What did we learn today?
Posted on January 23rd, 2007 by
Well, thanks to the BBC we learned that:
The Taleban movement has earmarked $1m to set up schools for children in southern Afghanistan Abdul Hai Mutmain said a Taleban panel would start commissioning schools in March and April, 2007
And finally, we learned that:
In Zabul province, 148 out of a total of 188 schools remained closed during 2006
And now here it is, your moment of zen:
In December, during a visit to Kandahar province, President Karzai admitted that almost half of over 700 schools in the southern zone, that includes Kandahar, had been sealed due to insecurity.
(Thanks to Strange Forces for the link.)
Taliban schools in Afghanistan! Time for you lefties to wet yourselves thru your bunched panties…
Afghanistan is so 2002.
Iran, honey, that’s what to wear tonight.
Yes, but are the Taliban schools painted? That’s the important question!
Mission Accomplished!
Let’s hope we hear from the preznit about this funning steat tonight.
Dorothy’s right. Our job is to paint the schools. Whether they’re actually used as schools is completely irrelevant.
All part of the fiendish plan. Sure, we left the Taliban a bunch of schools, but you think for one second they actually have electricity? Ha ha! Fuck you, Taliban!
But I’m confused. Ann Coulter said Afghanistan was going “swimmingly.”
Yes, but see, it’s spelled Taleban, not Taliban. We’ve entirely eradicated the Taliban and all it took was an alternate transliteration. Clearly the state of our union is strong!
This similar to the way we destroyed Osama by spelling it Usama or the way we decreased the number of terrorist attacks around the world by redefining “terrorism”.
Look, everybody has a role to play here. Hezbollah builds hospitals. Israel blows them up. The Taliban builds schools. We blow them up. Iran builds a nuclear reactor. We blow it up. Some create, some build, some destroy. Embrace your inner five year old and groove on the destruction. Hey, you can’t say we’re not good at it…
mikey
Mikey’s right. It’s like the bible says:
To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven
A time to build, a time to blow up
A time to paint, a time to blow up
A time to teach, a time to blow
A time to plant opium, a time to blow up.
Hey look what I found at Atrios (which had a nice blog war with the Swamp today):
And why haven’t you enlisted?
Gomez | Homepage | 01.23.07 – 6:40 pm | #
I have been fighting the war for free ideas online for years. I can not pretend to do a better job fighting terrorists up close than our brave soldiers. Of course, you denigrate their service and have nothing to offer: no enlistment, no bravery, no ideas. You are pathetic.
Gary Ruppert | Homepage | 01.23.07 – 6:42 pm | #
!
As someone who is against the war in Iraq but is in favor of the war in Afghanistan. what am exactly supposed to take away from the links? Am I supposed to believe that the taliban, who shutdown all the schools except for the madrassas when they were in power, are going to start setting up liberal arts colleges because they said so?
Confused
Awww man, Gary’s hanging out at Atrios and NOT here? By S,N is the place where the war of ideas will be won or lost. Clearly the Katherine Harris victory prediction kept America from surrendering completely in the 2006 elections. After all, the President wasn’t de-elected, despite the wishes of the BDS suffering liberals.
But at this moment in time, Gary has to give it just six more months, just one more shot for Sadly, No to wake up and realize we are in the greatest ideological struggle since the Cola Wars of the 90’s. Not posting here would just advocate to the world that Gary Ruppert does not have the will power to continue this necessary struggle.
Somewhere in the mountains of Pakistan, the secret cabal of George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Osama, Saddam’s Evil Twin, Kos and the Mullahs of Iran are laughing.
mikey,
Going by past behaviour I would say that it is more likey that GWB will show a modicum of intelligence, grace, and sanity than the Taliban will build a school.
Maybe if we could get the people who are causing the insecurity that is keeping the schools closed to stop causing the insecurity, then maybe the Taliban won’t have to spend 1m on building schools.
It doesn’t sound from the links like there is a shortage of schools but a lack of security to keep the schools open.
Now I wonder who is causing this lack of security. Hmmmm. Couldn’t be the taliban, they said that they were going to build schools. Gee, I wonder who is responsible for this lack of security.
I know. It’s the Canadian troops. Canadians are well known haters of brown people and education. They are well known to travel around the world, spending a tonne of money to blow up brown peoples schools.
Get those Canadians out and put the Taliban in. Then Afghanistan will be a fount of knowledge that rocket the world into the 22nd century.
Gary’s gonna get chewed up by the Atrios regulars. They won’t treat him like family like we do around here.
Problem is, he won’t notice.
Is it wrong to feel snubbed because our li’l Garlito is off doling out his wisdom to the Atriots? ‘Cause I do… almost.
Where’s Teh Luv, dammit?
Are we going to have to start reporting Taleban school building as part of the MSM’s refusal to report the good news?
someone call Malkin
Going by past behaviour I would say that it is more likey that GWB will show a modicum of intelligence, grace, and sanity than the Taliban will build a school.
I think they’ll build schools. They just won’t be worth a shit. Afghanistan’s a kooky place. Take a look at this from 2002:
On 17 Dec 02, Pasha Khan (PK) was again sited at his only remaining checkpoint in Waza District of Paktia province. The Gen hijacked two UNHCR trucks on their way to the Afghan University Khost. He said the items they were carrying were not needed in Khost and that he is building his own university and would make use of them. He kept the trucks from 1230hrs till 1730hrs same day when the UNHCR program officer and the RFSO went for negotiations and the trucks were released.
That university doesn’t need that crap! I’ll build my own!
From 1999-2002 the above-mentioned university operated in Pakistan as the Afghan University Peshawar, started up by refugees without much in the way of useful facilities. It later moved to Khost, where it’s the subject of praise and bombings.
Let’s quote Snag:
A time to build, a time to blow up
A time to paint, a time to blow up
A time to teach, a time to blow
A time to plant opium, a time to blow up.
wow, could this (see link) be our own house idiot Gary?
http://thumbsnap.com/v/DD4cql02.jpg
Hmm, five feet tall and packing eight inches, the little satyr.
Mary Cheney has 106 six pages of negative comments for her channeling daddy piece in the Washington Post today.
Shorter Mary Cheney: Joe Lieberman is the only good Democrat. The rest are traitors.
Oops I meant Liz Cheney. And 106 pages. I got started on my SOTU drinking game a bit early.
One last plug if you’re looking for the rules……
http://www.drinkinggame.us
Alas, I will not be able to partake, as I must be up exceedingly early.
I have to catch a 7:50 am plane to Arizona, myself. But I’m still partaking.
RighteousBubba,
I think they’ll build schools. They just won’t be worth a shit.
Again, I have to go by past behaviour, when the taliban were in power they shut down all the schools. Perhaps by school they mean madrassa. Then technically, yes, they will have opened schools. In the same way that Liberty University is a “school”, or that sunday school is a school.
I spit on fundamantalists.
People seem to think that Afghanistan was always stuck in 1490 but if you have met people who were in Afghanistan in 1959-1979 then you would know that Afghanistan was about as modern a state as any other at that time.
Lets see how well the US or any modern state would make out after 20 years of war and then being run by Fallwell, Robertson or Dobson.
Fuschia pantsuits are in this year.
qingl78, you need to check your data with people who speak the language and know the culture. I’m gonna go with Juan Cole:
That’s from his blog today:
http://www.juancole.com/2007/01/rightwing-smearers-of-obama-dont-know.html
mikey
Again, I have to go by past behaviour, when the taliban were in power they shut down all the schools. Perhaps by school they mean madrassa. Then technically, yes, they will have opened schools. In the same way that Liberty University is a “school�, or that sunday school is a school.
I believe I wrote that when I wrote “They just won’t be worth a shit.”
In the same way that Liberty University is a “school�
In fact Liberty University is currently accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which may not mean their degrees are as good as anybody else’s, but it’s as close as you get without going into university rankings. Don’t think I’d want to get a biology degree there though.
Off topic, but I love the state of the union. I get to rub my ass in the faces of george bush and dick cheney, and have congress applaud it.
Jim Webb!
Dammit, where’s Gary to give me some sense of this speech? Without his words of wisdom, I might safely conclude that Jim Webb rocked.
Why aren’t you talking about the vouchers the Taliban provides? You just can’t handle school choice. The Taliban is reforming public school, just like Republicans.
Thought I”d bring this up before someone else does.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245718,00.html
I didn’t see anyone else reporting it, but the 1st Cavalry site supports it.
Mikey,
I known full well what madrassa means and, yes, technically it is a school. SUnday school is a school. SO does that mean that we should shut down the other schools just rely on sunday school? I’ rather gouge my own eyes out.
As I mentioned in a later post you all should meet Afghani people who grew up in Afghanistan from 1959-1979 and ask them what it was like.
I think you will find out that the Taliban are about as home grown as the Contras. The Taliban are a proxy army, filled mostly with arabs, of the Pakistani secret service who still want to maintain control of Afghanistan.
Jebus, I’ll be glad when the US gets out of Iraq so people don’t conflate Iraq and Afghanistan. Everybody seems to link all the bad shit that is happening in Iraq with Afghanistan and think that somehow, the Taliban is some kind of liberating force. I am disgusted by the thought.
Having grown up at the time of the SOviet invation, I remember mass exoduses from cities in Afghanistan to go fight with the mujahadeen, the soviets being massively unpopular. To link the Taliban movement to the mujahadeen is obscene. To somehow think that Afghanis want the Taliban to come back, you have got to be out of your mind or you have never talked to one on the streets of Kabul.
Look I have never thought that invading Iraq was a good idea and I never supported it and the sooner the US gets out of there the better. So if you think I’m a wingnut troll, go for it, but I’ll tell you that I’ve been voting socialist for the last 20 years.
If there was ever a worthy cause then kicking the Taliban out of Afghanistan was one. Was it replaced with philosopher kings? no, but sometimes you only get to push the ball a little bit further.
I never supported either war, though the Afghanistan war was, at least, a better idea-in theory. However, Rummy & Co., by relying heavily on the Northern Alliance and various warlords of questionable reliability and dubious loyalty, was setting the U.S. forces up for failure. I’m afraid that between the Taliban and various traitorous warlords that our experience there may somewhat replicate the Soviets’. Fortunately for us, there’s no superpower supplying the forces opposing us. The Saudis and the military intelligence of our supposed “allies,” the Pakistanis are filling in for a superpower pretty nicely, thank you. And, we’re providing both money *and* arms to *both* of them! We’re led by fools.
Our concern troll is being a bit deliberately dense, methinks.
The significance of the links is clearly not some sort of “yay, Taliban building schools, at least someone is” liberal celebration, as implied. Let’s spell it out:
–We allegedly routed and defeated the Taliban, a ragtag theocratic terror group, in Afghanistan.
–We, a superpower, installed a government there.
–Outside of the capital, the superpower-supported gov’t has little power, and the allegedly defeated Taliban are gaining power. The defeated terrorists are providing the infrastructure that the superpower-supported gov’t cannot.
To put a fine point on it: Another Chimpy catastrophe. And why support catastrophe?
To link the Taliban movement to the mujahadeen is obscene.
Um, no, it would make sense, in light of facts. One can also link the mujahedeen with al-Qaeda. And also note that the US has given all three money.
Everybody seems to link all the bad shit that is happening in Iraq with Afghanistan and think that somehow, the Taliban is some kind of liberating force.
Would you like fries with that Super-Sized Straw Man? Saltpepperketchup?
I can not pretend to do a better job fighting terrorists up close than our brave soldiers.
No, but you can sure as hell do a little truck-driving, slop-hauling, chow slinging, gurney-pushing to help the boys out over there, so get your ass down to the recruiting stration, Gare-bear.
with love, from your family,
g
The great big problem here, qingl78, is using American military power to try to somehow get bad guys out of power and good guys into power. To say it doesn’t work is an understatement. And besides, we ignored Idi Amin, we ignored Rwanda, we ignored South Africa’s hideous government for years, we ignored Milosevich for years, we ENABLED Pinochet – and it goes on and on. No government should EVER use the excuse “the governement there is a bunch of bad guys” as an excuse for invading and occupying by force of arms. The very fact that it’s done so selectively is all the proof I need that it’s being done cynically.
I keep saying it. That’s NOT what armies are for. They are combat forces. They are VERY good at breaking things and hurting people. When you need things broken and people hurt, you call on them. If that does not define your complete goal, you need to find another approach to your mission…
mikey
Dog bless Shiva Mikey…and all her limbs.
Look, the schools are closed, sure, but they’re there. Nobody said they would be open and running. All that was promised was that they would be built and, by gum, they were built.
Now can we just concentrate on sending more and more troops to Iraq, please? All this other stuff is just a distraction. And what happened to the Mars flight? I want my Mars flight!
Hell, we ignored Idi Amin and Rwanda when they were begging someone to come in and help. I guess we were just making up for past negligence by “volunteering” to “save” Iraq.
I know that this thread is dead but I feel I should say one last thing.
I guess the whole Afghan thing is not some theoretical domestic political game to me and that is why I get a little upset when I see people implying that a Taliban govenment is somehow the natural state of affairs in Afghanistan.
I know of Afghanis who fought against the Soviets then fought against the Taliban once the Taliban showed themselves for what they were. They orignally thought that the Taliban were just super-pious guys who had great supply lines into pakistan. They never figured that they would be competant to take over the country and even if they did the didn’t think it would be that bad. Think, Khymer Rouge.
Actually when I think about it, the paralells are more with Bush and his crew. A small band of religous zealots taking over a country because the average American didn’t think that he would be some kind of rapture spouting firebrand religous nut, he just did it for the rubes.
The Taliban (not that they were known by that name at the time) were one of many different “mujahadeen” with a short term similar agenda of getting the Soviets out of Afghanistan.
Much the same way that I know Iranians who fought in the revolution against the Shah but then were turned upon when the zealots out manuvered them and those that weren’t killed were kicked out.
Revolution eats its own.
Mao said that he only needed the active 10% of the population and 15% of symps to control a country. This is very true.
Perhaps I am wrong but I get the feeling that you all think that the taliban are somehow very popular in Afghanistan. That they have some kind of popular support. I would say that they only have more than about 40% sympathy in the southern provinces of the country and even that is pretty soft. Most of those guys are farmers and tribal so the Taliban are not that much of a change for them. Where the problems are are in the cities like Kabul or Khandahar where the intellectualls, adulterers, musicians, football players, coffee drinkers hang out. People like me that is why I care about this.
Do you wonder why you never hear about car bombs in Kabul or Khandahar? The Taliban tried it a couple of times and then figured out that they weren’t winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans. Why do you think that they said that suddenly they have a new found respect for education and are going to start building schools.
It would be like saying that the Southern Baptists have overwhelming popular support in the US and therefore should be in control of the US (not that it arguably hasn’t in the last few years). Or that the Contras where popular in Nicaragua. Or that Franco was a popular leader.
I’m not saying that using soldiers is always the way to go but it is very difficult to build schools, run health clinics, build roads when people are shooting at you and the people that are doing the shooting are not US troops in this situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I too loath Bush and the rest of his crew, but I will tell you this, if NATO vanishes tomorrow from Afghanistan, there will be a civil war in Afghanistan lasting about 4 years. At the end, this (because, people will be sick of fighting) will probably result in the southern provinces being controlled by the Taliban and essencially valsal states of Pakistan much the same way that Baluchistan was taken over by Pakistan.