[paraclete]

Digger's email: Army failing frontline troops |

I think the most telling comment in this story is the assertion that the military is too afraid of collateral damage to give adequate fire support.
In such conditions, you have to ask what is the point, who are these soldiers helping? To control one small dot on a map, what is the point?

[tomder55]

I am prepared to give this a fresh evaluation when the new election is played out. My current take is that the Karzai regime is as much an enemy as the Taliban.

I also want to find out what happened at the 'shape of the table ' meeting in Islamabad this week with Karzai ,Petraeus ,and Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani ;along with senior members of the ISI, Afghan, and U.S. intelligence services.

This meeting did not make much news ,but I sense it may be a game changer.

[paraclete]

I am prepared to give this a fresh evaluation when the new election is played out. My current take is that the Karzai regime is as much an enemy as the Taliban.

I also want to find out what happened at the 'shape of the table ' meeting in Islamabad this week with Karzai ,Petraeus ,and Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani ;along with senior members of the ISI, Afghan, and U.S. intelligence services.

This meeting did not make much news ,but I sense it may be a game changer.

What does the election have to do with it? Already there are allegations of fraud. A new parliament in Afghanistan won't change anything. This is not a place where democracy rules

I agree the game needs to change otherwise we are all playing policeman for Karzai and the drug barons

[tomder55]

The elections have everything to do with it. I am willing to wait until results are in .An honestly elected Parliament can deal with Karzai better than one he selects through fraud. Maybe it will be one that opens an investigation into the fraud that seated Karzai.

[excon]

I think the most telling comment in this story is the assertion that the military is too afraid of collateral damage to give adequate fire suppor

Hello clete:

We lost Vietnam when we started tiptoeing... We lost Afghanistan when we invaded Iraq. Your link is a sure sign that we're losing because we're tiptoeing again. We'll probably go on losing/tiptoeing for another 5 or so years, and then leave it just like we found it - except for the Americans lives that were wasted.

excon

[paraclete]

Maybe it will be one that opens an investigation into the fraud that seated Karzai.

Where are you going to start that investigation, Tom, Washington? Maybe smoothy and his spook friends can help you out

[tomder55]

Clete if you did not cherry pick that quote you would've seen I was speaking of the Afghani Parliament .I assume that it is still a legit role of a legislature to watchdog over the activities of the executlve.

[paraclete]

Clete if you did not cherry pick that quote you would've seen I was speaking of the Afghani Parliament .I assume that it is still a legit role of a legislature to watchdog over the activities of the executlve.

You see, Tom, if you were talking about Australia, or even the US, that assumption might be valid, but we are talking about Afghanistan and I doubt their democracy has advanced beyond counting votes, hell, they can only get a small percentage of the country to vote and they can find fist fulls of votes that weren't lodged by voters. If Karzai had the machinery to steal a presidential election don't you think he has the machinery to steal a parliamentary election? Money talks in Afghanistan, Tom, even louder than it does in the US.

[tomder55]

If Karzai had the machinery to steal a presidential election don't you think he has the machinery to steal a parliamentary election?

That remains to be seen. I am hoping the condemnation over the last election results will modify Karzai's behavior.
I can't change the fact that he stole the Presidential election. I think it will ultimately be his downfall.
Maybe the powwow this week was the opening salvo in Karzai's "graceful exit" .

[paraclete]

That remains to be seen. I am hoping the condemnation over the last election results will modify Karzai's behavior.
I can't change the fact that he stole the Presidential election. I think it will ultimately be his downfall.
Maybe the powwow this week was the opening salvo in Karzai's "graceful exit" .

More wishful thinking, you can start your evaluation with this report.

Observers cite 'serious concerns about quality' of Afghan elections - CNN.com

[tomder55]

Communist News Network . OK they are on the top of my must read.
I will await serious evalutation until some serious results come in . But I am not hopeful.

[paraclete]

Communist News Network . ok they are on the top of my must read.
I will await serious evalutation until some serious results come in . But I am not hopeful.

Is everyone who doesn't agree with you a communist or a liberal? You have a pecular McCarthian view of the world, so mid-twentieth century. I know the quality of the news reports is coloured but sometimes there is truth to be found among the rhetoric, in this case, Karzai and cronies not to be trusted.

[tomder55]

Lol . Subsequent revelations after the fall of the Soviet Union, and (a hat tip to Australia )the 'Venona intercepts ,proved McCarthy was prescient . In fact Communists and Soviet spys had infiltrated deeply into the government .

Unfortunately the existence of the intercepts were not revealed until after the collapse of the Soviet Union... well after it became PC to reviled this American hero.

Was he an unsophisticated brute ? Yes .But the substance of his charges were correct.
When history is reconsidered the term McCarthyism will not be a pejorative.

[paraclete]

lol

Was he an unsophisticated brute ? Yes .But the substance of his charges were correct.
.

I Think the same may have been said of Stalin, Tom, we have moved on from the Cold War, I have no love of communists either, but I equally condemn extremism in all its forms