidity that could often be prevented but neither of those two things makes your information correct.

"If you've got them by the balls, thier hearts and minds will follow" JOHN WAYNE