Wait, according to Ian, OBL was killed when we invaded Afghanistan. Ian wouldn't lie to us. Would he?
"Bin Laden’s supposed voice urges the faithful to attack the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia." wouldn't it make sense if your OBL to go easy on pakistan, since they could invade the "frontier province" and really start rooting these douche bags out?
Then of course there's this: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Reviving-Taliban.html "It's like I am seeing the same movie twice and no one is trying to fix the problem,'' said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghanistan's president and his representative in southern Kandahar. "What was promised to Afghans with the collapse of the Taliban was a new life of hope and change. But what was delivered? Nothing. Everyone is back in business.''
Come on, bungadiri, the Taliban are so over. It's like wearing last summer's shoes. But there is one thing that's back with a vengeance in Afghanistan: high-margin agriculture!
Yeah, if the Taliban were back in business, there would be no opium in the world ever, because it's only limited to growing in Afghanistan....
Well, they are back to being #1 in the world at it, according to both the UN and our own State Department. And they're #1 by a lot: 75% of the world's opium production came from Afghanistan in '02. And why not? The average opium-growing Afghani family earned $6,500 last year on the stuff, which probably makes you upper-class in Afghanistan.
Hm. You're missing the point, which is this whole "Crush the Taliban, Liberate Afghanistan" as a template for how things will work in Iraq isn't working so well. Largely, apparently, because Afghanistan is disappearing in the Bush administration's rear view mirror faster than a $20 hooker when the blue lights start flashing.
I saw the thread title and had the Eminem song running through my head, which is probably appropriate, given what the video has in it.
One key difference is that Iraq actually has a valuable resource to work with, while the only valuable resource Afghanistan has to work with is valuable because it's illegal.
I wouldn't doubt it. But big deal, opium can grow in many other places but Afghanistan. It just grows there more than in, say, Burma/Turkey/Iran/Thailand/Cambodia/or the 20 other 'stan' countries because the law enforcement in that region is very lax (probably because there is no good incentive to enforce the law). If the law enforcement ever gets stepped up in that region, production will fall, and if it ever falls below the world's demand, it will reappear elsewhere.
long, looong piece on Afghanistan. [url]http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/04/10/afghanistan/index.html[/url] I'll be honest, I only read the first 2 pages, and there wasn't anything in there I didn't already know, so I'll save the next 3 pages for lunch. Anyway, the situation in Afghanistan is depressing both in and of itself, and as a harbinger for Iraq. I will say this: the Afghanistan war had to be fought in order to remove a clear and present danger. So, to me, the moral equation is different. I don't think we have the same moral obligation to rebuild and stabilize Afghanistan as in Iraq. I say that, because I have some level of hope that the Bushies see it the same way, and so won't fall down on the job in Iraq like they have in Afghanistan. They may feel a stronger obligation to Iraq.