These are the Pashtun tribesmen who are the primary recruits of the Taliban in fighting our troops.
After 10 years, they still have no idea why our troops came to Af-Pak.
Even the translators and police who work with us know almost nothing of 9/11 and what Bin Laden did.
Holding elections and telling them to go back to their mud huts and caves and things will be wonderful is ridiculous. Can someone explain this whole nation building thing to me again? [I posted this over at LP, thought I'd share it here as well.]
There is no Western propaganda infrastructure in place in that land. The farmers that live there have not had their brains steeped in such fictions and inventions.
I heard that he pissed off some jews and he became Marked For Death (apologies to Steven Seagall)
The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit! -Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
Couldn't you guys at least pretend you watched the video?
The point is that these Pashtun are so isolated and ignorant they have no idea what the Towers were, what al-Qaeda did, etc.
How can they ever vote meaningfully if they possess so little information?
You know, we had the old program from the Fifties to actually help Afghanistan, to transform these backward areas, to build dams to control flooding and make irrigation of these arid eastern Pashtun lands so they could have real agriculture, not just hardscabble opium farming. We have been in Afghanistan for many decades, other than the Soviet years of occupation.
It would cost a tiny fraction of what we are spending to conquer them if we would instead educate them about the world and let them choose their own future.
It would cost a tiny fraction of what we are spending to conquer them if we would instead educate them about the world and let them choose their own future.
OK, so I watch the darned video, TC.
I think it would cost an even tinier fraction to stay the hell out of places like that completely and eschew "educating" and "helping" folks who want none of it.
The Afghans may be astoundingly ignorant, but unfortunately we Americans are just stupid. Probably as stupid as the Russian people who could be conned into sending their sons into such hellholes to no discernible end except perhaps for lining the pocket of the usual suspects.
I think it would cost an even tinier fraction to stay the hell out of places like that completely and eschew "educating" and "helping" folks who want none of it.
I agree. I oppose all nationbuilding.
But given the need to take out al-Qaeda and Bin Laden (who did claim credit for 9/11), you have to do something.
I prefer bringing them into the modern world and not fighting them or just giving handouts.
We have been in Afghanistan for a long time, taking up where the Germans left off. Only during the Soviet invasion were we not there.
But given the need to take out al-Qaeda and Bin Laden
Bin Ladin died not long after disavowing responsibility for the events at the World Trade Center. A flurry of phony videos and audio tapes were thereafter released in his name. These productions were fully as bad as what the public was finally fed in response to longstanding requests to see Zero's BC. Bin Ladin is, in fact, not wanted for the FBI for the what transpired on 9/11 because there is no evidence tying him to the event.
I personally believe that "al Qaeda" had nothing to do with the WTC attacks and neither had Mohammed Atta & Co. You will notice that in all the flim-flam of the 9/11 anniversary "celebrations," the iconic rogues' gallery portrait of the nineteen hijackers that was flashed on the screen with such frequency in the aftermath of the events that day was completely missing. These guys are as conspicuous in their absence in connection with this commemoration as were the first responders of 9/11 themselves at the event in NYC last week.
Bin Ladin died not long after disavowing responsibility...
I haven't seen evidence of that. No alternate explanation that offers a better explanation of Osama's death than the sketchy details of the official account. They have been deliberately vague.
Just because the government often lies to us doesn't mean that it always lies to us.
I'm not sure how this relates to the video though.
Obviously, the point was that at the time that the decision to invade Af-Pak was taken, the public and Congress and Pentagon and president were all sold on invasion to get al-Qaeda ringleaders and topple the Taliban regime.
Just because the government often lies to us doesn't mean that it always lies to us.
This government lies to us when the truth would sound better.
In the wake of 9/11 this guy denied involvement.
Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks AFGHANISTAN September 16, 2001
Islamic militant leader Osama bin Laden, the man the United States considers the prime suspect in last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, denied any role Sunday in the actions believed to have killed thousands.
In a statement issued to the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, bin Laden said, "The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it.
"I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons," bin Laden's statement said.
Then we are treated to a video of this joker who said how pleased he was with the result.
Everything we read in the mainstream/government approved conspiracy vomit is one fairy tale heaped upon another. It is written for children, and I for one refuse to be treated like a child.
We have been in Afghanistan for many decades, other than the Soviet years of occupation.
Only during the Soviet invasion were we not there.
Ever hear of Charlie Wilson's War? We were there.
Godfrey Smith: Mike, I wouldn't worry. Prosperity is just around the corner. Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner. My Man Godfrey (1936 2011)
We operated in the frontier regions, primarily in a mountainous border city in Pakistan (whose name I don't recall) where we sent weapons in to Bin Laden and his Taliban in order to "Vietnam" the Soviets.
This government lies to us when the truth would sound better. In the wake of 9/11 this guy denied involvement.
Well, he is a liar.
Posted: Oct. 29, 2004, 5:10 p.m. ET
Bin Laden Admits 9/11 Responsibility, Warns of More Attacks
A tape aired by Al-Jazeera television Friday showed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden admitting for the first time that he orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and saying the United States could face more.
It was the first footage of bin Laden to appear in more than a year and came just days before voters head to the polls Tuesday after an extremely tight president race.
In the 18-minute tape, bin Laden, who appeared to be sitting or standing at a table against a neutral background, said: "Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened."
Bin Laden said he thought of the method of attacking U.S. skyscrapers when he saw Israeli aircraft bombing tower blocks in Lebanon in 1982.
"We decided to destroy towers in America," he said. "God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and inflexibility of the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon, this came to my mind."
Although there was no way to authenticate the tape or say when it was made, it referenced the upcoming presidential election.
"Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said, according to the Associated Press.
"To the U.S. people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster. I tell you: Security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security.
"If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack Sweden, for example. It is known that those who hate freedom do not have dignified souls, like those of the 19 blessed ones," he said, referring to the 19 hijackers.
"We fought you because we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security, we undermine yours."
An editor at Al-Jazeera said the network received the tape Friday but did not say how, Reuters reported.
In September 2003, Al-Jazeera aired a tape of bin Laden with his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri in which he mentions five Sept. 11 hijackers by name.
An audiotape, which CIA analysts said was likely bin Laden, surfaced in April and called for a truce with European nations if they pulled troops out of Muslim countries.
I didn't post this just so I could get mobbed by Truth missionaries.
I was raising the issue of whether the Pashtun tribesmen have any idea why we are there. We are spending hundreds of billions on suppressing insurgents, keeping our troops there in danger, and the local tribesmen still don't know why we came.
Sometimes these forums are more like a Rorschach test than a discussion of issues. That's a video, not an inkblot. And I am not anyone's shrink.
You guys will have to Truth away without my help on this thread.
I don't really want to go through all the phony tapes hooey again. I don't watch Saturday morning cartoons any more and I don't lap up the slop that mechanics in DC dish up. When the FBI says it has no hard evidence that Bin Ladin was involved that's because there ain't no there there.
There have been 800,000 excess deaths in Iraq conservatively since we went in to get somebody dead or alive and I don't know how many in Afghanistan. That's a minor "holocaust" by historical standards.
The fairy tail capture and murder of Bin Ladin is just icing on the cake in a very leaky and sorry campaign of deception.
Expert Goes On Record: Bin Laden 9/11 Confession Is Bogus Professor says there is no doubt infamous Bin Laden tape is fake, being used to deflect 9/11 "conspiracy theories" Steve Watson Infowars.net Monday, February 19, 2007
A leading expert on Osama Bin Laden has officially gone on the record saying that he believes the so called "9/11 Confession" tape, released shortly after the attacks, is an outright fake that has been used by US intelligence agencies to deflect attention from conspiracy theories about 9/11.
Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke Universitys Religious Studies program, joined Kevin Barrett last Friday on his radio show (gcnlive.com, 2/16/2007, first hour) in his first public interview since comments he made last year indicating that he believes Bin Laden may be dead and that many of the newer tapes are either fake or consist of old audio and video.
The "Confession" video, played ad infinitum in the wake of the attack on Afghanistan in December 2001, was magically found in a house in Jalalabad after anti-Taliban forces moved in. It featured a fat Osama laughing and joking about how he'd carried out 9/11. The video was also mistranslated in order to manipulate viewer opinion and featured "Bin Laden" praising two of the hijackers, only he got their names wrong.
This Osama also uses the wrong hand to write with and wears gold rings, a practice totally in opposition to the Muslim faith.
Despite the fact that the man in the video looks nothing like Bin Laden, the CIA stood by the video whilst many, including Professor Lawrence now, have declared it an outright fake.
Problem is that it ain't just the mouthbreathers that allow themselves to be lobotomized by the propaganda. Intelligent people, who are educated and have a pretty good knowledge of events, succumb to the narrative in it's many variations. These folks just can't choke down the idea that they've been HAD.
the public and Congress and Pentagon and president were all sold on invasion to get al-Qaeda ringleaders and topple the Taliban regime.
yes, the public was sold on that, but it's for the pipeline, oil, opium, among other interests. the article i posted timelines that and isn't a truther article per se.