Monday, September 25, 2006
The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Enemy Too
A very interesting
article from the BBC. I was unaware that Iran didn't get along with the
Taliban. I guess I was too busy with my business back in 2001. Anyway, the
implications of the article, that the US had a chance to broker peace when
moderates were in control of Iran's government and that it was all squandered
with W's infamous "Axis of Evil" speech, is deeply troubling.
And just a few weeks after Iran and the US had worked so closely
over Afghanistan, Iran was described by President George W Bush as part of an
"axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address.
Javad Zarif, now Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, said this was a big
surprise at after the co-operation over the Afghan government.
"We were all shocked by the fact that the US had such a short memory and was so
ungrateful about what had happened just a month ago," he said.
The hardliners used this as an excuse to seize power, permitting silliness like
this to
continue.
But Iran doesn't have a monopoly on "silliness." ABC's sham of a documentary on
9/11 highlighted how far some people will go. Playing politics with the truth
and deliberately trying to re-write history, especially since it's recent
history, is appalling. Perhaps they're more cynical than I am with regards
with the pathetic short term memory of the public. I certainly recall
Clinton's attempts to get Osama and the fact that his critics accused him of
pulling a "wag the dog." Well, Clinton got the opportunity to take it to Chris
Wallace (the Mordred of Mike Wallace) this Sunday. Check it out
here.
Hamad Karzai, the president of Afghanistan was on Meet The Press Sunday.
You can get the summary of it
here. When Tim Russert asked
him if he thought that the $300 billion spent on Iraq should have gone to
Afghanistan instead, he practically jumped out of his seat with surprise. With
just a hint of a smile he said, "Three hundred billion dollars? You give that to
Afghanistan and we will be heaven in less than a year."
I'm sure that it wouldn't have cost that much. The Taliban had been driven out
of the cities and into the mountains near the Pakistani border. Rather than
finish the job we went to Iraq. It took the Taliban until this spring to recover
and now they're leading an insurgency of their own. Funny how this
administration never said anything about staying to finish the job in
Afghanistan before moving on.
I wish President Karzai and his people the best of luck in ridding themselves of
them. I'm not
too sure that he's going to get much help from us anytime soon.
\_/
DED
5 Comments:
 Alan P. said...
-
With just a hint of a smile he said, "Three hundred billion dollars? You
give that to Afghanistan and we will be heaven in less than a year
I think there may have been a problem with the translation. He thought we would
just give all that money to them instead? Oh no my friend, we would have given
it to Bushco just the same, but the pretext for the grift would've been
Afghanistan instead of Iraq. You dudes get diddly, same as usual.
- 9/27/2006 6:14 PM
 Mike said...Good piece, Ded. - 9/28/2006 8:31 AM
- DED said...
-
Mort: No appreciable oil reserves in Afghanistan. Just poppies.
Mike: Thanks!
- 9/28/2006 6:23 PM
- Alan P. said...
-
Ded,
Did you see the opium harvesters with their dirty nasty hands?
Yeah buddie, that's some good junk there. How can people shoot that junk in
their arms? Hello, every nasty infection known to man. YUCK!!!
- 9/28/2006 8:59 PM
- DED said...
-
Well, the stuff gets cooked before it gets injected or smoked so that takes
care of anything the harvesters get on it. The drug user has to worry about
dirty needles and if his/her dealer cuts it with something else, or OD-ing, not
to mention the side effects of the drug itself.
How can they do it? Not ever having tried the stuff, I can't speak from personal
experience. However, I understand the stuff creates pure bliss in the brain,
while it lasts.
"Bliss" is a state of mind that people everywhere try to achieve. Some people
rely on drugs, others religion, and others try whatever else truly floats their
boat. I'm not trying to justify it, merely explain it.
- 9/29/2006 5:19 PM
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About Me
Name: DED
Location: United States
I'm a stay-at-home Dad who survived dotcom burnout and a
chemical engineering career that fizzled. While the kids are in school,
I'm free to write stories.
I'm a rational environmentalist, science and technology enthusiast, who leans
libertarian, reads and watches sci-fi, drinks and brews beer, and listens to
metal.
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