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Ouch!
climber
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Good story. Thanks.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Four more Canadians died in Afghanistan in the last few days, for a total of 94 so far. There are about 2,500 Canadians there, although not all in combat roles. (About 35,000 from the U.S.A.) Hopefully the sacrifice will be worth it, and bring something like peace and stability to that troubled country for the first time in decades. Although dealing with al Qaeda remnants in the Pakistani border areas could get very ugly.
The story was reported here last week, with a lot of credit going to the Danes for some good diversionary tactics. Hopefully they can not only restore full generating capacity to the dam, but also make and protect the transmission system to get the power where it's needed - always the vulnerable point.
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Chris2
Trad climber
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KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A U.N. investigation team said Tuesday that 90 civilians, including 60 children, were mistakenly killed by a U.S. bombing raid in Afghanistan's Herat province.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Things go up and down like Iraq. Sometimes the good news is manufactured, sometimes it is real.
Anybody who thinks the Afghanis like us is on crack. They hate all invaders.
The Soviets told themselves the same stories about how they were helping Afghanistan.
We'll just have to see
Peace
Karl
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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I think if we got out of there, sent them some good money
to rebuild their own economy and just let them sort out
their own problems, all involved would be much better off.
Look at the Soviet's ill fated excursion there, ours is going
to be a similar situation.
What was it that Santayana said, if we don't learn from the past, we're condemned to repeat it. . .
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Anastasia
climber
Not here
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Carl von Clausewitz, one of the greatest strategic theorist always said never take on a multi-front war. In Afghanistan where there is no central leadership, instead you are dealing with many clans/groups... You are doomed to fail since you have more than one enemy. It is literally the ultimate multi-front war.
Plus remember that in Vietnam we actually won every battle we fought but we still lost the war because of these very same reasons.
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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I read recently "Afghanistan is where great empires go to die."
or something like that....
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Bluering wrote
"I knew the Pakistani ISI was helping us out, they just can't really admit it in public"
The thing you have to know about PAk and the ISI is this: they play both sides of the fence. The ISI basically reconstituted the Taliban as an arm of Pakistani Power in Afghanistan. The Taliban was virtually gone in 2002.
Meanwhile the Taliban has managed to expand their influence in Pakistan, having taken control of a valley in Pakistan outside of the Northern Tribal areas. It's a place called Swat. So they got away from the border area where drones were hassling them but that doesn't mean they are gone.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2980676183
Just as Fatah in the occupied territories lost the faith of the people by being corrupt, the Karzai government with all their warlord buddies in the outlying areas are so corrupt they are losing the faith of the people. We can kill lots of "terrorists" but when the main guys are bribe-taking extortionists, there is little hope of winning heart and minds.
Listen to Sara Chase's "Fresh Air" NPS program from Feb 4th. She lives in Kandahar half the time. Very sad report about the messed up government losing the people's faith.
Peace
Karl
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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