I met a man who wasn't there
he wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd stay away
“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”
Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan
brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the
Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of
the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."
/facepalm@theUS
ReplyDeleteHow is it we haven't collapsed under the weight of our own ineptitude?
Bloody sad, sheerah. Some times I think we need snglasses, a white cane, and a dog. How dumb can we be?
ReplyDeleteWhen will we ever learn? How can we be such buffoons?
ReplyDelete"When will we ever learn..?"
ReplyDeleteSagt mir vo die blumen sind? Wann wird man je verstehen?? Joan Baez, about 1968. Different time, different war, same song.
Walter Olin
World Power????
ReplyDeleteThe incoherence of US domestic politics tells it all imo . . . We can't leave since that would show that we in fact lost. As long as we continue to be present operationally and tactically we can pretend that we still can influence events.
ReplyDeleteSince Obama came in they've been trying a repeat of the "Surging to victory" scam that played so well to the domestic US audience in regards to Iraq, that is a tweak here and there tactically could somehow, magically, turn a strategic defeat into "victory" . . . If it had "worked" for Bush in Iraq, so the notion went, why not for Obama in Afghanistan . . . ?
A corrupt and self-obsessed US political/economic elite incapable of formulating rational domestic policy can only produce incoherent foreign policy with of backdrop of strategic confusion . . . Even if Obama is able to achieve something elsewhere, say in regards to India, the US domestic opposition will still attempt to destroy him, there exists no sense of national good, only private interest wielding the power of the US state . . .
The other thing to note about this is that Afghans have loved treachery, double-dealing, and intrigue since Baibar's day. This has made the rounds of the bazaars from Kabul to Karachi, with the weapons-grade gullibility of the ferenghi invaders the butt of the joke.
ReplyDeleteThe tailor from Kandahar, whoever he actually is, will dine out on this for the rest of his life; "Hee, hee, Omar, what a joke! Did you see the look on the ferenghi Petraeus' face? What a maroon! What an im-bessel!"
HAHAHA
ReplyDeleteYou're supposed to vet sources, No. Well, that is if you've got some sort of book on same. Das macht nichts; even if intel pukes were peripherally involved, the even more dense "Operators" had to strike, in order to have a chance of VICTORY. Vas Glauben Sie, Herr Seidlitz?
I hear the intel community didn't like the guy's bona fides, but that Petraeus insisted he was the man. And inasmuch as Petraeus can do no wrong, and in fact seems to be in charge of much of our foreign policy these days, we know the rest. One wonders when they're going to chop command of the UN Command in Korea over to everybody's favorite general. And then make him Director of National Intelligence on the weekends.
ReplyDelete"How is it we haven't collapsed under the weight of our own ineptitude?" Indeed. Can you imagine what Afghanistan will look like next year at this time when the political campaigns are gearing up for the primaries? Hell, if the Democrats weren't such a bunch of limp-wristed cowards, I think we'd even see a serious challenge to Obama there. No matter how it unfolds, however, can you spell "one-term" president?
You know, Obama could actually end up supplanting Bush as the worst president ever, solely as a result of what his fuckups may end up giving us as our next president. WASF
Fr. Chalmers Johnson's NYT obit today:
ReplyDelete"In a review of “The Sorrows of Empire” in The New York Times, Ronald Asmus, a deputy assistant secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, wrote that the book was “a cry from the heart of an intelligent person who fears that the basic values of our republic are in danger.” He added that it “conveys a sense of impending doom rooted in a belief that the United States has entered a perpetual state of war that will drain our economy and destroy our constitutional freedoms.”
Didn't realize Johnson died this week. He'll be missed, but just by a few of us. Unfortunately, guys like him—the true giant intellects—aren't listened to anymore.
ReplyDeleteThat's what's truly frightening about Johnson's passing and the coming deaths of more oldtimers. It's disgusting when we look at someone like Newt Gingrich and realize that he's this generation's answers to men like Johnson.
I guess Palin will soon be annointed as Kissinger's successor.....
FDChief & fasteddiez & all-
ReplyDeleteGreetings ladies and gentlemen. ... What it best portrays imo is general strategic confusion, I mean if we can't even get this right. The significance is not the false Talib, but the attitude of the ISI . . . They see what the "Zionists" are currently getting and figure they deserve the same, at least . . . With such "friends" . . . meanwhile we proceed to f-o our few remaining allies: expect this fiasco to be placed at NATO's door . . .
It's not like this needed Sherlock Holmes. They had at least ten giveaways:
ReplyDelete10. Kept asking if the peace talks could be held in the Maldives
9. Eyepatch switched sides from meeting to meeting
8. Introduced himself as “Colonel Iqbal from the ISI”
7. Ran up a large minibar tab at the Four Seasons Kabul
6. Wife angled for a spot on “The Real Housewives of Kandahar”
5. Claimed to be texting Mullah Omar but was actually just playing Angry Birds the whole time
4. Offered to settle Afghan War with a game of Jenga
3. Turban made of an actual towel
2. Wore trench coat, offered to sell the letters O and U
1. Agreed to trade Osama bin Laden for Justin Bieber
(h/t to "Lawyers, Guns & Money)
Publius,
ReplyDeleteYes, it seemsincisive discourse has left the building.
Choosing Ms. Palin for anything on a national level would be like Sao Paolo electing a clown as congressman, except some people may actually think her competent (?)
FDC,
Funny :) Like you say, Omar the Tentmaker will now be feted all the days of his life for this knee-slapper.
MI6 is taking the heat now . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8161357/MI6-blamed-for-Taliban-impostor.html