Comments on: You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Argue That the Afghan War Prevents Terror--But It Helps http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/10/29/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-argue-that-the-afghan-war-prevents-terror-but-it-helps/ The national media watch group Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:19:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Paul Diamond http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/10/29/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-argue-that-the-afghan-war-prevents-terror-but-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-10905 Paul Diamond Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:02:21 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=13230#comment-10905 Afghanistan is not a country. Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups. If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us. Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy. Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have. They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road? Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains. They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them. Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback or an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska. It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States. It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we. They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children. Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam. The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut. If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening. The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success. ~;^}> Afghanistan is not a country. Afghanistan is not a nation. Afghanistan is a string of valleys strung together by a harsh, rugged, sometimes impassable mountain range. Afghanistan is scattered villages of tribal and familial groups loosely connected by trade, a common language and a common religious tradition. Even in the cities the people congregate into neighborhoods of common tribal, familial and/or religious groups.
If you are not of their village or neighborhood, if you do not speak their language you are a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger. If you are a stranger with a gun you are an enemy. As long as there are foreigners with guns on Afghan soil there will be Afghans to fight them. Many have learned that hard lesson the Persians, the Greeks, the Moghuls, the Mongols, the Chinese, the British, the Soviets and now the Americans, us.
Military action is a failure of diplomacy. The Afghans will never be defeated by force. The Afghans will never be subdued by force. They must be charmed, cajoled, enticed, courted family by family, tribe by tribe, village by village, marketplace by marketplace, neighborhood by neighborhood. Nation building must start with trust and respect on the most local levels. It will only happen by diplomacy.
Perhaps it is not being reported. I am hearing nothing about anyone getting out of their cushy embassy offices and going out to the valleys, villages, marketplaces and neighborhoods. Breaking bread, sitting down over a cup of coffee or tea, to ask the Afghan people what they want for their country. Instead of telling them what we think they should have.
They need roads. Are we building roads? Are they building roads? How many Afghans are employed building those road?
Road building in the ruggeg Afghan mountains will be a slow, tedious, expensive proposition. Most Afghans walk, ride donkeys and camels. What is being done to improve the tracks, paths and trails between villages that Afghans have used for millenia until roads are built in those rugged, forbidding mountains.
They need and want electricity. Why are we not contracting with American companies to provide windmills, solar panels and small generating plants that run on biofuels and animal power to supply that need, particularly in their remote mountainous regions and villages. Train Afghans to install, service, repair and run them.
Afghanistan is the perfect laboratory for developing local green alternative energy. Not just for use in Afghanistan, but also for use in the United States and for export to many third world and remote locales. A way to provide power in a remote mountain village in Afghanistan will certainly work in the African bush, the remotest Australian outback or an Inuit village on the edge of the tundra in Alaska. It will give a major boost to our alternative green energy industry. Give the Afghans the power they need. Provide jobs for Afghanistan and the United States.
It will provide alternatives to the poppy production. They can grow cash crops for their biofuel industry, as well as food, in the poppy fields. We can also provide alternative fuel buses and cars so they won't be dependent on foreign fossil fuel products as are we.
They need and want education. Let Afghan labor build Schools with materials and support we supply them. Find and train Afghans to teach in them. Train local Afghans to protect their schools and their children.
Find moderate and liberal clerics to serve as alternatives for the fundamentalists, violent, angry male bovine excrement that dominates in many parts of Afghanistan. As well as to teach in the madras' a more moderate, peaceful Islam.
The best kind of business deal is where both sides walk away from the table feeling as though they have gained something. This proposal is a win-win situation. The only losers will be the officials of a corrupt government that will be bypassed and lose their cut.
If this kind of effort is going on I am not hearing any of it in the mainstream media, the alternative press or the internet. Is it because it is not being reported? OR is it because it is not happening.
The approach I propose requires humility rather than arrogance. This so-called 'christian' country has never been very big on humility. However, this is a positive approach that has a real chance of success.
~;^}>

]]> By: Don Jessy http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/10/29/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-argue-that-the-afghan-war-prevents-terror-but-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-10350 Don Jessy Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:57:55 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=13230#comment-10350 Sorry Doug, you reveal your ignorance with the comment that Afghanistan has no resouces. China just made a deal with the corrupt gov't to develope one of the world's largest deposits of copper. There are, and have always been minerals and semi precious stones, fine marbles and Onyx that has been carved for thousands of years.The mountainous regions of Afghanistan/Pakistan have produced produced incredible wealth - unfortunately, only for the rich and greedy. Yes, it is true, the biggest reason we are there now is to insist that only US companies have control over the pipelines for the oil and gas north. Sorry Doug, you reveal your ignorance with the comment that Afghanistan has no resouces. China just made a deal with the corrupt gov't to develope one of the world's largest deposits of copper. There are, and have always been minerals and semi precious stones, fine marbles and Onyx that has been carved for thousands of years.The mountainous regions of Afghanistan/Pakistan have produced produced incredible wealth – unfortunately, only for the rich and greedy.
Yes, it is true, the biggest reason we are there now is to insist that only US companies have control over the pipelines for the oil and gas north.

]]> By: Sister Begonia http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/10/29/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-argue-that-the-afghan-war-prevents-terror-but-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-10253 Sister Begonia Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:39:51 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=13230#comment-10253 "We have got to stop Al-Qaeda from taking over Afghanistan. And that means stopping the Taliban." Why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and go to Afghanistan himself to stop the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Big Bird and the Flying Pig Flu. I bet he could do a stand up job. "We have got to stop Al-Qaeda from taking over Afghanistan. And that means stopping the Taliban."

Why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and go to Afghanistan himself to stop the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Big Bird and the Flying Pig Flu. I bet he could do a stand up job.

]]> By: You Got To Be Kidding Me… « Zionist Anti-Communist http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/10/29/you-dont-have-to-be-crazy-to-argue-that-the-afghan-war-prevents-terror-but-it-helps/comment-page-1/#comment-10143 You Got To Be Kidding Me… « Zionist Anti-Communist Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:18:16 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=13230#comment-10143 [...] as Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). Reporting? Sounds more like propaganda here. Take a look at what they have to suggest for the War on Terror.  That they’re promoting an obvious [...] [...] as Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). Reporting? Sounds more like propaganda here. Take a look at what they have to suggest for the War on Terror.  That they're promoting an obvious [...]

]]>