http://tinyurl.com/bg9n6h
- - - NPR.org, March 7, 2009 . President Barack Obama is holding out hope that U.S. forces in Afghanistan can peel away elements of the Taliban and possibly move them toward reconciliation. There may be such opportunities, but the situation in Afghanistan is more complicated than the challenges the American military faced in Iraq, Obama said in an interview with The New York Times posted Saturday on the newspaper's Web site. U.S. troops were able to persuade Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq to cooperate in some instances because they had been alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida terrorists. Obama cautioned that Afghanistan is a less-governed region with a history of fierce independence among tribes, creating a tough set of circumstances for the United States to deal with. ... "If you talk to Gen. Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us," said Obama. ... Obama added that the U.S. doesn't torture its suspects and noted in some cases those being held would have an opportunity to challenge their detention in federal courts. - - - I'm scratching my head at this one, I must confess. Gosh, which layer of contradictions shall we unravel first? Iraq was supposed to be an unwinnable civil war. Then again, the surge wasn't supposed to work. Now *it* is the model for how we plan to win in Afghanistan? Afghanistan was supposed to be the righteous and winnable war, the one Obama was committed to fighting and winning, since we, uh, took our eye off the basketball and it kinda dribbled away on us, as Bush recklessly lead us into the Iraq quagmire. Now the idea is to emulate the *success* of Iraq in Afghanistan? Wake up, people. Aside from being thumpingly dishonest, this strategy is beyond stupid. If there is a quagmire, it's in the mountains of Pakistan, not the streets of Baghdad. And if Obama means what he says THIS TIME, then some folks owe George Bush an apology for bearing false witness against him. Not the least of them being Mr. Shall-We-Hug Al-Kumbaya himself. - Bob _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
