How low can the Taliban go?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

With taliban it's not a question of how low they can go. It's more like asking if they'll ever reach the 19th century in development.

[danny76]

The only problem is, we are talking about their affairs. Who gives a crap about what the sandchokers do??  ..... If you wanna help them tell them this: "KILL YOUR FAMILY, YOUR NEIGHBORS, AND THEN KILL YOUR SELF, mohamed WILL TAKE YOU ALL TO HEAVEN"(hell but dont tell'm)... If all muslims die the world will be a better place.

When my little brother went to Iraq on his first tour in 05, I told him: if any kid or lady walk near you with a gun, f....ing kill them, no mercy. If they capture you they will turture you and then cut your head off. :       F... ALL muslims.  We need to delete all muslim countrys and cleanse our countrys. Death to all muslims.    How can muslims not be angry??? They live in mud huts, sleep on the sand, have no Tele, no playboy or hustler, No dating. No computers, and not allowed to masturbate. and here comes this corn fed 6'1 American with a super hot girl he nails every night, and also walks around with a pocket PC/tele/phone.etc.. Lol . How you not be angry at America, you got sand in your butt crack, got no girlfriend and you never heared about A/C.

Well, you've clearly got it all together

[GScholz]

WE, invaded a sovereign nation and killed a large percentage of its populace.

Really? There are about 30 million people in Afghanistan; how many killed? What percentage?

We would have to kill 300,000 people just to get to 1%. Last year there were 8,938 fatalities including coalition losses, Taliban losses and civilian deaths. First six months of this year the total death count in Afganistan is estimated at 3,000.

Large percentage of its populace... These numbers are ridiculously low for any major war.

[Plawranc]

Large in relative terms Gscholz.

The war itself has gone on for over 10 years now. Technically during the Soviet invasion we backed the Taliban, so how many Russians did we kill also.

We are bombing as earlier said "19th Century" people. With weapons designed to annihilate fully developed nations. We are chasing men armed with bolt-actions with Apache Gunships, Bombing mudhuts with JDAM 2000 pounders and dropping ordinance on large collections of people in public spaces, like IDK, a Wedding?

I realize that they are the enemy, that they want to kill us, and so we must deal with them forcefully.

But after doing all that, are we to say they should just sit there and get killed?

They are gonna fight for ALOT longer than this.

[Rich46yo]

For the last time there was no Taliban back then <sheesh>. Also where are you getting your information? Did you serve there or is it coming from the same place your Taliban timeline is coming from?

Large in relative terms Gscholz.

The war itself has gone on for over 10 years now. Technically during the Soviet invasion we backed the Taliban, so how many Russians did we kill also.

We are bombing as earlier said "19th Century" people. With weapons designed to annihilate fully developed nations. We are chasing men armed with bolt-actions with Apache Gunships, Bombing mudhuts with JDAM 2000 pounders and dropping ordinance on large collections of people in public spaces, like IDK, a Wedding?

I realize that they are the enemy, that they want to kill us, and so we must deal with them forcefully.

But after doing all that, are we to say they should just sit there and get killed?

They are gonna fight for ALOT longer than this.

[Ardy123]

The war itself has gone on for over 10 years now. Technically during the Soviet invasion we backed the Taliban, so how many Russians did we kill also.

no the USA under Reagan and Charlie Wilson backed the mujahideen to fight the USSR. Osama Bin Laden was part of this group, but the Taliban was not on anyone's radar. The Taliban became what we know of it after the USSR left.

[Melvin]

Actually, the guys we supported against the Russians turned into this group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Alliance

We failed miserably at keeping them as a close ally.

[Ardy123]

Actually, the guys we supported against the Russians turned into this group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Alliance

We failed miserably at keeping them as a close ally.

Yeah, problem was that as soon as an oppressive power left, it created a power grab among the old 'feudal like' war-lords/tribes... Basically, my understanding is that the situation degraded into a civil war. As for killing children etc... That's nothing new or surprising... Europeans did the same in the past when they had 'feudal like' war lords too. Hell, even the Nazi's did it 70 years ago... Doesn't change the fact that it is deplorable behavior.

[Rich46yo]

no the USA under Reagan and Charlie Wilson backed the mujahideen to fight the USSR. Osama Bin Laden was part of this group, but the Taliban was not on anyone's radar. The Taliban became what we know of it after the USSR left.

No Bin Laden WAS NOT PART of the groups America supported. There were numerous tribal and guerrilla groups fighting the Soviets and some, namely the ones Bin Laden was involved in and collecting funds for, were already virulently anti-west and America and there was no way we were going to put high tech weapons in their hands. Bin Laden himself would never have anything to do with America anyways. Besides he was collecting so much $$ from Islamic charities, he himself was so rich, and the INTL arms market was so well stocked, he didnt need us for anything. Afghanistan was basically a huge arms market of mostly Soviet equipment originating from Arab countries or even captured Israeli stocks. The CIA or America never had anything to do with Bin Laden. Other then eventually shooting him full of holes many years later.

Defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan was a huge strategic coup for the west and nothing that followed after can reduce that. It caused massive Soviets casualties, showed the world the vaunted Soviet war machine simply was not that good, and gave hope to Soviet occupied countries that freedom might be in their future. You cant compare a group like Al Qaeda to a massive war machine armed with 30,000 nuclear weapons that could have crushed western Europe if not freedom everywhere. We had to make a lot of hard/unsavory choices to counter the Soviets. In the end it was all worth it. They were by far the worst enemy the West has ever faced, or ever will. Arming friendly elements of the mujahadeen was a brilliant strategic move that denied the Soviet Union a base to eventually make a grab for a warm water port and get a stranglehold on the Persian Gulf and the oil supplies we all desperately need.

Having spent 18 mos in Islam under arms myself Im not even sure if we had stayed and engaged in nation building would have changed anything vis-a-vis terrorism. Fundamentalist terror was bad even before Afghanistan and is an idealogy that has no interest in living in peace with others who dont share their beliefs.

[coombz]

Having spent 18 mos in Islam under arms myself

I'm not sure if you are admitting to being a terrorist or something here, or if you think that Islam is a place 

Also lol at all your cold war success story BS...you stopped the terrible advance of the red menace threatening the entire world!!

There really is one born every minute

[Ardy123]

No Bin Laden WAS NOT PART of the groups America supported.

are you 'sure' of this (ie post any proof)?   there are many conflicting reports...

While the CIA says no, in the past both the BBC and CBC and Der Spiegel say that he did receive support from the USA (Der Spiegel claiming that he was 'one of their best customers'). Furthermore former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto stated that at that time (1980s') Bin Laden was pro-US.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/arming-the-middle-east-the-checkered-history-of-american-weapons-deals-a-498421.html

[Widewing]

It's our fault for not negotiating with them properly and not apologizing enough for random videos made by strange and otherwise unknown weirdos.  We should have no aggressive preconditions such as properly defended embassies because that is the very arrogant and aggressive colonialist actions that they're shooting children over.  If we apologize enough surely they'll stop being extremist barbarians because they'll be our friends.  Remember, as spoken to the leaders of NATO just a week ago, the future does not belong to those who are disrespectful to the prophet mohammed.

[GScholz]

Large in relative terms Gscholz.

No; it's ridiculously low for any major war. The Afghans lost more than 3 million people to the Soviet invasion. Last year 16,466 people were killed in the Mexican drug war; almost twice the number of deaths in Afghanistan.

[guncrasher]

No; it's ridiculously low for any major war. The Afghans lost more than 3 million people to the Soviet invasion. Last year 16,466 people were killed in the Mexican drug war; almost twice the number of deaths in Afghanistan.

tell that to the dead guys  .


semp

[NatCigg]

I'm not sure if you are admitting to being a terrorist or something here, or if you think that Islam is a place 

Also lol at all your cold war success story BS...you stopped the terrible advance of the red menace threatening the entire world!!

There really is one born every minute

Can we build an island for people like this (referring to C mob).   We can even give them obama as a leader.   just be sure we have a thourough coverage of nukes aimed there direction, just in case.