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discuss issues and ways to support Dem candidates
Obama wants to send more troops there to prove a political point (regarding Iraq), but many will argue that Afghanistan needs fewer non-Muslim troops on their land and a political negotiation with the Taleban instead. I had posted the piece below in another group on whether our invasion of Afghanistan and our operations there have been justified.
Why do we, the nation that is the greatest champion of an individual's legal rights, so easily abrogate those of individuals abroad? 99.99% of those we have killed probably couldn't have been charged with a crime in the US, let alone convicted, if their actions in question were committed within our borders/jurisdiction and we could collect all the evidence the way we do here. These are, essentially, extrajudicial killings overseas, sanctioned by our executive branch.
We do two things well (1) paint entire groups with the characteristics of a few individuals, and (2) practise greater guilt by association - when they are foreigners, and more culturally different from us. For example, we see the Taleban as this al-Qaeda supporting, monolithic, evil group. However 95% or more of them are probably poor, uneducated foot-soldiers, culturally conservative like our Bible-belt youth, for whom the Taleban is the only game in town - the only employer who will enable them to feed their families, thanks to their links to the opium trade. They have probably not seen even 1% of the TV footage evidence we have seen of Al Qaeda's barbarism. But they have seen, first hand, our barbarism when villagers they know have been killed as collateral damage from our and NATO bombs. So who are they to believe is the bigger evil, especially when they see foreign troops on their soil? Their set of known facts are dramatically different from ours. One should be responsible for what he is aware of - how can there be culpability without knowledge? The "true believers" in the Taleban, who are hardcore jihadists who want to own women like cattle (like FLDS!) and can never become guys who settle into normal life, are probably very few. Even they may not have been convinced of Al Qaeda being behind 9/11 back in 2001. They have a very extreme code of protecting guests in their culture, and we (if I remember right), refused to provide any evidence as to Bin Laden's complicity. (there is our huge ego again) Read More »
Why do we, the nation that is the greatest champion of an individual's legal rights, so easily abrogate those of individuals abroad? 99.99% of those we have killed probably couldn't have been charged with a crime in the US, let alone convicted, if their actions in question were committed within our borders/jurisdiction and we could collect all the evidence the way we do here. These are, essentially, extrajudicial killings overseas, sanctioned by our executive branch.
We do two things well (1) paint entire groups with the characteristics of a few individuals, and (2) practise greater guilt by association - when they are foreigners, and more culturally different from us. For example, we see the Taleban as this al-Qaeda supporting, monolithic, evil group. However 95% or more of them are probably poor, uneducated foot-soldiers, culturally conservative like our Bible-belt youth, for whom the Taleban is the only game in town - the only employer who will enable them to feed their families, thanks to their links to the opium trade. They have probably not seen even 1% of the TV footage evidence we have seen of Al Qaeda's barbarism. But they have seen, first hand, our barbarism when villagers they know have been killed as collateral damage from our and NATO bombs. So who are they to believe is the bigger evil, especially when they see foreign troops on their soil? Their set of known facts are dramatically different from ours. One should be responsible for what he is aware of - how can there be culpability without knowledge? The "true believers" in the Taleban, who are hardcore jihadists who want to own women like cattle (like FLDS!) and can never become guys who settle into normal life, are probably very few. Even they may not have been convinced of Al Qaeda being behind 9/11 back in 2001. They have a very extreme code of protecting guests in their culture, and we (if I remember right), refused to provide any evidence as to Bin Laden's complicity. (there is our huge ego again) Read More »
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