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Postcards From Afghanistan
ConvergEx's Nick Colas undertook a recent trip to Afghanistan. As he notes, the country has a long way to go to reestablish a viable economy and political stability, but he saw enough to be optimistic on both counts. Security around the capital is tight, and Afghan troops look professional and disciplined. There is ample food on display in countless local grocery stands. Girls go to school throughout the city, although women are a less common sight on the streets. Scarcity makes for odd economic outcomes – the only passenger car you’ll see is a Toyota Corolla, imported from different countries. No Afghan will be surprised that you are a tourist in their country – they are still very proud of its history and resilience. Westerners there will assume you are “On business.” Here are seven “Postcards from Kabul” with his last observations from this trip.
Via Nick Colas, ConvergEx,
I called my mom for Mother’s Day on Saturday from the Istanbul Airport. “I didn’t want you to worry, but I have been in Afghanistan for the past week. Everything’s fine and I am out of the country now. Happy Mother’s Day!” There was a pause on the line, longer than the satellite connection would explain. “Oh… I see. All right. Thank you for not telling me before you went.” In truth, Mom has no one to blame but herself, and she knew that. My interest in travel and history is all from her. If I had told her about the trip before I left I was sure she would have tried to come along.
Now that I am back in the United States, I have a few final thoughts about my trip. If you missed last week’s note on the topic, allow me to explain. I have spent the last week in Kabul on a tourist visa. The idea behind the trip was to see first hand the museums and other points of cultural significance on offer in and around Afghanistan’s capital city. I also wanted to witness what was going on in the country and assess whatever outcomes America’s longest war might be visible to the naïve and naked eye.
Obviously, it would take far more than a week to have a truly informed point of view on Afghanistan’s economic and social progress. Traveling as a tourist, you merely get snippets and snapshots of reality. Those make for a coherent paragraph, not a book or feature article. So here are some “Postcards from Kabul” with my last observations from this trip.
Postcard #1 - On women and girls. Afghanistan is a profoundly conservative Islamic country, the only feature of society that truly binds the nation’s different ethnic groups together. To the western eye, the most visible sign of this strict adherence is the sight of women in public covered head to toe in blue burqas, even their eyes invisible behind a cloth grill. Not every female you encounter on the streets of Kabul wears it; some have tightly-fitted headscarves, although they tend to be younger. The other thing you’ll notice is that the ratio of men to women on the street looks to be about 10:1, even though decades of war means the population skews more female than most.
You do see quite a few girls going to and from school every day, clustered together in small lively groups. The signs around the educational institutions for them point to foreign influences – the Turk-Afghan school for girls near my hotel, for example, and the French-Afghan Lycee in Istalif, a small hillside town not far from the Bagram airbase north of Kabul. There were several articles in the local English-language newspaper last week about the trouble women still have in pursuing an education and finding work. My hotel, the Serena Kabul, certainly made a point to hire local women. Aside from that, however, I saw none.
Postcard #2 - On the Afghan Police/Military. Travel through Kabul and you will see a lot of military and police personnel on the street. They staff checkpoints and direct traffic. They patrol in green four-pickups. They guard the museums and public spaces. Overall, they look distinctly sharper and better disciplined than most of their third-world counterparts. Their weapons are bright and they carry them in the same manner as western armies. Their uniforms are pressed and clean.
My only significant encounter with an Afghan Army officer came at the Bala Hissar, an ancient fort in Kabul’s old city. It is widely discussed in the guidebooks, so I had my driver roll up to the checkpoint at its base to ask for admission. What the guidebooks fail to mention is that the Bala Hissar is an active military base. The confused soldier at the gate brought over his commanding officer, who sported a set of U.S. Special Forces style sunglasses. His handshake was rock hard, atypical for Afghan greetings where anything more than a gentle press is rude. I was clearly not his first American… There was no request for a “Special payment” to see the fort. Just a polite “Please leave. You can look at the fort from the outside.” Which is exactly what we did.
Postcard #3 - On traffic and roads. I don’t think Kabul has a single traffic light. At least I didn’t see one last week. There are traffic circles and occasional checkpoints and the odd stop sign. There is even a countdown clock – as if there were a traffic light – in front of the American University. But no light.
The roads alternate between smooth and virtually impassable, often within the same 100 yards. Most drivers navigate the streets at a suitably slow pace, simply because there is no room for error. People walk through moving traffic everywhere through the city. There is a system of unofficial minibuses that offer rides for a few pennies, picking up and dispensing customers through their sliding side doors without coming to a full stop.
Postcard #4 – The Mighty Toyota Corolla. After a few days in Kabul you come to realize that there is only one kind of passenger car on the city’s streets: the Corolla. As you look at them more closely you find that some still bear stickers from US and Canadian dealerships. Others, from Japan or Australia, are right hand drive. My unofficial tally puts Toyota Corolla passenger market share in Kabul at about 97%. This makes sense once you pull up to the car parts area of any local bazaar. There, mechanics have all the spare parts you’d need to create an entire Corolla from scratch. That limited – but incredibly deep – base of resources keeps an entire city mobile at the lowest possible cost.
For SUVs, the Land Cruiser is king, of course, but my driver informed me that the “FourRunner” is the car younger people favor. As for military applications, the Afghan Army uses 4 door Ford Ranger pickups with a machine gun mount where you might expect to see a light bar in the U.S. American military seem to favor Ford products as well, rolling in convoys of unmarked Expeditions. If you are a motorcycle fanatic, the most common offerings in Kabul are Iranian, available at the low price of $600 for a brand new bike. Three-up riding is common, so there are two sets of passenger foot pegs.
Postcard #5 – Shopping in Kabul. There are literally thousands of small shops on every major street in the city, offering everything from basic foodstuffs to clothing to building supplies. Many more merchants offer up their wares from wheelbarrows and animal-drawn carts on the side of the road. Food seems in good supply in the capital city – I saw everything from fresh cucumbers to rhubarb to radishes on offer. Meat lovers need to be careful, however. Animals are grazed in the trash heaps around the city and freshly slaughtered fare hangs outside on hooks awaiting purchase. To the delight of the local flies, if not to the end consumer.
Postcard #6 – You Meet the Nicest People… Sort of. While haggling over some pottery in a small village about 20 miles outside Kabul, a white bearded man in local dress walked up and said “You sound like we’re from the same part of the world.” He looked for all the world like a Pashtun tribesman, but he spoke with a northern Midwest accent. I said “Hi, my name is Nick.” I think he said his name was Hal. He said he came up to the village for relaxation and after many years in the region he was very comfortable. After a brief chat with the shopkeeper in what they said was perfect Pashto, he disappeared.
When I was checking in for my flight back to Istanbul, the fellow in front of me was having trouble coming up with the $240 needed for his excess baggage. He was clearly a contractor – military haircut, desert boots, and powerful build. I put $100 on the counter for him, feeling that he would appreciate the help from a fellow American. He looked at me and said, “Thanks. Are you with ICG too?” I said no. He asked where I worked. Rather than give the ConvergEx story, I just said “Nowhere special. Don’t worry about it.” He fell quiet and did not address me again, even in the crowded waiting area after security.
Postcard #7 – Summing up. Afghanistan has been a front-page country for the West since before its modern borders were even established. It has famously been the “Graveyard of Empires” for first the British and later the Soviets. America and its coalition partners are set on avoiding that curse with their exit next year. Unlike their predecessors, however, this group has invested heavily in reconnecting Afghanistan to the rest of the world’s community of nations and building a secure and viable stand-alone country. For those who complain that the progress has been too slow, I think they underestimate what the term ‘Failed state” really means.
The people I met understand the future of their country is still tenuous, at best. Afghanistan is very poor and the Taliban are far from defeated. At the same time they appreciate that they now have a chance for a better future, if not for themselves then for their children. I truly hope they make it.
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MOAR WOAR!
or moar cowbell whatever comes first
Did I wander into a Simon Black fluff piece?
only if you can hear the sound of a hair dryer
"Postcards from Kabul"
The last things the British/Russians ever sent out....
If his perspective of economic and social progress is predicated on the existence of a functioning central government in Kabul, it will last about as long as his vacation in Kabul, once the spigot of free dollars, guns, and blood is shut off.
Karsai and his U.S.- and Chevron-sponsored men are toast the very moment the last foreign troops have left. But then again, the Taliban have been sponsored to this date by Pakistan's ISI - and Pakistan in turn is sponsored by the U.S. We have come full circle, once again - go figure.
" Security around the capital is tight, and Afghan troops look professional and disciplined."
Scary
Funny that the word bribe never shows up in the piece. A MAJOR disconnect from reality.
Simon only goes where there are hot and cold running blondes.
He cant be blamed
No ... I think you wandered into a State Department PR release. Or "Nick" took the wrong pill when he asked for anti-dysentery medicine!
This is gettin scary... first we get the offensive material notice... now we are getting deluged by enemy incoming... has ZH finally been penetrated, and like VT couple years back... turned into a counter-intel pro megaphone? Read and weep///
...I'm starting to see a pattern here... and it's not a good one. Person's with an appearance of former sanity start going full retard... their pieces becoming shill soundbites for the CoalitionoftheKilling... we invade more countries under the banner of "freeing peeple"... more megadeath and MIC megaprofits ensue... everybody's a winner - Right!? Are Tylers the new Gordon Duff*?
This piece is definitely in the running for WORST EVER PIECE O TRASH EVER PUBLISHED ON ZEROHEDGE!
*http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/02/25/veterans-today-america-must-atta... ///infamous day two years back when what was the premier anti-sionist franchise goes nuts for Obomber's Zatonic attack plans. Now Duff talks flying saucers and gobbleygook... mindcontroller of the media minions get another pal to play with!
"America and its coalition partners are set on avoiding that curse with their exit next year. Unlike their predecessors, however, this group has invested heavily in reconnecting Afghanistan to the rest of the world’s community of nations and building a secure and viable stand-alone country."
.....Talk about a complete oral pussy fart!
Yep, this must be from a bored or rogue Tyler who decided to post this just 'To fuck with us".
I think even the State Department PR/Spin Team would cringe at posting this drivel due to the reaction they would get.
Que, 'Postcards from Detriot' any day now....
...a rogue Tyler...
I likes your imagery.Is that like, Brad wit a Che bonnet? or what... Can somebody do that up on a mug or Tee? Maybe even 3-D?
oops... I forgot. http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-war-on-3d-printing-begins....
Give the author some credit: he says he saw enough to be optimistic, not enough to be realistic - he'll probably need some more time for that...
I think you wandered into a State Department PR release.
Yes. You can stuff the "Zionist" crap, but your first line is dead on accurate.
Actually, you should ask "State" to 'stuff the zionist crap'...
don't blame me... I'm just the messenger!
Dudes, it's just someone's perception. Please allow for different perspectives. Reasoned critique would be helpful. However, to sink it just because it is not doom and gloom....
Having said that, I too think the central government is toast after US men and dollars evaporate. They will fall quickly back into warlordism. They are not far from it now.
Joyless....I shudder to think what a utopian Afganistan is to you....or America for that matter.
Simon Black is the fluffer in chief.
Ask for cowbell.
Receive ZH'er cowbell.
https://soundcloud.com/jjpollution/cowbell (1:45)
"America and its coalition partners are set on avoiding that curse"
Don't be so sure about that. This empire is certainly dying out.
Most pathans buy Toyota Corolla as an investment.
The Toyota Corolla is a great car, there are LOTS in Peru.
But, Hyundai is catching up, with its Sonata and Accent models.
I wonder who is bringing in all their wheel bearings? With the conditions of those roads & streets, bearing importers should be smiling...
They are, of course, likely all stolen and re-sold. You see a lot of older US made cars in third world countries. Most are stolen and transported overseas, if you can believe that. Central America is full of them. I even saw a couple with the original very expired plates on them.
And this is a kid you not story. My first car was a very used POS Ford Granada. Possibly the worst car ever made. It was black, with 4 doors, and had a silver luggage rack on the trunk, with wire spoke wheels. I had the only one like it that I ever saw in the US. Thankfully, it was stolen while I was in college. Some years later, in Guatamala, I swear I saw the car cross a street in the intersection ahead of me. I was unable to catch up with it to check to see if it were mine.
i need moar cowbell!!
This feels like a piece from MSM.
Can we get a picture of "progress" without a soldier in it?
Afghanistan - huge watse of money and lives. Protect US borders and keep islamo scum out - problem solved.
Afghanistan after a trillion American dollars and a few thousand lives?
Girls in the capital go to school, so what? Under Soviet Occupation they opened the schools to girls to. So explain again the progress there under a decade of US war?
The MIC's bottom line and the CIA's hidden Swiss bank accounts have progressed nicely
billions of dollars worth of herion flood the world, poisoning youth... destroying cultures... making the satanic bankers drool with delight.
Indeed! All that Heroin money gets laundered through USA and UK banks! Bankers get their cut, what's not to like.
The problem is, if you start screwing with the heroin production in Afghanistan, everyone starts shooting at you. The place basically has an Islamic hillbilly culture. Revenuers and anyone from any central authority who wants to tell them what to do is basically not welcome. In truth, the Taliban is not really liked much either. They are liked so long as they are a counter to a central government. They collapsed quickly after 9/11 because they had become a central authority in many parts of the country and were therefore dispised.
This is thousands of years of culture, and no one is going to change it with a few years of "nation building." The last thing most of these people want is a "nation" to belong too.
There is a huge heroin problem in the US and the stupid fucks in US LE won't admit where it's all coming from-and the MSM sure isn't going to get off the script. The heroin supply dried up when the Taliban was in charge because growing poppies was punishable by death because of religious beliefs- now it's easier to get than pot.
...
I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves - and the enemy was in us ... The war is over for me now, but it will always be there - the rest of my days. As I am sure Elias will be - fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called possession of my soul ... There are times since I have felt like the child born of those two fathers ... but be that as it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again, to teach to others what we know and to try with what's left of our lives to find a goodness and meaning to this life
...
(Platoon)
WINNING!
Otto
Too funny! brilliant levity
in my war, the CIA ran Air America, some think it was nothing but a way to move heroin from Laos into vietnam, heroin for the boys in the green machine. sad to think they were right.
LBJ got a lot richer off Vietnam. China Boxer Rebellion was all about drugs. Vietnam, Balkans/Serbia, Afghnaistan, border of Mexico, Panama. U.S. military, CIA and drugs.
The Italian Mafia resisted getting into drug or supposedlt at least the 5 families in NYC. Eventually they caved in because the money was astronomical. Youtube has a few good videos with Bill Bonnano and other former NYC wise guys. They said the money was insane.
Indeed, one of the reasons the Taliban became unpopular and fell so easily is because it messed with the poppy harvest. Things were actually not going so bad in Afghanistan for us when we had a small foot print and did not mess with the poppy production. But then someone noticed and got all moral, and we started to destroy the poppy fields and go after growers. After that, we became personna non-grata, and they started shooting at us.
Bottom line, if you go after a man's livelyhood, he's gonna go after you.
and there are nice new highways for Chinese mining companies to get heavy equipment to and from Afgani rare earth mineral deposits.
Indeed. I have a cousin who enlisted in the Marines to serve his country. He deployed to Astan and was ordered to drive down a road where they hit an IED. He came home missing most of his lower body. At 18 years of age. For fucking nothing.
I have another cousin who was career Army. Two deployments to the Pakistani border. He came home with a Bronze Star with V for valor. He quit the Army after he came home. I asked him what was his biggest accomplishment over there. "I brought all my men home in one piece". That was his big accomplishment.
I have no use for any Afghan fuck or anybody who thinks we need to shed one American life to rebuild that useless, miserable, shit stain of a country.
Nuke the motherfuckers and let the survivors starve for all I care.
Blame the monsters who sent them to Afghanistan. The afghans did not ask to be rescued or invaded by foreign armies.
You don't need to ask for help in 'defending your freedoms'... helpful 'contracters' and their media sidekicks are standing by 24-7 to protect the peoples of the world from too much of their own backwardness... and drag them kickin n screamin into the NWO nightmare which Hilary&Co are mandated by the millenialist madmen in telaviv to spread like a viral plague.
Postcards from a Nightmare Nick has almost convinced me that our special troll anAnonymous has clued into the truth... 'americanism' may in fact really exist... as a potent kind of mental contagion which eats brains and creates ZIO-mbies.
Nick will be returning soon to the land of the pink slime... where the cattle graze on the carefully controlled hygenic and wholesome refuse of the MIC... toxic hormones... antibiotics... gmo's ... and undisclosed waste product feeds too terrible to even contemplate... all neatly packaged up n trimmed for Merikans to buy at a reasonable price... so as to better turn themselves into mobile toxic waste carbon units under the mindcontrolled command of the GreatLeader and GayBathouse Helmsman!
I'll stick with the flies thanks Nick... they're much much cleaner than than you... inside n outside!
'americanism' may in fact really exist...
_________________
Sign of an 'american': take shelter in fantasy when confronted with reality, here denial of the existence of 'americanism'.
They have a leader that is the worlds largest drug pusher. Barry and the pusher have an excellent 'working-relationship'.
There is only two differences between the Bouchard-Assad in Syria and Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan:
1. Karzai is a drug dealer.
2. Karzai is a puppet of Washington and is waging war against its own people. While Assad is fighting a war for the interests of the its own people and against the puppets of Washington.
Did he get a tour of the CIA's poppy fields?
Nick how much did a prime rib run you at the Sparks in Kabul? I need to get a gague on things over there....
Nice to see he helped out some POS mercenary contractor that probably just got done waterboarding some goat herder and the guy is probably knocking down $200k a year working for Xe.
Strange...double post!
Otto - you wouldn't know what a mercenary looked like, even if one WAS waterbaording you.
They look like Chris Kyle- but without the holes.
Just another typical ZH post of all talk and no thinking. The guy said ICG. You could try googling that, but then you'd discovery quite quickly that they're not mercenaries. Go put on your dunce cap and sit in the corner with Francis.
And idiot Nicky doesn't understand why the mercenary wasn't chummy after being handed $100. Because he probably thought you were either gay or trying to buy military secrets. WHAT A DUMBASS.
A bottle of Johnny Walker Black label goes for 115usd. Since SUPREME had four Milvans of booze get jacked (about 2.8 million euros) enroute from Karachi through Lahore, prices have GONE UP!
At the Gandamak, you can get a nice European dinner for about 45 euros.
Nice article, thanks Tylers
really??
this article leaves with the gem;
the future of their country is still tenuous.......wow! thanks for the far reaching boots on the ground insight into a difficult geopolitical quagmire. history is replete with middle eastern political backwaters finding the golden path to democracy, here's hoping they find that same path to righteous liberty.....so they can join the rest of us. /sarc
here's a couple of dots the author might have thought to join before commencing the article;
if the espouser of all thats good, righteous and the beacon of liberty can't find a way out of it's own klepto-oligarchic-polifascist-declining empire state, how the fuck is afghanistan gonna do it??? and really for that matter WHY??? to be like the Various States of Detroitification
Corollas? I thought the govt would provide them all with the Chevy Volts GM can't get rid of(Karzai writes them all off on his income taxes)
Congratulations dumb Americans for pissing a trillion dollars into another ungrateful Muslim shithole
It will be the "Graveyard of the US Empire"- just give it time until the US is broke from our NeoCon delusions of grandeur.
We are broke. TPTB just won't admit it.
A trillion?
Thats so 2009.
Post card #8
The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion, according to a former Pentagon official.
Link
Just spray foaming the tents would cut this in half………
What would George S Patton III think about Burger Kings on a US Army base in a war zone?
You have a point. I think Patton's famous speech today would be...
"No dumb son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by making a power point for his country. He won the war by making some other dumb son-of-a-bitch make a power point for his country."
what kind of idiot would think that any Afghani would be grateful for the hell that that first the USSR and then the United States unleashed in their country...
thanks for AIDS, no really...
"Congratulations dumb Americans for pissing a trillion dollars into another ungrateful Muslim shithole."
so how is life in your american shithole then? has your president not droned you yet?
To add to the who knows how many billions pissed into that other Jewish shithole, but hey, it's just toilet paper, after all, so what could be fitter.
In Flanders Fields
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4jqTF6aks (3:28)
They will be run by the Taliban within three years. Nice job Bush/Obama...
1 year. The Taliban runs everything outside of the bigger cities.
Saw a nice photo taken outside a US military base. A cross roads sign post was put into the ground, printed on it was the word "Taliban" and "Arrows pointing in every direction"! Sums it up. Where is Taliban, everywhere except inside the wire of US bases and outposts. Fact. Our troops know what the fucking score is.
It's the 'Nam Part II without the sweet Viet poon. Exit the firebase at your own risk.
+1 viet-poon
" Sums it up. Where is Taliban, everywhere except inside the wire of US bases and outposts."
You are not correct.
If you look at all the "Green on Blue" deaths, they are definitely also inside the wire.
The World is waking up; the Liars are being exposed.
Start here at home -- simply help the Liars expose themselves.
Good article Ty.
Too bad Nick didn't get out to Bamiyan to see what they do.
/////////////////
For my junker(s).
What did the Buddhists do to the Taliban? Speak up punk(s).
/////////////////
Never know what you'll catch runnin a trot line ;-)
What yu gonna 'catch' newman is what yu done sow...
and since it's soo clear that yur purpose as always is to sow divisive disinfo what keeps the spotlights offa the main perps... of Afghanistan... Iraq... Pakistan... Libya... Bosnia... and sosososss on ad nauseaum[add your favorite place here _______ where Merikan boyz been sent to kill Muzzies\get dead or dismembered at the behest of and profit for the millenialist maniacs from the tiny terrorist statelet what rules the world]...
Bamiyan was a crime against all of humanity... not just Buddhists. But your crocodile tears run red with the blood of complicity and hypocrisy. You have no real solidarity with Buddhists... or anybody else save your klepto-millenialist masters.
You talk a big story about muzzie outrages against females... but you aren't there for when the Hindus are the ones doing the raging rapine. Likewise the traffic in women which the talmudist terrorists specialize fails to attract your attention... selective outrage... mark of the shill sio-troll... just like Hillary and crew with the phony Libyan rape narrative... you have no real solidarity with females - you and yours are full of shit. Sionists(and their minions) are the ones blowin up every momument and testament to the civilizations what came before us... not phony enemies like "Taliban" ... whose phony fundamentalist "islam" is a creation of State and the dual-citiiZen ones who own it.
What yu do come back to yu...new man. Keep fishin!
cue: shortpants to jump into the ring with his tagteamin buddy!
Well lets see what I caught this morning...why its another skinny Joyless fish...lol.
"Bamiyan was a crime against all of humanity... not just Buddhists."
Committed by what group? Its ok to say it, you won't get your head chopped off.
"You have no real solidarity with Buddhists... or anybody else save your klepto-millenialist masters."
I have one master and the next time it comes to my attention that Buddhists are trying to wipe out historical record I'll point it out.
"You talk a big story about muzzie outrages against females... but you aren't there for when the Hindus are the ones doing the raging rapine."
Christians, buddhists, hindus...and muzzies. There is a common denominator among these outrages you refuse to see, taqiyya perhaps? So I take you as muslim...color me shocked and it certainly explains your fixation on jooos.
"Likewise the traffic in women which the talmudist terrorists specialize fails to attract your attention."
You mean like the kafeel labor system in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the ME? You mean like taking young women from Somalia, Phillipines etc. to become domestic slaves?
Really now JOYLESS, I expected much better obfuscation of fact from you.
I'm not here to meet your expectations newman...
far from it... it's what you don't expect that will be your undoing.
You don't like what's sniffin round your hooks... don't worry bout it. For you, I can change my name to "Baron Barracuda"
... and I will surely be back to see what you dangle next. Bye for now!
Bud...
this is gettin embarassing for everyone...
there are very very few rules here @ ZH. Chief amongst them is
you do not use the vote meter to up yourself..OR down the person with whom you are in verbal combat. Repeated failure(now sadly and amply documented)to respect this simple rule results in being identified as a TOTAL CRETIN & LOSER.* Is there another way to make this plain?
*pls pass this msg on to yur sidekick... also noticed to be unable to resist the cretinous impulse!
JOYLESS, it would appear, has no balls. He is a eunuch in fact.
To make an assertion or accusation with no basis in fact, is held in the lowest possible regard in the west. I gave the muzzie every opportunity to respond.
Nothing, hiding behind a womans skirt by now, no doubt.
//////////////////////////
Come on back JOYLESS if you have any balls...I'm going to prove to you (and anyone else interested) that you are either a liar, a conspiracy nut, a paranoid schizophrenic or all three.
"you do not use the vote meter to up yourself..OR down the person with whom you are in verbal combat. Repeated failure(now sadly and amply documented)to respect this simple rule results in being identified as a TOTAL CRETIN & LOSER.* Is there another way to make this plain?"
Whats it gonna be muzzie?
//////////////////
lol...only one new down tick?...come on JOYLESS, maybe if I jerk the line a little ;-)
Genius, Bamyan were intact the whole time the Taliban were in power till then, and it wasn't the first time they were attacked, either - far from it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan#Attacks_on_the_Buddha.27...
Also, and most importantly, the Taliban only got to power because some other geniuses in Washington decided it would be a brilliant idea to support, finance and ARM them...
But, seriously - human trafficking, forced prostitution? Like the west (including Israel, btw) isn't the world's "leading specialist" in that (yeah, and in the SE Asia - nothing to do with the west either, obviously).
"Genius, Bamyan were intact the whole time the Taliban were in power..."
Did you even read YOUR OWN wiki link.
Please boy, I've got bigger fish to fry.
LOL I just can't believe my eyes - tell me you didn't just cut the sentence short there, you loser.
Boy, these wannabe trolls, nowadays... go back to mama, little boy(?).
"Bamyan were(?) intact the whole time the Taliban were(?) in power till then(?)..."
I can't even process that statement dumb fuck.
From your link...
"The statues were destroyed by dynamite over several weeks, starting on 2 March 2001,[37] carried out in stages. Initially, the statues were fired at for several days using anti-aircraft guns and artillery. This caused severe damage, but did not obliterate them. During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, "this work of destruction is not as simple as people might think. You can't knock down the statues by shelling as both are carved into a cliff; they are firmly attached to the mountain."
Boy-Idiot.
Let me explain it to you like you're 5yo:
Bamyan were intact from when the soviet army left Afghanistan, in 1988/89, till 2001 - that's "just" over a decade of taliban rule (12/13 years, in case you can't do arithmetics, either)... got it now, "genius"?
Go back to your basement, now. Punk.
What kind of a car does q99x2 drive? That's right a 1992 Toyota Corolla. Everywhere always.
I'm a bit behind, I've only got an 1990 w/185k miles.
Don't forget the venerable turdcell. And the Previa. Out of production for years and still see them on the road.
Let's see their choices are religious maniacs that want complete domination and control over every aspect of their lives
Great choice the Taliban or the NWO
Unless it's a totally anarchistic society (can anyone point one out?) there always exists some sort of hierarchy. As soon as you have an hierarchy you have a structure of control and domination, which then presents the opening for abuse of power.
Although I am not "religious" (not signed up to any packaged-up set of "beliefs") I don't believe that religion is the only place where "maniacs" might dwell. "Maniacs" dwell under the umbrella of POWER.
As much as I have ZERO interest in being a "member" of the Taliban I would still side with their existence IN that area over that of the NWO. The reason being is that the Taliban are more of an evolution of sustainability than the NWO (which is a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all, cultural[?] "solution").
Bottom line: the question comes down to what cultural practices will allow a group of humans to survive the longest. Most cultures are based upon adaptations to a given environment. The Taliban could no more exist in the West than the West could exist in Afghanistan and Pakistan (etc.).
UNDOC Afganistan Opium survey 2012 [Warning: PDF]
Yep, just peachy over there. Hearts and Minds and Smack. Pay very close attention to the parts where the villages who don't farm opium have much better schools, and higher rates of enrolement for both boys and girls but the villages who do have a much higher (mini)GDP, and much lower rates of school attendence, especially for girls.
Almost as if... It's better if you work out the connection between rampant Islamic misogyny and drugs compared against being allowed to send girls to school.
$$$CIA$$$
Look, Mr Navy $136m fund, this isn't Reddit.
No-one cares if you junk, even if you get paid for it. You can't buy 100 ZH "likes" (lol, you prolly can, but they mean nothing, Tyler will just get a drink on it) and you can't bury posts here like you can on Reddit.
#WinningHeartsandMindsthroughShilling
CIA still giving MILLIONs to Karzai.........makes me want to puke........
''Afghanistan’s president convenes a Saturday press conference and publicly confirms the CIA’s longtime practice of bringing him bags of money. It had been a top secret until The New York Times disclosed it April 28. Karzai explains how and why he has been spending the CIA’s millions, which is as he sees fit, accountable to no one''
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2013/05/cia_cash_to_k...
It would be nice if the Taliban got ahold of him after we left.
Dick Cheney in 1998............
''Dick Cheney was then CEO of Haliburton Corporation, a pipeline services vendor based in Texas. Gushed Cheney in 1998, “I can’t think of a time when we’ve had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. It’s almost as if the opportunities have arisen overnight. The good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But we go where the business is.” Would Cheney bargain with the harborers of U.S. troop killers if that’s where the business was?''
http://www.counterpunch.org/2002/01/10/bush-enron-unocal-and-the-taliban...
these 12 yr long wars are by DESIGN, not accident
"these 12 yr long wars are by DESIGN, not accident"
ALL WARS ARE ABOUT RESOURCES.
People hide behind BS reasons so that they can have the "spoils of war" without having to face the real moral issues.
"ALL WARS ARE ABOUT RESOURCES."
Occasionally, they are over soccer games, too.
duh
Hey Nick..it's too bad we can't ask the 2200 and still counting dead U.S. soldiers how they feel about the place.
http://icasualties.org/oef/
just looked briefly but didn't see any stats for wounded, just dead. i'd like to hear from the guys who left a piece behind and have to live without for the rest of their lives, was it really worth it??
I have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone that voluntarily joins the present-day US military.
I come from a strong, Southern, military family. From the Civil War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, The Cold War, Iraq and Afghanistan - members of my family have been there. Privates, NCO's, tankers in Germany, and several Special Forces Officers.
No more. Currently, not only is there not a single member of our extended family in the military - none are planning on a military career. Not one.
A tradition spanning two centuries has been stamped out. People are simply getting tired of getting blown up for Wall Street assholes who want to be politically correct and turn their cities into Muslim welcoming zones and then cry foul when they get attacked - and then expect good old boys to travel halfway around the world to do their fighting for them.
The New York bankers can go extract their revenge themselves. Leave us the hell out of it.
+1 Well stated Meat Trapper.
High unemployment for young US white males while keep the cannon fodder enlisting.
I too am the last of a long history of military service. Me and my kin folk WILL NEVER, EVER serve the USA again.
NEVER!
Smedley Butler stated it all pretty well in War Is A Racket.
And as Otto put it above, no sympathies for anyone who volunteers: different story for those drafted. I was a "volunteer," and I pretty much refuse to pull out the "veteran" card (either in support [ha!] or against the military establishment- my voice should not be afforded any special treatment over any other individual [when individuals are presenting their positions based on their OWN beliefs]).
OS,
No one in the military asks for your sympathy. You would do well to remember that, that your opinions on this one particular subject are out of bounds and stick to being a good civilian. No non-sense non-coms would not tolerate your contempt.
No better friend, no worse enemy!
You closet fascists aren't big on free speech. Don't forget-us civilians pay your freight with our taxes- so until I don't pay a cent in taxes to Uncle Sam I'll keep on keepin' on. And don't for a second think you're protecting our freedoms here in the US.
A simplistic slogan from a simpleton.
A mind trapped with a inferiority complex, and yes, you do have the right to speech, just NOT the right to be heard.
Here! Here!
The comng World War will employ the ignorant, uneducated boys to fight for the bankers under the banner of freedom.
What else is a Middle American whigger who's been at-risk since birth going to do? Fight!
This veneer of prideful bullshit has to stop. And it should have as soon as Hillary said "what does it matter"?
Oh, and John Kerry now in charge. If that doesn't say Fuck You to families of vets and soldiers, nothing else will...
Is this a closet Party Pussy bash against "Dems?" ("Hillary," "Kerry")
This SHIT has been going on since the beginning of time. Got NOTHING to do with "Hillary" or "Kerry" (or folks on the other side of the "coin"). Cannon fodder has ALWAYS been cannon fodder.
"If that doesn't say Fuck You to families of vets and soldiers, nothing else will..."
I'd like to ask the MOTHERS of those "vets and soldiers" just why the fuck they allow their children to be sent off for the MIC in the first god-damned place. Seeing as it was recently Mother's Day do you know the origin of this "celebration?"
No one gives a shit about the origin of Mothers Day.
98% of the public will tell you it's a commercial gimmick started by Hallmark.
Today, hopelessness, no jobs, and lack of discipline they failed to impart on their sons are the reasons why they let their kids go to war.
Hey seer shit head. His attack on Kerry was because Kerry came home from Viet Nam and turned against other vets. It was pretty disgraceful, but hey, it got him elected. You have no knowlege of history so shut the fuck up.
"No one in the military asks for your sympathy."
They don't have to fucking ask, it's a GIVEN. Look at all the (MIC-sponsored) organizations that infiltrate every fucking nook and cranny in our society. The airwaves are caked with "sympathies" toward the "heroes."
I'll add another down-arrow to your pile: proud to be among those who have voted as such (a big thank you for all out there who "get it").
Hmmm. then perhaps you can explain the how the pendulum has swung from then open disdain of military personnel (draft or volunteer status) during Vietnam to the more recent gushing displays of support of the Empire's Grunts?
Thank You Dr. E. From your link I found this link. I have already filed this one for future use.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-14/contractors-hit-by-almost-1-billion-in-afghan-taxes.html
And just how fucked up IS all of this?
Easy come easy go... the vultures are all chewing off of REAL labor.
Sterling example of what it means to spread "civilization" and "democracy"...
A global force for good.
A global Force for good opium
The kid on the image is humiliating the soldier. Muzzies wipe their ass with the left hand. You DON'T shake hands with the hand that wipes your ass.
Did you talk to the kid to confirm this?
"You DON'T shake hands with the hand that wipes your ass."
What hand do YOU use?
Those people are fucked.
No less fucked than the poor wastrel's of the the U.S.S.A., but fucked nonetheless.
The jihadist's will make certain that the stone age barbarism of Mohammedanism is not overturned.
Of course in the U.S. the cities are crumbling and the Republic is rapidly devolving into a police state of debutante diva coven's of witches, Sodom and Gomorrah in the political and financial capitols, and Fascism steeped in faux "Security" and "Safety".
I can be spied on, audited by the I.R.S., and stopped for no reason at a roadside checkpoint, groped and x-ray'd at the airport, have my door kicked in with a no-knock warrant, but I am supposedly "free".
What a fucking crock of shit.
Hang Jamie Dimon.
Hang Bernanke.
Hang the lot.
Kabul or Detriot? Hmmmmm...
Up-arrow, but...
"The jihadist's will make certain that the stone age barbarism of Mohammedanism is not overturned."
It all comes down to what is sustainable. We ought to cut through all the derogatory words and analyze as such.
I live out in the country, a place where "city" people see "backward hicks." There's a fucking reason why things tend to operate at a "lower" level out in the country- this should NOT be confused with being "backwards" or "stone-age-ish."
Stone-age
Barbarism
Mohammedanism
All are loaded words/terms. What matters is whether something works of not. If people have a problem with any of these terms/words then they are likely more closely sided with the NWO: I'd hope that those who jerked at this statement realize what I did here- pegged it as an either-or proposition, which is how the above terms/words were pre-loaded to do.
ya... we gettin down to it... slowly... wheels within wheels, n dolls within dolls.
Stone age... barbarism...(phony)Mohammedanism... harnessed&in service to the racialist hegemonists what have turned Palestine and Iraq ... mabbee Libya too... back into 'stone age' replicas from what they were short years ago... moderate secularist Muslim(but mixed and co-existing) societies with some semblance of rule of law. With hundreds of thousands of Merikan boys dead or missing body parts as the gathered interest and sacrificial victims of their maniacal millenialism.
One by one... we are going to dissect and eliminate these divisive myths that the sio-trolls and their [perhaps]well-meaning, but mindcontrolled, minion dupe sidekicks insert here.
And win the peace that we need and deserve. As an alternative to the war... destruction... and debt serfdom that 'the usual suspects' of the usury\interest banking klique wish to be our collective fates.
The opium is a tool to make ends meet, feed families, etc..
Any of us would do the same if we had such few options.
Soon other revenue sources will be coming online, particularly due to the Chinese.
They will get the big prizes. Lithium, gold, copper, iron and a few very "special" things discovered in the caves.
Afghanistan could be sitting on mineral deposits worth $1 trillion by some estimates.
Tight with any older SpecOps folks? Politely ask sometime.
There are *things* in them thar hills.....
Francis may be interested to learn that a nice haul of ancient Hebrew manuscripts were discovered in Afghanistan.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256870/Hebrew-documents-Taliban...
China appears to have 7000 + tonnes of gold. Maybe China will buy everything in American Hard Assets (aimed at the wealthy)! My review of their issue number three:
http://tinyurl.com/c7aa2d9
I agree. I have no problem with anyone growing, selling or using opium of their own free will. I do have a problem with our troops being used to protect poppy fields and then our government using the "war on drugs" (the drugs they helped protect) to crush our civil liberties and imprison tens of thousands of Americans for doing what our troops were enabling over there.
Up-arrow.
Good luck negotiating mineral rights with the enlightened Taliban govt that will take over when US is gone. And people think it's a bitch dealing w/ African warlords.
Talib means STUDENT.
If your a teacher, you would be known as a emir ul talib - student leader.
I have read right here on ZH that the news reporting agencies have been turned and that their information is suspect.
With that said, don't you think that if the news is suspect, that your information and outlook in regards to the TALIBAN in Afghanistan may also be suspect.
How is it that you know what you know.
So, if a Muslim waves the black flag of jihad, from what the media tells you, then he wants to convert you, rape your wife, or fly planes into buildings? and after all of this, you still think that the muslims flew those planes? REALLY?
Your outlook has been shaped - and you don't even know it.
Which pill are you going to take: RED or BLUE?
"Your outlook has been shaped - and you don't even know it".
Clears throat...
Hello...McFly
AND... the Taliban were supported by the US. Lots of money found its way to the Madrasas (sp?) with the specific hopes of radicalizing the people to push out the Soviets. In essence, al Qaeda became the militarized arm of the Taliban.
This is a big reason why Cheney et al got so twisted. The hand that was "fed" didn't roll over when a quid-pro-quo was sought: the "Taliban" weren't being pushed over by the oil companies, which infuriated the likes of Cheney and that cartel. The campaign was started well in advance, all the "womens rights" issues were to help suck in the liberals to support what would eventually become the "war" efforts to push the "Taliban" out of the way of the pipelines: I suspect that the U.S. has killed more Afghan women than the Taliban have.
This is how a duopoly works, separate out the meaningless social issues to camoflage the real (financial) intent. Whereever you see Cheney operate you see the face of true evil, The Tali's are alterboys relative to this guy
'Americans' work in pair.
OS,
What are YOU willing to fight for?
The ENTIRE reason the US embarked on all of this is because US-based oil companies were unable to make a profitable deal with the Taliban.
What we all seemingly fail to miss is what things are like when the gold mine has emptied. When the aims of the "mineral rights" have been fulfilled what remains? Take a look at the coal hills of the Virginias, the toxic waste-lands in China. Environmental devastation. Economic collapse ("boom-and-bust" mean anything?). And an unsustainable infrastructure (hello Detroit!).
I've got NO idea whether the Taliban understand all of this. If they do then I support their logic for driving a hard bargain: though, in the long-run, I think it's all a losing proposition since it's unlikely that in the long-run the "profits" realized can out-weigh the losses (sustainability index).
The afghans will do what the afghans will do. They have been invaded by by Americans, Russians, British, Huns, Macedonians and every other invader who had enough men to go from east to west.
There is a reason why we (Americans) are there, but the ability to discern and understand requires a higher order of nderstanding, money is the easy target for those that are unable to grasp the REAL reason.
Simplistic slogans and thought traps are for the easily shaped and influenced.
+1
"There is a reason why we (Americans) are there, but the ability to discern and understand requires a higher order of nderstanding, money is the easy target for those that are unable to grasp the REAL reason."
Stating "reason" several times w/o actually alluding to what it is that YOU believe it to be is a bit of a cliff-hanger...
I'll state what I believe it to be: ALL WARS ARE ABOUT RESOURCES. STOP.
There is NO "reason" to complicate this other than to perpetuate the exercise of deception.
especially when your failing empire depends on what's left of the fuel for its tanks/ships/planes to be the failing empire it has become
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vPHB8NSPVI
This IS the playbook. It's how and why wars are based on/around resource grabs.
He looked at me and said, “Thanks. Are you with ICG too?” I said no. He asked where I worked. Rather than give the ConvergEx story, I just said “Nowhere special. Don’t worry about it.” He fell quiet and did not address me again, even in the crowded waiting area after security.
thats because military type know that means, "i am high up so dont ask questions"
he probably thought you were head of CIA or some shit
If we'd be allow to sell drugs the US could be as prosperous and there'd be a lot better acid.
I think that it's collectively zero-sum.
The same amount of money would likely exist, it's just that it's routed through more of the "enforcement" channels than the "producers" channels. If there were more "producers" then there might be less taxes collected because people are less productive in The System. That's why alcohol is widely accepted: pumps up the jock-heads to be competitive, which is leveraged by the corporate machines.
Karsai and his U.S.- and Chevron-sponsored men are toast the very moment the last foreign troops have left. But then again, the Taliban have been sponsored to this date by Pakistan's ISI - and Pakistan in turn is sponsored by the U.S. We have come full circle, once again - go figure.
Afghanistan is very poor and the Taliban are far from defeated.
The Taliban is Afghanistan. You cannot defeat the Taliban without liquidating 60 per cent of the Afghan population. When will Westerners learn anything?