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Package Round-Up in fertilizer cans and arrange to have the shipment accidently intercepted by the Taliban. After 30 days we can shop in cotton and soybean seed.
(I'm sure it isn't that simple but a boy can dream)
Glen Cook, scifi writer, in his Starfishers trilogy circa 1980, modeled a semi-alien race after the Islamic tradition of exploiting the kafir and selling them drugs.
Brave men and women all. The kid with the machine gun looks like my neighbors boy. A US Marine who just deployed to Afganistan. Dad proudly displays the Marine flag and a blue star flag on the front porch. I pray it never turns gold every time I see it.
The military has seriously changed tack here: They are going directly after the Taliban warlords who are the big dealers instead of pursuing the failed crop eradication policy that's been in place.
The photos & maps are great but if you aren't reading the captions you are missing a lot of meat.
Amazing photo essay, ... but as web page design, I dunno. Anyone clicking on Yon's page, the problem is it loads a dozen large photos, bogging his bandwidth, better he should put up much smaller versions, click to see large. Obviously LGF clicks alone are overwhelming his server.
The lack of helicopters have left soldiers on FOB Jackson without mail for three weeks, while other soldiers have been stuck here for at least two weeks while trying to get back to Bastion. The lack of helicopters is making this and other places into 'FOB Hotel Californias.' Even General Officers are having difficulty getting helicopters out of the main base at FOB Bastion. A British officer told me that the British military refused to haul Prime Minister Gordon Brown, citing lack of helicopter lift. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown insists that we have enough helicopters. He is wrong.
I'm sure they are getting exactly that Hotel California feeling--a dark desert highway where they can never leave.
Children in Hamas summer camps reenacted the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in the presence of top Hamas officials, according to pictures obtained by The Jerusalem Post.
According to Israeli defense officials, more than 120,000 Palestinian children are spending the summer in Hamas-run camps. In addition to religious studies, the children undergo semi-military training with toy guns.
At a recent summer camp graduation ceremony, the children put on a show reenacting the June 2006 abduction of Schalit. Present was Osama Mazini, a senior Hamas political leader, who is in charge of the Schalit negotiations with Israel on behalf of the terrorist group.
In one picture, obtained by the Post, Mazini is seen standing next to Ahmad Bahar, the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, distributing Korans to camp counselors.
"This sends a message," one Israeli defense official said, regarding Mazini's participation at the ceremony. "This is Hamas's way of showing Palestinian children that kidnapping soldiers is the correct way of life."
I would be happy to get out with a somewhat stable gov't in place, the Warlords of the south severed from the terror axis.
I have low expectations knowing the history of the region - the only person I know of who ever achieved serious, sustained victory over the warlords in this region was Alexander the Great, and in the end he accomplished it by marrying into the clan.
My brother was there and he was fascinated with the Afghan people who were allowed into the air base to sell their wares. And he bought them! He was fascinated by how weathered they looked, and he admired them for surviving in that place which, he said, was really quite beautiful.
It is my understanding that Yon's desire to remain completely objective and independent means that he doesn't sell his work to any news source. He supports himself by the sale of his photos to individuals and, of course, donations.
I pray Yon stays safe - he is, after all with our lads. And we just had news that two more of them have been killed there: UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan
That the UK soldiers are lacking equipment makes me nervous. I hope the West doesn't abandon the Afghanis again.
The UK soldiers lack equipment because our neostalinist NuLab government, in the form of Gordon brown, have been cutting their resources, first when he was chancellor, now as PM.
This has been going on for twelve years, never mind they had to fight two wars in the emantime.
Thats what LLL do, all the time, everywhere: disrespect the military. And thats why we're so criminally short of equipment there - not because The West is abaondoning the Afghanis.
The British Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee published a report Sunday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expressing regret that the United Kingdom provided the Israel Defense Forces with equipment used during its Gaza offensive earlier this year.
The committee also called on the British government to launch talks with Hamas, and urged the European Union to condition its ties with Israel on the State's peace efforts.
Committee Chairman Michael Gapes said Sunday that while his country's policy of refusing all contact with Hamas may eventually bear fruit, the British government should consider talking to moderate Hamas officials, as it had previously done with Hezbollah.
Moderates? I wonder if these people would have been looking to talk to moderate Nazis during WWII?
The suggestion of 'talks with the Taliban' came as Gordon Brown revealed the biggest offensive by UK troops in Helmand Province since the conflict began is now over.
Ministers said that talking to the insurgents who have killed British soldiers might be the only way to curtail the bloody war.
The Prime Minister insisted Operation Panther's Claw, aimed at clearing southern Helmand of insurgents ahead of Afghan elections in August, had been worthwhile.
[ ] Meanwhile, Britain wants moderate Taliban fighters to lay down their weapons in a reconciliation process similar to the one struck to end the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland.
I dunno. Somehow I don't think the Taliban work quite the same way as the IRA. Even if the IRA did invent the car bomb.
But it needs repeating: not one of our ministers, nor Blair nor Gord as PMs, have ever been at RAF Lymington when the planes with their bodies were flown back home.
Not once.
And they've closed the military hospitals - to save money ...
We won't forget that - and NuLab will not be forgiven.
Before an traditional assassin was sent on a mission, they would get him stoned and give him a night in a harem so he would get an idea of what paradise was supposed to be like so he would have no fear of death. Drug use is a long standing tradition.
In "The Ayatollah begs to differ", the author (Hooman Majd) goes to an opium house/den, in a religious city in Iran...The author writes: "...I could infer from the conversations all around me that another guest was due any minute. I sat down on the carpet again and lit a cigarette to keep myself awake. When the curtain was swept aside just a short while later, a tall young mullah walked into the room...My astonishment at his presence, for all the Ayatollahs agree that opium and other drugs are haram, 'forbidden' by Islam, grew to amazement as I watched him finish his tea and go over to the pipe and burner. He calmly spent the next hour puffing away, drinking tea, fingering his beads, and occasionally answering questions of religious philosophy, none of which I fully understood." pp. 73-74 ... (there's a huge drug addiction problem in Iran and elsewhere)...
Serious question here... What does a win look like in Afganistan?
Reduction in Opium trade, stable democratic government, what else? And what needs to happen to get there?
What good questions, DaddyG. I'm not really clear on where we stand on each of these with respect to Afghanistan:
What's the Mission? (That is, what are we trying to accomplish?)
What's the Outcome? (How will we know when the Mission is completed?)
What are the Rules of Engagement? (How will we execute the Mission?)
Are the ROE's sufficient to allow us to achieve the Outcome? (Are the ROE's as written helping or hindering our troops' ability to perform the Mission successfully?)
It sometimes seems to me that we haven't really even clearly defined the Mission or the desired Outcome, but because of politics we are stuck with ROE's that may be putting our troops at risk for diplomatic or political reasons. If so, that's just not fair.
There has to be a way of waging "oblique" warfare against the Taliban and by extension the Drug Cartels south of our border. I know the ravages of unrestricted drug use--look at China and this country in the late 1800's and the number of cases of addiction reported. But I have to be believe that legalizing drugs -- or at least decriminalizing them so that the street value drops to virtually nil--can be done so as to cut the enemy off from a cash supply.
I dunno. Somehow I don't think the Taliban work quite the same way as the IRA. Even if the IRA did invent the car bomb.
Yeah - but don't forget that 'victory in Northern Ireland' was Tony B's 'finest hour' - or so he thinks!
If Gord and his NuLab cronies think this is an example - why don't they send Tony B to talk with the Talbs?
That prospect should make them run away very fast ...
I just looked it up, and it turns out this looks like it is probably a myth that has been repeated quite a bit, but newer research casts doubt on it.
Links
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
[Link: www.straightdope.com...]
Before an traditional assassin was sent on a mission, they would get him stoned and give him a night in a harem so he would get an idea of what paradise was supposed to be like so he would have no fear of death. Drug use is a long standing tradition.
We took a turn to the left and Europe is veering toward the right, from what I read.
Is that accurate?
Its certainly accurate as far as the UK is concerned.
The hatred of NuLab, even amongst the certified LLL, is palpable - and the Tories will definitely form the next government - the only question now is how big their majority will be.
Moderates? I wonder if these people would have been looking to talk to moderate Nazis during WWII?
Since the British have blocked sales of spare parts for naval guns to Israel, the US should consider all British defense companies part of an Israeli boycott, which is illegal in the US. No US business should be given to them, and any existing contracts canceled. Force them to sell their US subsidiaries. And there are some big companies involved here.
I'm opposed to the legalization of narcotics/opium/heroin, etc. Absolutely opposed. On the other hand, I really do not believe that destroying the opium crops of impoverished Afghan farmers is going to work either...Maybe the solution lies in allowing Afghanistan to grow a legal crop for Pharmaceutical reasons? as is done in Turkey?
Its certainly accurate as far as the UK is concerned.
The hatred of NuLab, even amongst the certified LLL, is palpable - and the Tories will definitely form the next government - the only question now is how big their majority will be.
Well, that's encouraging!
Here's hoping the majority here are disinclined to give Obama a second term.
i saw this somewhere else, so it's not my own idea, but should the pharaceutical companies buy the whole crop and turn it into legit narcotics like morphine?
Contrary to popular misconception, opium is not a great cash crop for the farmers. They grow it because the drug-lords/Taliban order them to. Opium is easy to transport over the mountains to Pakistan where labs turn it into heroin. The money raised from selling heroin are used to buy guns and fighters. The farmers gets a very small cut. They would far rather grow food, and earn a better income, but they need security to do that. That's what our troops are trying to provide for them.
re: #63 Kenneth
Indeed. If a farmer grew rich farming, he would soon have an army and cease farming at once.
It seems to me that a key difficulty is the Afghan traditional defense mechanism, which is to split to factions and become ungovernable. The tribal "structure", the landscape (the *awesome* landscape!), the distances involved and the hazards of travel all support this strategy, but for two things: modern technology has eroded the advantages formerly conferred by some of these factors, and the ruthlessness of the taliban does not depend upon governance of any sort--only terror. Not since Genghis Khan levelled Bamiyan and everything on the way there and back "for 1,000 years" has this place seen such wholesale horrors visited on the populace as the primary target.
How many billions of YOUR tax dollars has been wasted on this ‘war on drugs’? How many corrupt third-world politicians have been enriched at our expense? How many young men and women have been killed in drug turf wars? How many more in overdoses or poisoned by uncontrolled drugs? How many cops have become corrupt taking payoffs? How many killed? How many governments toppled? How many international criminal enterprises enriched? How many terrorists funded?
If we legalize drugs we can control them. Keeping drugs illegal hasn’t done diddly to stop or evn slow down the folw - all it's done is make criminals, dictators, and terrorists rich.
There is a difference between controlling poppies (that is, selling the produce to Pharmaceutical corporations for the production of medical goods as is currently done in Turkey) vs legalizing (in the West) drugs...(or having the US/Canadian, etc., governments becoming "legal" drug dealers -- ie, one goes to a "drug store" and purchases heroin.) The latter, btw, is part of Ron Paul's platform (which I oppose for a variety of reasons).
This artery is suffering a particular form of sclerosis: To escape confiscation the drugs will be converted into more dangerous states of matter. Hence this vein is collecting the enormous amount of risk taxes that this situation is imposing on the markets.
Why doncha come on over to the house and I'll show 'em to ya? -- Senate hearing on pornography in music, when Sen. Paula Hawkins from Florida said ... "I'd like to see what kind of toys your children play with."
Frank says: