On Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:32:39 -0700, jps wrote:



It's morphed into something larger than bin Laden or al Qaeda. It's
now threatening the further destabilization of Pakistan and access to
nuclear weapons.

That's all overblown, IMO.
The Pakis can take care of the Taliban, which come in different
colors. And the Northern Alliance - former Taliban - may have been
on the verge of defeating them when 9/11 interceded.
9/11 was Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, and Al Qeada.
Taliban is a side show of the ever-changing tribal muslim savages
holding sway in Afghanistan.
Besides that, the Taliban are mortal enemies of Shia Iran.
We can leave at any time - except bin Laden is alive.
Once he's dead, and if we left - doubtful now because we would be
abandoning "women's rights" - if Iran got nukes they'd probably nuke
Afghanistan instead of Israel. Taliban can't strike back.
They have no friends. Not even the Pakis, who are only about 15%
Pashtun, mostly on the north border areas.

We didn't take care of business the first time with the Taliban, now
we've got the same problem the USSR had before Afghanistan helped
cause their bankruptcy.

Brilliant.

Nation building.
The only business we had there was to kill Al Qeada and bin Laden.
And we didn't get the job done.
Now we're stuck there to prevent women from being kept in burkhas and
thrashed.
BTW, the Soviets were fighting the Pakis, the U.S. and some others
when they were there. U.S. and NATO strength is already more than
half of the max strength the Soviets had there.
Soviet total KIA was about 14,000 over about 8 years.
Hard to compare then and now. Taliban have no allies.
The big problem is telling people how to live.
Social engineering.

--Vic