How are things going in Afghanistan?

Report from June 15, 2004:

“President Bush on Tuesday claimed victory in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.”

Report from Feb 9, 2007

“[Defense Secretary] Gates said that after nearly five years at war with the Taliban, this spring will be critical because it could give the people of the country more hope.”

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Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished II (or is it I)?

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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  1. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim February 9, 2007 Reply

    Notice the flood of weasel words coming out of Gates' mouth (emphasis added to illustrate):

    "…Gates said, 'I THINK there's some serial numbers, there MAY be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found, that point to Iran…I don't THINK there was surprise that the Iranians were actually involved, I THINK there was surprise we actually picked up SOME….' He and other U.S. officials have said for some time that IRANIANS, and POSSIBLY the government of Iran, have been providing weapons technology, and POSSIBLY some explosives to Iraqi insurgents."

    There isn't one hard fact in anything Gates has said; it's nothing but empty speculation — what he "thinks" might be true, or what "may" be happening, or what could "possibly" be going on. ANY WALMART CLERK IN AMERICA could be this speculative about what's going on in Iraq. Gates is the Secretary of Defense. Why is he telling us what he "thinks?" Doesn't he KNOW anything? Anything AT ALL?

    This is the same vacuous garbage that came out of Bush's mouth before he invaded Iraq. Except for identifying the small handful of individuals (Osama bin Laden, et al.) who actually were responsible for the 9/11 attack, this Administration has yet to provide any hard facts AT ALL about the hundreds of thousands of people it has ordered American troops to kill. Instead, they have relied on lies, empty accusations and fear-mongering of Biblical proportions to convince an overly-apathetic and overly-ignorant American public to commit genocide. For every ALLEGED "terrorist" the Bush Administration has killed or captured, it has killed or maimed more than 100 innocent people. And to add insult to injury (viz., slaughter), they call this "winning."

  3. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth June 20, 2007 Reply

    Here's another update on Afghanistan, this one aired by Bill Moyers:

    Security is said to be fast disappearing across the country, and reconstruction projects have been slowed. So Afghan farmers are once again growing poppies in order to survive, and the flourishing trade has made the country the number one provider of the world's heroin supply…just this week the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan told reporters that poppy is a defining characteristic of the country- with the Taliban linked to the drug trade.

    According to Christian Parenti, the government of Kabal is highly corrupt. The power of the Taliban is growing. But there's not much to be happy about.

    This show was aired on June 8, 2007.    Here's the link to the video and transcript.

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