From: thomform@iaw.on.ca   
      
   I can not for the life of me figure out why we are there, other than out of   
   some fuxxy headed notion that we can somehow civilize the place in a few   
   years.   
      
   Our troops will be there for at least 10 years. Let me see, the U.S. armed   
   the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden  against the Russians, When they turned   
   against the U.S. as they were perceived as occupiers of the Middle East,   
   after 1990, Gulf War 1,  and the occupation of Saudi Arabia by U.S. troops,   
   we somehow get dragged into the mess.   
      
   It would be nice if we could make Afghanistan a nice place for the locals to   
   live in ,which we could do if we could eliminate the narco terrorist war   
   lords, and the Talban Muslim extremists, but I do not see that happening at   
   any time in the future.   
      
   Afghanistan has been the death of many imperial armies - the British and   
   Russian come to mind, and we are there with 2200 soldiers expecting to do   
   something?   
      
   My rant for the day.   
      
   If we were a real democracy we would be debating these things.   
      
   Doug Thomas   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)