I agree, making Afghanistan a peaceful 21st century nation is almost certainly a pipe dream and a tragic waste of lives and treasure. About the best we can do is kill off the current generation of leadership and destroy their ability to export terrorism whenever they attack us, then leave. Call it returning the land to the holy technology of Mohamed by destroying evil non-Islamic technology and everyone's happier. Right now we're attempting to teach a pig to dance when the pig has no interest in dancing and would rather be doing pig things if we weren't dangling food in front of it.
The Afghanis are entirely incapable of maintaining or repairing it because that isn't important to them. When your education system is concerned almost solely concerned with what Mohamed did in the medieval world, even Soviet technology is going to remain above your head. And while we could train individuals to maintain and run that plant, since those above them would continue to be most concerned with their own power and prestige it would no doubt be another wasted effort.
Americans are in large part the ones attempting to keep beloved patriot kids from the horrors of polio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001–present)
Considering that he just mentioned a Soviet-era power plant, I think it's pretty safe to assume he's not trying to make you believe that no electrical plants, telecommunication centers, water, roads, bridges, etc existed in Afghanistan before the war started. What he is trying make you believe is complicated enough that I won't try to explain it. I think this may be one of those cases where "you can't get there from here."
Thanks. No disrespect meant. Incidentally I used to spend a lot of time on Pakistani English language political and military boards and never saw exception taken to that term, but maybe it's like the "N' word, depends on who's using it. I'll try to remember to avoid it.
😀 Dude, he said a Warthog was working nearby, not that he was going to "deal with it". (It's possible that he DID deal with it, BDA or target lasing, but that's not what he SAID.) And don't forget that your uncle, as admirable as he may be, is limited to those areas deemed relatively safe. People with automatic rifles and Warthogs on station often see rather seamier parts of Afghanistan.
His point clearly wasn't that the CiA didn't gather intelligence by having a Pakistani doctor start a polio vaccination program as a cover, but rather that the cause of Pakistani children not having access to polio vaccinations is due strictly to the Taliban-types choosing to throw out health care providers - they elected to provide greater safety to themselves at direct risk to the children. (Or even more likely considering that this trick has just been pulled, they elected to put children at risk of polio as a political weapon.)
LOL Sorry, Afghanistan is on my list of places to avoid. (Not to mention that if I bought someone else an airplane ticket I'd have, um, trouble at home.)
That's well put, but remember that we aren't really killing Taliban. We're killing terrorists like Usama and those planting roadside bombs, or those (possibly Taliban, possibly AL-Qaeda) actively shooting or firing mortars at us.
😀 Mistake, obviously. (Obama killing Obama?)
