DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Can Democrats Be Trusted with Foreign Policy?

**preachadaq** · 09-30-2009, 10:20 PM

That was then. The Taliban have sold themselves to the opium trade in order to finance their insurgency.

Not true. According to a recent report but the UNODC (UN office of drugs and crime), the Taliban rake in about 70 million a year from the $3.4 BILLION opium trade. That accounts to about 3%. Most of the largest drug lords have seats in Karzai's government. Hell, Karzai's brother is a HUGE player

This is wrong. Osama Bin Laden trained the 9-11 hijackers in Afghanistan. He raised money which funded the operation in Afghanistan. He provided the inspiration and ideology for it from Afghanistan. He was aided with freedom of movement in Afghanistan under the umbrella of the Taliban. After 9-11, the US demanded that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden and they refused. They are our enemy, and are partly responsibile for 3000 US civilian deaths.

First of all, the Taliban / Al Qaeda relationship was tenable at best. the Pashtun ideology doesn't exactly jel with the Salafi-jihadist worldview espoused by Osama's ilk. Not to mention Taliban leaders maintained close ties with the Saudi shieks, the same shieks whom Osama wanted to "literally" wipe off the map for selling out to Washington and other western nations. It's also worth noting that the Taliban didn't outright refuse to hand over Bin Laden. They simply asked for a modicum of evidence that he was involved. The clerics were to hold him under house arrest in Peshawar while reviewing evidence was presented against him. Musharraf scuttled these plans.

Regardless, our response in Afghanistan has been the wanton destruction of a country while delivering an exponentially greater death toll of innocent men, women, and children - an overwhelming majority of whom despise the Taliban and couldn't find Manhattan on a map.

These people certainly weren't responsible.

While I agree with eliminating civilian casualties-and the new US strategy in Afghan. is doing this somewhat effectively now, those drones are hardly ineffective. Baitullah Mehsud would probably disagree with you if he were alive.

Surely the murder of a few high profile targets doesn't justify a policy which, alone, has easily taken the lives of more innocent civilians than those lost on 9/11. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands who are internally displaced due to the indiscriminatory strikes.

Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones - Times Online

09-30-2009, 10:20 PM	#39
preachadaq Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 413 Senior Member	That was then. The Taliban have sold themselves to the opium trade in order to finance their insurgency. Not true. According to a recent report but the UNODC (UN office of drugs and crime), the Taliban rake in about 70 million a year from the $3.4 BILLION opium trade. That accounts to about 3%. Most of the largest drug lords have seats in Karzai's government. Hell, Karzai's brother is a HUGE player This is wrong. Osama Bin Laden trained the 9-11 hijackers in Afghanistan. He raised money which funded the operation in Afghanistan. He provided the inspiration and ideology for it from Afghanistan. He was aided with freedom of movement in Afghanistan under the umbrella of the Taliban. After 9-11, the US demanded that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden and they refused. They are our enemy, and are partly responsibile for 3000 US civilian deaths. First of all, the Taliban / Al Qaeda relationship was tenable at best. the Pashtun ideology doesn't exactly jel with the Salafi-jihadist worldview espoused by Osama's ilk. Not to mention Taliban leaders maintained close ties with the Saudi shieks, the same shieks whom Osama wanted to "literally" wipe off the map for selling out to Washington and other western nations. It's also worth noting that the Taliban didn't outright refuse to hand over Bin Laden. They simply asked for a modicum of evidence that he was involved. The clerics were to hold him under house arrest in Peshawar while reviewing evidence was presented against him. Musharraf scuttled these plans. Regardless, our response in Afghanistan has been the wanton destruction of a country while delivering an exponentially greater death toll of innocent men, women, and children - an overwhelming majority of whom despise the Taliban and couldn't find Manhattan on a map. These people certainly weren't responsible. While I agree with eliminating civilian casualties-and the new US strategy in Afghan. is doing this somewhat effectively now, those drones are hardly ineffective. Baitullah Mehsud would probably disagree with you if he were alive. Surely the murder of a few high profile targets doesn't justify a policy which, alone, has easily taken the lives of more innocent civilians than those lost on 9/11. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands who are internally displaced due to the indiscriminatory strikes. Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones - Times Online
	Quote