Just a simple serious question about this War on Terrorism?


When will this expensive war end? How long will we occupy this country? What will Iraq look like when we depart?

83, the only good thing that I can determine the Taliban did while in power in Afghanistan was they reduce poppy output. The fundamentalist Taliban was oppressive but went after the opium growers and reduced the supply. I stand by my statement that the Saudis are at the heart of militant Islamic terrorism. That's the opinion of most experts on the subject.
 
May 19, 2005
Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War
By JOHN F. BURNS and ERIC SCHMITT
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 18 - American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government.
In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major drawdown in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday that American military involvement could last "many years."
Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American officer in the Middle East, said in a briefing in Washington that one problem was the disappointing progress in developing Iraqi police units cohesive enough to mount an effective challenge to insurgents and allow American forces to begin stepping back from the fighting. General Abizaid, who speaks with President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld regularly, was in Washington this week for a meeting of regional commanders.
In Baghdad, a senior officer said Wednesday in a background briefing that the 21 car bombings in Baghdad so far this month almost matched the total of 25 in all of last year.
Against this, he said, there has been a lull in insurgents' activity in Baghdad in recent days after months of some of the bloodiest attacks, a trend that suggested that American pressure, including the capture of important bomb makers, had left the insurgents incapable of mounting protracted offensives.
But the officer said that despite Americans' recent successes in disrupting insurgent cells, which have resulted in the arrest of 1,100 suspects in Baghdad alone in the past 80 days, the success of American goals in Iraq was not assured.
"I think that this could still fail," the officer said at the briefing, referring to the American enterprise in Iraq. "It's much more likely to succeed, but it could still fail."
The officer said much depended on the new government's success in bolstering public confidence among Iraqis. He said recent polls conducted by Baghdad University had shown confidence flagging sharply, to 45 percent, down from an 85 percent rating immediately after the election. "For the insurgency to be successful, people have to believe the government can't survive," he said. "When you're in the middle of a conflict, you're trying to find pillars of strength to lean on."
Another problem cited by the senior officer in Baghdad was the new government's ban on raids on mosques, announced on Monday, which the American officer said he expected to be revised after high-level discussions on Wednesday between American commanders and Iraqi officials.
The officer said the ban appeared to have been announced by the new defense minister


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/i...&en=f51a3a569f255c0b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
 



May 22, 2005
U.S. Memo Faults Afghan Leader on Heroin Fight
By DAVID S. CLOUD
and CARLOTTA GALL
WASHINGTON, May 21 - United States officials warned this month in an internal memo that an American-financed poppy eradication program aimed at curtailing Afghanistan's huge heroin trade had been ineffective, in part because President Hamid Karzai "has been unwilling to assert strong leadership."

A cable sent on May 13 from the United States Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital, said that provincial officials and village elders had impeded destruction of significant poppy acreage and that top Afghan officials, including Mr. Karzai, had done little to overcome that resistance.

"Although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty in trying to implement an effective ground eradication program, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership, even in his own province of Kandahar," said the cable, which was drafted by embassy personnel involved in the anti-drug efforts, two American officials said.
A copy of the three-page cable, which was addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was shown to The New York Times by an American official alarmed at the slow pace of poppy eradication.

The cable also faulted Britain, which has the top responsibility for counternarcotics assistance in Afghanistan, for being "substantially responsible" for the failure to eradicate more acreage. British personnel choose where the eradication teams work, but the cable said that those areas were often not the main growing areas and that the British had been unwilling to revise targets.

The criticism of Mr. Karzai reflected mounting frustration among some American officials that plans to uproot large swaths of Afghanistan's poppy crop have produced little success. These officials said they worried that heroin trafficking could threaten the American-led reconstruction effort in Afghanistan and worsen corruption in the country's fledgling central government. ?
The department's annual drug-trafficking report, released in March, warned that Afghanistan was "on the verge of becoming a narcotics state."

For complete article for those who are interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/i...=1116734400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
 
staggalee83 said:
NEWSFLASH .......................the warlords and druglords, ONE IN THE SAME, HAVE never been out of power. Afganistan has always been the LEADING SUPPLIER OF OPIUM IN THE WORLD. THAT HAS NEVER CHANGED.

Where did you get that misinformation from ...........oh ..........I forgot.................EVERYTHING IS THE U.S. FAULT. Tell me what day there was no warlords or drug dealers in Afganistan. HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK THE TALIBAN WAS FUNDED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

And please don't say Bin Laudin. HE WAS A GUEST OF THE TALIBAN, THAT OVERTHREW THE OLD AFGAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE HE GOT THERE. Bin Laudin was funding Al Quada and BUYING arms from these Warlords.

Good lord. :emlaugh:
Click to expand...

Just reposted the opium answer.

For a country that kill people for drug's, these crit's sure don't give a dang about taking the money and turning a blind eye as long as it benifits them.

And this was happening all those years the Taliban was "in charge" of Afganistan.

As usual, everybody is being "FAULTED" except the DRUG LORDS and the lunatics that helps them cash in.

Soilders go out and do their job effectively, they run the risk of being branded "abusers". They do their job, but hold back because of the reason mentioned and others, THEY ARE INEFFECTIVE.

You know if they go "all out", they will be a negative "BAD AMERICAN" story in the NY Times before they lace up their boots the next morning.

No matter what, we all know it's a no win situation in the press. :whine:
 
J C said:
When will this expensive war end? How long will we occupy this country? What will Iraq look like when we depart?
Click to expand...

How long?......... :uhoh: ...........I mean all the "occupy" parts.

WW2--(Europe and South Pacific - Japan), Korea, Nam .............................. how long ago has it been since the war ended in these places. What do they look like now?

Don't we still have soilders, bases, and equipment "OCCUPING" these countries 40, 50, 60 years after the END OF HOSTILITIES? :nod2:

If the dear, none-Iraqi insurgents, :( , would quit bombing their own dang mosque's, streets, AND PEOPLE ------------THEN THE SOILDERS COULD PULL BACK AND THEN OUT.

But ...........how much do I need to bet myself no-one will see this part. :goodbad:
Part of the "over in an instant" mindset people have now.
 
In response to post #31............with ties to post #22. :nod:

BLAQUE PRINCE said:
Last I heard the major players were in Afghanistan...not Iraq.
Click to expand...

:emlaugh: :emlaugh: :emlaugh: :emlaugh: :emlaugh: :emlaugh:

But since you insist...........................WHO JUST GOT KNOCKED OUT THE DEMOLITION "WORD" DERBY. :goof: :goof:

Sounds like MIXED MESSAGES to me.
 
83, the point of the posts was to show that we did not finish the job in Afghanstan. I differ with you on your assessment of the Taliban and poppy production. If you read the State Dept report, you will come to the same conclusion. I am a patriots and I love my country. I am not blaming our military, they are carrying out policies of our civilian leaders. I blame our civilian leadership for not listening to the experts and placing our forces in the situation where they cannot fight to win.

The government should have recognized that the media and the american public would not tolerate abuse. The Bush administration did not support the terms of the Geneva convention. That's why we are housing prisoners in Cuba. They did not think the process through and that the policy would ferment more anti-americanism around the world. If you understand our involvement in Vietnam, the american public supported the war for three years until Tet in 68 when television started broadcasting the carnage. The american public is fickle and in the words of Warren Rudmann they can be wrong but the politicians have to pay.
 
JC said
When will this expensive war end? How long will we occupy this country? What will Iraq look like when we depart?
Click to expand...

You mumbled
blah blah yak yak yak yak.....If the dear, none-Iraqi insurgents, , would quit bombing their own dang mosque's, streets, AND PEOPLE ------------THEN THE SOILDERS COULD PULL BACK AND THEN OUT.

But ...........how much do I need to bet myself no-one will see this part.
Part of the "over in an instant" mindset people have now.
Click to expand...

I then stated
Yea you tend to have that mindset when you shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Click to expand...

You then quoted me saying
Last I heard the major players were in Afghanistan...not Iraq.
Click to expand...
which reinforces what I said in the first place. We should not have gone into Iraq.

You then replied foolishly saying
But since you insist...........................WHO JUST GOT KNOCKED OUT THE DEMOLITION "WORD" DERBY.

Sounds like MIXED MESSAGES to me.
Click to expand...

:slap: Its a shame you have to lead people through posts like follow the bouncing ball. You might want to retire that car from the derby. :wavey:
 
RIGHT dude ..................you lead everybody through posts.

You tha man with all the excuses and the same answers to everything ............................. NOBODY UNDERSTANDS BUT ME, MR. 190 IQ. :nod2: :emlaugh:

Explain it 1 mo time ............................We know your word is the gospel. :emlaugh:

BP ......you special. :emlaugh:
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Anyway ........................comming back down to talk to meer mortals. :emlaugh:


J C said:
83, the point of the posts was to show that we did not finish the job in Afghanstan. I differ with you on your assessment of the Taliban and poppy production.

What do you differ on. The production levels they have produced through the years, Who was funding them, who was the drug lords, or how long they have been the leading producers of opium in the world?

If you read the State Dept report, you will come to the same conclusion. I am a patriots and I love my country. I am not blaming our military, they are carrying out policies of our civilian leaders. I blame our civilian leadership for not listening to the experts and placing our forces in the situation where they cannot fight to win.

OK ...........you talking Afganistan or Iraq here?

The government should have recognized that the media and the american public would not tolerate abuse. The Bush administration did not support the terms of the Geneva convention. That's why we are housing prisoners in Cuba.

OK .............where should they be housed? It don't make a difference where they are housed, the media is going to make mountains out of anything that's rumored. True -----there are some abuses, but not rampent abuses like they are trying to make out. YOU CAN'T CONTROLL EVERY INDIVIDUAL. SOME ARE GOING TO ACT A FOOL AND NOT FOLLOW RULES.

They did not think the process through and that the policy would ferment more anti-americanism around the world.

Now this is what get's me everytime someone cites the current situation and Administration for anti-American sentiment in the world. Europe and the Middle-east has always had anti-american sentiment. The Middle East has ALWAY'S HATED THE U.S. What's happening now didn't just start this sentiment and ya'll know it.

If you understand our involvement in Vietnam, the american public supported the war for three years until Tet in 68 when television started broadcasting the carnage. The american public is fickle and in the words of Warren Rudmann they can be wrong but the politicians have to pay.
Click to expand...

Saying the American public is fickled is the understatement of the year. :nod2:
 
staggalee83 said:
RIGHT dude ..................you lead everybody through posts.
No not everybody...just folk that staggal through them.
You tha man with all the excuses and the same answers to everything ............................. NOBODY UNDERSTANDS BUT ME, MR. 190 IQ. :nod2: :emlaugh:

Explain it 1 mo time ............................We know your word is the gospel. :emlaugh:

BP ......you special. :emlaugh:
Click to expand...

Good strategy....*taking notes* when you've made yourself look like a fool proceed to divert by spewing random foolishness poorly disguised as insults.

Man you are bout as bright as a black hole. :tup:
 
Right man ......whatever. :emlaugh:

Public Enemy:
"TALKIN' LOUD-----AIN'T SAYING NOTHING."
Click to expand...

You win again ..............I'm a fool, I divert, I doing whatever you say because you say it's that way.
:emlaugh:

Yep ....and I'm sure your the "Brightest bulb on the planet".
My bad ..............HOW CAN YOU NOT BE.
My bad ................sorry to hurt your poor little feelings.

again .........................whatevermaaaain. :nod2:
 



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