The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Archives => Politics => Election 2008 => Topic started by: Wretched Excess on July 21, 2008, 11:10:43 AM
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The sky is NOT falling.
The BarackStar! wants to strip troops from iraq because he is painting afghanistan ("the war we have to win") as
a lost cause, and even our frequently clueless presidential candidate is giving that opinion credibility by calling for a surge
in afghanistan.
that's fairly ignorant of history. spring and summer offensives are common in afghanistan. the winters are brutal, during
which the mountains are impassable, and the taliban frequently goes on an all out offensive in the spring and summer months;
and they always lose, and lose BIG.
here are just a few headlines from june and july of 2006, which was the last time we were on the verge of "losing afghanistan". :whatever:
of course, the biggest point here is that The BarackStar!'s position on "refocusing on afghanistan" at the expense of iraq
is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. it's designed to distract people from the fact that his "judgment" is faulty. he was not
only wrong on iraq, and wrong on the surge, but he's wrong on afghanistan, too.
Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jul/22/afghanistan.topstories3)
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.
The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato's international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were "running out of time" if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.
Rice declares Taliban won't prevail in Afghanistan (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/28/afghan.pakistan/)
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledged U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's fight against resurgent Taliban militants on Wednesday, saying they won't prevail.
Afghanistan, Unraveling (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/opinion/01thu1.html)
Something has gone alarmingly wrong in Afghanistan, previously touted as the Bush administration's one quasi-successful venture in nation-building. Afghanistan's rising carnage still has not reached Iraq-like levels. But the trend is running in decidedly the wrong direction. Poorly thought-out American policies are at least partly to blame.
Unless Washington starts correcting its mistakes, parts of Afghanistan could start tumbling back toward the kind of anarchic chaos that once made such areas an attractive sanctuary for international terrorists like Osama bin Laden.
The warning signs go well beyond this week's deadly outbreak of anti-American rioting in Kabul — the worst violence there since the Taliban were evicted from Afghanistan's capital in 2001. And Kabul is widely acknowledged to be the most secure place in Afghanistan.
Taliban Ambushes Kill 30 in Afghanistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/20/AR2006062000083.html)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Two Taliban ambushes of civilian convoys left 30 people dead, while coalition and Afghan forces killed at least 11 militants in an ongoing U.S.-led offensive across southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
More than 10,000 coalition and Afghan troops are fanning out across four volatile southern provinces to combat Taliban militants launching attacks from towering mountain ranges. They have been responsible for the deadliest violence since the extremist regime was toppled in 2001 by a U.S.-led invasion force.
Musharraf: Taliban gaining power
Pakistan's president calls on Afghanistan to take action (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/20/afghanistan.omar/)
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remained in control of his Afghan Islamic militia, which was gaining strength in the south of the country, Pakistan's president said Thursday.
General Pervez Musharraf said the growing strength of the Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion that followed al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, was having negative effects in Pakistan.
He demanded that Afghanistan's government take immediate steps to stop the infiltration of fighters across the border, warning that the spread of violence could threaten Pakistan.
Large parts of Afghanistan under Taliban control: Omar (http://www.dawn.com/2006/06/26/top10.htm)
ISLAMABAD, June 25: A private television channel on Sunday broadcast what it said was an audiotape from the fugitive leader of the ousted Taliban militia, Mulla Omar, claiming his fighters still controlled large parts of Afghanistan.
The authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified. The network said it had been sent the voice clip via email from Afghan capital Kabul.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Mohammed Hanif, quoted by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press denied that Mullah Omar had issued any new audiotape.
The man said to be Omar was purportedly addressing a Taliban military council in the southern Afghan province of Helmand and claimed that his movement still held sway over large parts of Afghanistan.
More Headlines from June and July of 2006 (http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=afghanistan&num=10&as_price=p0&as_ldate=6/1/2006&as_hdate=7/30/2006&ned=us&sa=N&start=20)