How To Skew The WOT

[Kathianne]

Iraq is working, so let's belatedly turn our attention to Afghanistan, regardless of priorities:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/afghan_deadly_month


US, NATO deaths in Afghanistan pass Iraq toll

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago

Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength.

The fundamentalist militia in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed 886 prisoners, then briefly infiltrated a strategic valley outside Kandahar. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40 percent this year from 2007 where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistan border.

Some observers say the insurgency has gained dangerous momentum. And while June also saw the international community meet in Paris to pledge $21 billion in aid, an Afghanistan expert at New York University warns that there is still no strategy to turn that commitment into success.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted that more international troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, the first time that had happened. While that trend — now two months old — is in part due to falling violence in Iraq, it also reflects rising violence in Afghanistan.

At least 45 international troops — including at least 27 U.S. forces and 13 British — died in Afghanistan in June, the deadliest month since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, according to an Associated Press count.

In Iraq, at least 31 international soldiers died in June: 29 U.S. troops and one each from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. There are 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 4,000 British forces in additional to small contingents from several other nations.

The 40-nation international coalition is much broader in Afghanistan, where only about half of the 65,000 international troops are American....

[Gaffer]

If we can't lose in iraq then by golly we will lose in afghan. But damn it we gotta lose somewhere. We can't have Bush being right about anything. Come on libs its time to start calling for an end to the war in afghan.

[mundame]

Iraq is working, so let's belatedly turn our attention to Afghanistan.....


Iraq isn't working, either.

Lots of American soldiers being killed, lots of suicider attacks, lots of IEDs. They can't get foreigners in to develop the oil, too much war violence.

It's a mistake to believe government propaganda. Iraq is bad, and Afghanistan is worse, that's all.

None of it has made any sense since they screwed up both wars at the beginning.

[mundame]

And of course it's time to end the war in Afghanistan!!!!

Well past time.

What's the point of it??? Can't be bin Laden ----------------- he hasn't been there for 7 years!

Can't be routing the Taliban: everyone agrees the Taliban have recovered much of the country by now.

Can't be stopping the opium poppy traffic ---- they've doubled production, just like Colombia has, another U.S. failure.

Can't be our allies: they won't fight, just sit around and drink in Kabul and laugh at us.



What would it matter if we just left?? No one in the world would even NOTICE --- except the Afghans, and there aren't very many of them, mostly goats.

[Gaffer]

And of course it's time to end the war in Afghanistan!!!!

Well past time.

What's the point of it??? Can't be bin Laden ----------------- he hasn't been there for 7 years!

Can't be routing the Taliban: everyone agrees the Taliban have recovered much of the country by now.

Can't be stopping the opium poppy traffic ---- they've doubled production, just like Colombia has, another U.S. failure.

Can't be our allies: they won't fight, just sit around and drink in Kabul and laugh at us.



What would it matter if we just left?? No one in the world would even NOTICE --- except the Afghans, and there aren't very many of them, mostly goats.

Don't know what you look like, but from what I have seen of your posts, your a really ugly person.

[Psychoblues]

Had it not been for someone "skewing" the WOT the USA would have never perpetrated a War On Iraq. The War On Iraq will go down in history as the greastest mistake ever made in the interest of bringing down the price of oil (as promised) as well as the greatest political and military blunder by any nation of the century. We'll see how the self described conservatives will top that. Sadly, our grandchildren will pay the brunt of the price for an equally inept and falsely conservative administration of the near future.

[mundame]

The War On Iraq will go down in history as the greastest mistake ever made in the interest of bringing down the price of oil (as promised)


Right, it was supposed to go down to $22 a barrel, and we'd really stick it to Russia, whose oil would be relatively worthless then. This was one of the reasons I supported the Iraq War, in the happy days when we supposed we would actually WIN it, quickly and easily.

Oil is $141+ per barrel now, and no development of Iraq oil in sight --- they are trying to bid it out, but there is too much violence for foreign companies to come in.

[CooterBrown44]

I supported going into Afghanistan, but saw the handwriting on the wall when The Chump wouldn't even come close to adequately supporting the mission there, and let the people who attacked us get away.

Then came The Debacle In The Desert, which was actually in the planning stage a decade before we invaded. Thank you neocons for getting a lot of our people killed and maimed for nothing, not to mention spending us into the poorhouse.

George W. Bush......worst President ever.

[Noir]

Can't be our allies: they won't fight, just sit around and drink in Kabul and laugh at us.

Tell that to the familys of:
Pvt. Charles David Murray
Pvt. Daniel Gamble
Pvt. Nathan Cuthbertson
Pvt. Jeff 'Doc' Doherty
L. Cpl. James 'Jay' Bateman
Cpl. Sarah Bryant
Pvt. Paul Stout
Cpl. Sean Robert Reeve
L. Cpl. Richard Larkin
Pvt. Joe Whittaker
WO2 Company Sergeant Major. Michael Williams
WO. Dan Shirley
And a currently unnamed member of 5th Battalion RRS.

All of these brave men and women lost their lives in June 2008 in Afghanistan, so how dare you claim we won't fight, ****.


What would it matter if we just left?? No one in the world would even NOTICE --- except the Afghans, and there aren't very many of them, mostly goats.

Yeah, why not, after all you only care about oil (as you make clear in your next post when talkin about iraq) you won't care if the taliban (sp?) came back? but why would you, its so awfully far away. What about the fact that when the taliban were in control girls were not permitted to go to school, when now there are over 2 million of them in schools across Afghanistan. But then again, that doesn't lower the price of oil so i doubt ya'd care.


Don't know what you look like, but from what I have seen of your posts, your a really ugly person.
Based on what i have read, I totally concur.

[Psychoblues]

For the warmongers, this must indeed be a glorious day. Puke.

[Noir]

And of course it's time to end the war in Afghanistan!!!!

Well past time.

What's the point of it??? Can't be bin Laden ----------------- he hasn't been there for 7 years!

Yeah, well maybe a bit of leadership would have helped find him, not that the Reps gave the troops that:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

what a difference 6 months makes...

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002


Can't be routing the Taliban: everyone agrees the Taliban have recovered much of the country by now.


Everyone agrees? this is the first time i have herd this, care to cite some sources?

[Psychoblues]

The Taliban is very definitely back in charge in Afghanistan. Do you speak for yourself or the troops that witness all of it and cannot do anything about it?

If Al Queda is your focus, wrong country, wrong time.

[CooterBrown44]

Just for one of the right wing nabobs hanging out here.


President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric.

President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews.

http://projects.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

There are examples to back it up.