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U.S. intelligence agencies conclude in a draft report that Afghanistan is in a downward spiral and they doubt whether the Kabul government can stem the Taliban’s rise. The classified report says corruption inside President Hamid Karzai’s government and an increase in attacks by militants operating from Pakistan have accelerated the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is a difficult place. It has made progress since 2001. We have all talked about new circumstances that have arisen there and we are doing a review to look to see what more we can do,” Condoleeza Rice told reporters.
We are looking to see where some of the strengths are and how we need to support those strengths and also how we can help the Afghans where there are weaknesses,” Rice said.
The New York Times said the estimate, or NIE, is set to be finished after the November elections [No kidding] and will be the most comprehensive U.S. assessment in years on Afghanistan.
A senior official said last month estimates for many parts of the world were being updated for use by the next U.S. president, who will take office in January.
Everyone’s promised Afghanistan a new deal for decades. End result?
#22, Cow-Paddy,
The Renaissance happened in Europe. It didn’t occur anywhere else in the world. Technology advancement only happened when it was imported from the West.
OK, and could you find a history book that will agree with you on that? In case you are unaware, mathematics came of age in Muslim Arabia. Gun powder was invented and first utilized in China. Astronomy, first advanced with every civilization, came of age under those same Muslim Arabs, and Chinese, as well as the Japanese, the Mayans, and several lesser civilizations. Metallurgy and especially steel refinement was perfected by the Chinese and Japanese. Weaving is a Chinese invention. Cotton was first cultivated in India and silk in China. The directional compass came from Persia.
So, what was exported from Europe? Oh right, syphilis and bubonic. So while Europeans were shivering in caves or mud huts wearing animal skins, the Chinese sat sitting around warm fires in sturdy palaces perfecting the crossbow, metal spear and arrow tips, calculating eclipses, cultivating food crops, and wearing soft silk robes. While Europeans ate out of stone bowls or rough pottery with their fingers, the Chinese dined off of fine china with utensils.
Geeze, this is right up there with your claim to know what sits on McKinney’s desk and where in the Constitution it states that Congress can’t regulate wages.
#31 “OK, and could you find a history book that will agree with you on that? In case you are unaware, mathematics came of age in Muslim Arabia.”
Sure, look at the scientific advances from the point of the Renaissance through the industrial revolution. Happened nowhere else. PERIOD. Read the texts and you’ll see it didn’t.
Mathematics evolved over a long period of time. It no more “came of age” in Muslim Arabia than it did in ancient Greece with Euclidean geometry.
Neither the Mulims, Chinese or others used what knowledge they developed to move past the Iron age, even though they possessed some key pieces of knowledge earlier than the Europeans.
Fact.
I think we need to leave Iraq and focus on Afganistan/Pakistan. But in time, we may find ourselves leaving their too. We are good at war (Japan, Germany). We are bad at “please be our friends” (Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afganistan?)
The “greatest generation” dropped a lot of bombs on Japan and Germany. More people died in Tokyo from our Fire Bombing in ONE night than the people that died at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I’m not saying we should bomb, but to win a war you must break the will of the enemy and you will kill innocent people along the way. That is why war should be avoided.
But so should “Please be our friend” when that is not what the enemy wants. I know this is a black and white attitude, but we don’t have the money to do “Please be our friend”. It is okay to leave Iraq to Iraqis. 12Billion a month would help with the bailout, er.. over the long term.