Time Magazine cover - Afghanistan
 

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine...100809_400.jpg
I was waiting in a doctor's office yesterday and the latest Time issue caught my eye. I recommend reading the article - it gives a good narrative of the status of women when the Taliban is in charge. This 18-year-old girl ran away from her husband, claiming that he beat her, and his family abused her badly. The Taliban dragged her from where she was hiding, had a summary court session out in the woods, decided she needed to be made an example, and held her down while her husband and his brother cut off her ears and her nose, and left her for dead.

Seems to me it's happening, has happened and will continue to happen if we're there or not.

I tend to agree with you. It's a good report nonetheless.

During the Vietnam War the vietcong would invade a village, drag the village head out in front of the entire village, and dis-embowel him(rip out his intestines) just to show what happens if they are not loyal to the cause.. That doesn't make occupying vietnam a good idea, how often did that happen after the Americans left?

A war of occupation, or imperialism and fighting a nationalist insurgency is a dirty business, many people get maimed and killed when nato bombs go ari or caught in the crossfire or killed criminally by a us or insurgent soldier. Being in that country and dominating it increases the violence and drags america down in a war that can't possibly be won, and Iraq is the same type of endless quagmire, America needs to take care of its own people and stop wasting money on these 2 disasters.

and another thing: This 18-year-old girl ran away from her husband, claiming that he beat her, and his family abused her badly. The Taliban dragged her from where she was hiding, .. and held her down while her husband and his brother cut off her ears and her nose, and left her for dead.
Who the hell knows whats going on out there, somehow I can't believe that every time a woman (in the Taliban controlled areas of Afghanistan) runs away from her husband-her nose and ears are cut off.. This is such an obvious piece of war mongering propaganda, whats on the cover of Taliban Time magazine--maybe it's those US marines that took this Iraqi girl, raped her, murdered her entire familiy, and then burned her to death--[Yes that and other criminal acts by US servicemen have ACTUALLY happened] stuff like this isn't just the insurgents doing it.

Occupying Vietnam was a good idea. Our war efforts were crippled by the cowardly politicians and subversives at home, just as the same disgusting classes-- and in many cases the same disgusting people-- are trying to cripple our war efforts today. Withdrawing from Vietnam was a terrible blow both to American credibility and to the Vietnamese people themselves.

And yet it is still better than tolerating regimes which are hostile to our interests.

It is characteristic of how the Taliban regime treats women. It is no worse than the acid attacks that occur frequently if Afhganistan, frequently with less or even no provocation.

The difference is that when we do it, it is a crime and it is treated as a crime. When they do it, it is policy and they are praised.

What was an even bigger blow to the Vietnamese people themselves was the 3million of them that dies in that American Holocaust.. you don't speak for the Vietnamese people, the majority of which wanted America out; they are better off now in a UNITED country, not a divided one as the US was trying to force on them.. we can only imagine what would have happened to America had they continued to sink men and material into that mess for another 10 years, especially economically!

Insurgents can't have a 'policy' it's a bunch of small bands doing hit and run; it's anarchy and the taliban propaghanda people do not have a mass media so they can deny or explain their crimes away.. btw lets face it, Americans that commit war crimes never do any real time in prison, time and again they are arrested or not even arrested(like the reuters murders), they go thru a trial and they are usually let off..ie mylai massacre.

Oh goody...we haven't had a good ol' "American conspiracy theorist" for awhile.
Should be good fun.

They could have been united if our politicians had the stones to march on Hanoi.

You can't win a war while the enemy has a safe haven. Note Korea, Vietnam, and now Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Why aren't you in AFG fighting now?

That's absolutely awful.

Makes me wish we didn't fuck with the left-wing socialist, and relatively progressive, government in Afghanistan starting in 1979. Maybe if we didn't arm these Islamic fundamentalists to the teeth, they wouldn't be in power today.

I'll look for the article. Thanks for posting, Richyrich03867.

How was occupying Vietnam a good idea?

And yet it is still better than tolerating regimes which are hostile to our interests. What about being hostile to other regimes? There is a concept as live and let live, right?

It is characteristic of how the Taliban regime treats women. It is no worse than the acid attacks that occur frequently if Afhganistan, frequently with less or even no provocation. True, but things don't happen in a vacuum. What of our depleted uranium rounds that are making Iraqis and Aghanis (as well as our own service-people) ill?

The difference is that when we do it, it is a crime and it is treated as a crime. When they do it, it is policy and they are praised. The victims couldn't care less if it's a crime or if it's policy.

It's not anarchy. It's chaos. The two are mutually exclusive, conventional thinking notwithstanding.

I do want to add the millions killed in Cambodia as a result of our meddling in Southeast Asia, as well.

What do you not believe? The events mentioned have been documented.

Apparently, he is not up to fulfilling his moral duty!

If I had a choice in the matter, I would be. I tried to join the Marine Corps and the Army when I graduated high school in 1999 and again in 2001. Unfortunately, I am not fit for military service; I am mentally ill and I am not allowed to enlist while I am taking the medications I need to function.

Stopping the spread of international Communism and upholding our treaty obligations to the lawful government of Vietnam.

Yes, but it takes a backseat to our national interests.

The depleted uranium rounds will stop when the war is over. The attacks on women will continue until the Afghans have a government that is both willing and able to put a stop to them. The solution to both problems is America achieving its objectives in Afghanistan; our premature withdrawal will only solve one of these problems and leave Afghanistan a bigger security threat than it was before we invaded.

I'm sorry, I don't find that an adequate excuse. Private contractors abound.
Stopping the spread of international Communism and upholding our treaty obligations to the lawful government of Vietnam. Stopping the spread of Int'l Communism wasn't worth it.

Fair enough.

Stopping the spread of international Communism and upholding our treaty obligations to the lawful government of Vietnam. Don't buy the propaganda. The affairs of Vietnam was Vietnam's concern. Not ours. The "Domino Theory" was bogus.

Yes, but it takes a backseat to our national interests. Why do we have to fuck with people to protect our national interests?

The depleted uranium rounds will stop when the war is over. The attacks on women will continue until the Afghans have a government that is both willing and able to put a stop to them. The solution to both problems is America achieving its objectives in Afghanistan; our premature withdrawal will only solve one of these problems and leave Afghanistan a bigger security threat than it was before we invaded. Sorry, that's not an effective rejoinder. Our murdering of civilians with deplete uranium munitions is our responsibility irrespective of the social problems in Afghanistan.

Every nation that fell to the Soviets provided more political, economic, and military capital to their efforts to undermine governments in the West and the Third World. Normally I'd agree that their affairs are their business, but Communism was a global threat to our way of life.

Our national interests, like any other country's, rely on other countries doing what we want. Countries that wouldn't do what we wanted, or countries that were in danger of falling to the enemy, got fucked with. Of course, right now a lot of our national interests revolve around cleaning up the messes we left behind back then. C'est la vie, but I really wish we would have learned our lesson about leaving hellholes behind us.

Sure. And we're probably going to end up paying for it, one way or another. But the social problems in Afghanistan indicate what we're dealing with over there and what we're going to leave behind if we abandon our goals there-- and we'll end up paying for that, too.

The communist movement in VN was more of a nationalist movement, and wasn't under anyone's thumb.

No nation outside of the East Bloc ever 'fell to the Soviets'.

Communism in VN was not a threat to our way of life.

However...

The domino theory was accurate. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism.