[DailyRingtone]

"We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat."

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations."

Difficulty: no Google, please.

Bonus question: How prophetic was this?

[Hetgvwic]

Dunno. But I've recently become fascinated by the work of a filmmaker called Adam Curtis. In one of his films (The Power of Nightmares - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) he points out that both the American Neoconservatives and the Taliban take credit for bringing down the Soviet Union through its defeat in Afghanistan.

Both groups are, of course, wrong.

[AccusaJalsBub]

Sounds like bin Laden.

Pretty spot on.

[maxfreemann]

Reagan?

[maxfreemann]

I have since did a web search and I'm completely wrong. I thought it was a trick question or sorts.

[Uojeyak]

Sounds like bin Laden.

Pretty spot on.

This; not sure if it was but it does sound like him .. and whoever said it was correct

Afghanistan is the rock that both of the 20th centuries greatest empires broke themselves upon...

[Junrlaeh]

"We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Philadelphia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat."

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause Philadelphia to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations."

Difficulty: no Google, please.

Bonus question: How prophetic was this?

I believe it was Milton Street.

[enentique]

I vote the DRPA.

[DailyRingtone]

Sounds like bin Laden.

Pretty spot on.

We have a winner. And, though Morley's point that no one group can take credit for the Soviet Union's downfall is correct, clearly their 10 year misadventure in Afghanistan played a major role.

So it has with our economy. Clearly he couldn't have foreseen the lengths we'd go to to help him destroy our economy, and I suspect he was far more successful than he ever dreamed. Still the truth is, he was right. And even after we got him, he's still getting us, because he knew us better than we know ourselves.

[Hetgvwic]

The funny/sad/ironic thing (there's got to be a good German compound word for the bitter victory of "I told you so!") is that we could have succeeded in our mission -overthrow the Taliban and install a stable government- in Afghanistan if we hadn't had some idiot decide to redirect resources to a completely pointless SECOND war in the middle of the first.

[enentique]

Both of the above are so spot on although not really new thinking. I was going to venture Iran and wouldn't have been
far off.

[ThekvandoVideo]

I thought Bin Laden was to obvious so I was guessing Karzai.