quote:
Originally posted by Ronn_Bman:
Violence doesn't solve everything, but neither does pacifism. The problems in Afghanistan have not been caused by US actions. The tribes in Afghanistan have been fighting one another for thousands of years. We aided the freedom fighters against the Soviets. We didn't stay around after providing them the aid to do that, but our goal wasn't to put into power a specific group, it was, instead to eject the Soviets. The Taliban was not a group put into power by the US, but instead a group that seized power from those who claimed Afghanistan after the Soviets left.
I am not a pacifist. I'd like to be, but I just don't have the temprament for it, and it would be a total hypocrisy for me to take up the pacifist banner. Ron, we've had this discussion before, on why I don't think the war is actually going to achieve any of the US's long term ends re eradicating terrorism, and may actually serve, in the long run, to make the situation worse.
On the aiding the freedom fighters front - well, all I can say is, learning from mistakes is a great thing.
Honestly, it would be in America's best interests as well as the rest of the world to have some sort of body with TEETH that would actually be mandated to work for world peace and security, rather than America taking on this global policeman role.
But we've been through all that as well.... let's not go there again, please! (I warn you, I shall just go back and cut and paste my original posts. I'm a gemini, which means I don't like repeating myself... God, we've had *that* discussion as well...... [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] )