Quote:
Originally posted by RougeUnderoos@Jul 29 2004, 09:06 PM
I don't want to play a semantics game, but your explanation doesn't make it sound like they have that country under control. The Taliban and al-Qaeda are, according to the link, operational inside Afghanistan. The bogey man hasn't been found and I think the one eyed loony is still on the loose. The warlords aren't just hanging out and playing cards. As warlords are wont to do, they seem to be warring. There are 27 thousand troops there but it still sounds like the wild west.
That's what the CNN article that you linked to says.
If that's satisfactory control, then I guess the whole "let's get rid of the terrorists and rebuild this failed state" was a lot of hot air. The terrorists are still there and the nation is not rebuilding.
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Well, you ARE playing a semantics game since the place is certainly MORE under control as per what America would want in terms of its geopolitical interests than it was before they arrived there. No one would argue that. I would think America would love it if Iraq were in the current state Afghanistan is given the comparatively limited resources they need to apply to keep their interests intact.
Nevertheless, Afghanistan is hardly in a satisfactory state of affairs and no one would argue that either. Limbo land. Somewhere between a disaster and perfect.
As I noted above, it might be 20 years before anyone is truly happy about the situation there given the existing medieval mentality. It will be a slow process.
The question is more like: "Which way is the pendulum leaning?" A setback or a continued advancement towards an end goal?
A major relief agency says it is leaving because American soldiers are giving out aid. The relief agency says that effort by American soldiers makes their workers appear to be taking sides and that puts them in danger, five of them being slaughtered recently by terrorists. A peculiar issue in a peculiar place.
Semantics? The murder rate in Canada has dropped to its lowest level since 1967. . . . . but there are still murders, many in a particularly vicious and cruel manner involving children. Obviously there's a trend to point to as a positive but the current state isn't something to be happy about in that regard either.
Cowperson