Lisa Benson for October 03, 2012

It was the same in Viet Nam. It has something to do with invading countries that don’t want your “help”. Afghanistan and Iraq were both much clearer “transgressions” than even Viet Nam.

At least in Vietnam, we didn’t have to send supplies through an ‘ally’ that was aiding and informing our opponents the way members of the Pakistani security and political system is in Afghanistan. Our exit will be the end of schools for girls, improved health care, and many other very good things. It will also bring sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and neighbors home. Had Bush finished the war in Afghanistan, that is to say, had he killed Bin Laden and crippled Al Qayadah in Afghanistan, PRIOR to invading Iraq, the situation may not have been better for them, but we would have lost fewer lives, killed fewer civilians by accident, and spent billions less. We might have even kept that bump of sympathy and support the world gave us after 9/11.Bring our people home, and if possible, some of the civilians who have the most to lose, like lives, when we leave. Maybe even that school for orphan girls Brian Williams visited, so the girls can keep going to school and playing soccer without being shot.Sadly,C.

No Exit

The devices should be depicted as mines rather than Nutty-Yahoo/Acme-Coyote bombs. All our troops would need to do would be to retire to a safe distance & wait for the fuses to burn down & explode and then simply walk out.

Visual malapropism.

I’m inclined to agree with you. We should also have made arrangements to “buy” their “cash crop” for medical supplies in America. This would have at least created an economic dependence. The “blood of patriots” may water the tree of liberty etc, etc. But money secures it in heavy weather.

Santana’s warning about history puts ’Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan in perspective, going back to the 19th century, and our failure to recognize what European empires discovered. Britain and France learned in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, that empire is a costly, bad, idea. America is still pursuing the concept, with a heavier, false, does of “benevolence”.

My experiences were decades ago. My son’s experiences (now disabled retired military) in most of our current “hot spots”, is in TODAY’S news.

It’s also notable that in ‘Nam, we DID pick a “Christian” government to rule over BUDDHISTS, not “Communists” or “atheists”. The scripture citations on our troops rifle scopes. the evangelicals going through Afghanistan passing out bibles in Arabic. There IS a subtending text to this story that rarely gets in the press, about the CRUSADE being waged in the minds of many Americans, not against “the Godless”, but rather those who worship the SAME GOD, but from a different book, that is still based on the same Old Testament teachings, and laws. The laws in the Quran ARE based on the laws in Leviticus, but yes, sometimes taken a tad too seriously for “western tastes”. But, we might want to look at Rabbinical Law, and THEIR “radicals” interpretation as well, before getting to “bent” about “Sharia”. Hellfire and brimstone evangelicals aren’t any better, either.

Fuses still long, get them rolling downhill.

dtroutma, interesting rant to rile up the mindless, but little factual basis. By the way, you do realize that they don’t speak Arabic in Afghanistan, don’t you? In fact, they’re not Arabs at all…. but don’t let that get in the way of a good anti-Christian rant.

There’s only one solution, GTFO of there! Simple, sooner or later, it will happen.

^Yes, mean, ugly, bloody, stupidity. Viet Nam would have been avoided if in 1945 we’d honored our obligation to Ho, and told the French to “buzz off!”. Afghanistan could have ended quickly if we’d focused ONLY on the Al Qaeda camps, and let the Afghans resolve the “Taliban issue”. Staying totally out of Iraq WAS the only intelligent thing to do. Staying out of Iran is now the only sensible thing to do. Turkey and Syria may now be getting “serious”, and that’s not good either, but NOT “our business”.

Not sure whether “Europains” was satire or spelling error, but certainly is a truth! WE carried on that tradition, even if we did, finally, give independence to the Philippines and most other possessions taken from Spain, even Cuba, except for that little outpost of American power called, Guantanamo.

Laos and Cambodia. Met folks who survived the seventies there somehow. good people.C.

I must ask you for the same thing you asked Ms. Benson to cite.