Chaos in Kabul...lest you think it's going well there
 

It sure as hell isn't going well in Afghanistan. In fact, things may be worse there than in Iraq, if that's possible.

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Chaos in Kabul by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Before eyes turned to the investigation of the US murders of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, or the US murders of civilians in Ishaqi, Iraq, and new outrage broke out over the military murder of two women, one of them pregnant, in Mosul, Iraq, there was news pouring out from another outpost of the US empire. Only last week, Kabul, Afghanistan, was on fire with mass outrage. Today curfews and martial law reign, barely keeping a temporary lid on a situation that cannot last. The 23,000 foreign troops there are outnumbered and under fire. The riots in Kabul are an ominous sign for the US empire. Watch the videos on television. These people are ever more bold. They aren't guerillas operating in private. They are not military people. They are regular citizens rising up against an empire and using every means at their disposal to drive the invader out. They throw rocks, sticks, and are glad to kill anyone who is tainted with the slightest hint of collaboration, even humanitarian workers and merchants. They walk in daylight, almost hoping for the status of martyrdom. They defy police, military, guns, and tanks. They have a focused demand: the US must leave their country immediately. The riots came in response to a ghastly event that the US media usually calls a "traffic accident." A tank rolled down a hill in Kabul and crashed into a big line of cars. You can imagine if an SUV owned by a suburbanite did that in Manhattan: the media would be talking about the deaths. But in this case, we were given little by the media but firm assurance that it was all easily explained. More than a hundred people were injured. Something like a dozen were killed (people are still arguing over numbers). The US military dismissed it as a mechanical failure. We're so sorry that you are upset! But aid workers who were there said that it was caused by a military convoy that was driving fast and recklessly, hitting cars on the side of the road even before the pileup. During the rioting, twenty more people were shot. Video footage shows US troops firing machine guns over the heads of hundreds of rioters. US soldiers claimed that they were firing in self-defense. But the issue came to a head when three of the dead were clearly civilians just minding their own business. That's when the chief of police in Kabul, a guy the US is supposed to control completely, came forward to say that the US fired into the crowd just as a means of control. This is only the latest carnage. Since May 17, 2006, 372 Afghanis have been killed by what is called the US-led coalition, which, again, means by the US. Meanwhile, guerilla fighters killed two dozen Afghan police in the employ of the US-controlled state. Guerillas are firing rockets at cars and killing politicians. No place is this vast, strange country safe for anyone suspected of collaboration with the occupiers. Suicide bombers are on the increase. This is not a stable situation. There is no way that the US can control this country. For years, people said that the US does not and will not face a situation like the Soviet Union did in this country in the 1980s. But increasingly, it is hard to tell the difference, except that the US might show even more stupidity by hanging around even longer. You know what government hates the most? Resistance. This is true in all times and in all places. They try to crush it no matter what, as if the life of the state depended on it, which it does. Still, resistance can sometimes be too much for a state, which, after all, constitutes a minority of the population with only one advantage: it has the biggest guns. Other than that, there is no good reason to obey any state if it is making society worse rather than better. In fact, any state that calls forth mass resistance should be overthrown as a matter of justice, since the alternative is to turn all of society into a giant prison camp. We are supposed to be against making countries into prisons. But that is precisely the direction things are going in Afghanistan. This is a remarkable state of affairs given the recent history. The US overthrew the Taliban regime because it had shown sympathy to Osama Bin Laden, even though there was no evidence that the Taliban was involved in 9-11 and no final evidence that Osama was actually the criminal mastermind behind 9-11 (we only know that he wanted the Islamic world to give him credit for the hijacking). So the US went in, the Taliban scattered, and the US declared victory. In the meantime, the country has completely devolved into tribal-controlled regions, drug production has soared (hey, folks gotta make a living!), the Taliban is on the march, and the US is loathed and hated in every corner of the country. Talk about US intentions going awry! And do we dare bring up the fact that the US supported the Taliban's formation in the 1980s to oppose the Soviet occupation? That's right, back then we called them freedom fighters. When will the US leave? Not soon. In fact, I would predict that the US will prove even less willing to admit defeat than the Soviets or the British, who met the same fate in this wild, far-flung, bloodied land. Once again, war has proven to be good for absolutely nothing. June 2, 2006 Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. (Send him mail) is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com and author of Speaking of Liberty.

Hey Fastpat
Who's this Lew Rockwell guy?! I don't think you ave ever referenced him before.
Steve

Steve:

Do a search. I think you will find it interesting. Pastfat has quoted him a number of times.

Bob

Sorry everyone I was kidding
Fastpat doesn't post an original thought!
Everything I see from him is a single sentence followed by a cut and paste from Lew Rockwell
Steve

Yeah....I figgred.

Seeing the recent articles about SC, it must certainly be an interesting place. Imagine trying to engage some residents in a rational conversation...

When the two of you are finished giving each other hand jobs, try to respond to the topic of this thread.

Now that you mention it, I too have noticed Pat citing this "Lew Rockwell " guy.

Additional comments by Karzai in Afghanistan...
 

pat

You familiar with another great American with the Rockwell name?

George Lincoln Rockwell?

Interersting man......Many innovative ideas...

len...

You too?

It is interesting, pat, that you and GWB have something in common....You are both uniters....

Cheers!!

Well his first retort was a single sentence and his second post was a cut and paste.
Enough said!
Steve

This Rockwell guy doesn't seem to have much regard for facts, does he? Just like the liberals...he pretty much makes up parts of the story as he goes.

cut-paste......cut-paste........it's been going on WAY to much here on pelican.

my brother in law just got back from his second tour in Afghanistan, i know more of what goes on there than you ever will.............just keep reading/cut/pasting, because it's obvious you have no opinion which hasn't been said by someone else first.....and you understand absolutely nothing of what it means to be in a combat situation, so basing your opinion through media is just puppet play.

if you want to be taken seriously then you really need to practice one of the basics of being an american, freedom of speech....not freedom of copy/paste.

Your rebuttal is a bit thin, could you perhaps include some facts, even a fact?

Yawn!

Indeed, I cannot speak to Vietnam as I was not around to compare the media to my fathers first hand accounts. But Somolia.....there I was able to fully absorb what I was being told in the media and then compare it with my brothers first person reports. Night and day is the only way to say it. I assume Iraq/Afganistan is no different.........excluding this Lew Rockwell guy of course, I mean I'm sure he gets the real story.

So, what was your "real story" about Somalia?

If it's anything other than the US government screws up yet another country, then I'm afraid it's yet another lie.

I was around, in the military, during Vietnam, and I can tell you that the stories from individual soldiers cannot and do not give the big picture of what going in in a war. That has always been the case.

But some "never ran" middle aged bald guy in a LazyBoy posting to his blog has got it nailed down:rolleyes:

Bush hates Lew Rockwell. Come to think of it, I'll bet Bush hates Fastpat, too. That's all I have to say about politics here in POT.

For one, in this op ed, Rockwell turns a truck into a tank. He takes far too much license in his writing for an honest man. He is even worse than NBC.

Don't the wannabe Muslim pajamas or the mismatched army surplus uniform pieces count for anything?

Five bucks says the guy sitting beside Fastpat while he was pushing paper while he "was around, in the military, during Vietnam"
was Lew Rockwell
Steve

I certainly hope all politicians hate me, it's vindication.

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That's all I have to say about politics here in POT.

You've spoken volumes in this message, oh man of few words.
;)

Nobody addressed the topic of the post. I"m guessing this means it's accurate......?????

Pat
Please give us more single sentence response with A- Highlighted quotes or B- Lew Rockwell quotes
Why don't you volunteer for a charity or some other cause and help some people with this extraordinary free time you have?
steve

When Lew speaks, people listen.

Hey Pat, I'd like to know what YOU know about the war in Afghanistan, not what some guy you dug up on the internet says. Seriously.

tap tap tap.....

Personally I haven't been there myself, so FWIW, the office next to mine has a several coworkers (contractors) who rotate in/out of both Afghanistan and Iraq constantly. They have been there for the last 2+ years and have stories good and bad w/pictures to support. They have seen things they will never forget - but they all say the media does not portray an accurate picture of the good stuff happening. Food for thought.

Parts of it are accurate, although exaggerated. Our enemies (and those of the elected government). in Afghanistan) used a traffic accident (malfunctioning brakes on a truck) to rile up enough folks for a demonstration. They are pulling out all the stops to get the attention of the US media...because it has worked so well to help their fellow terrorists in Iraq.

right back at ya buddy.........
what did you do in the military again?

The lie oft issued by the lewrockettes that asserts there were no connections between Saddam and al qaeda. Obviously a very important and pivotal hinge of many of the early arguments you quoted from the lew-rockettes...The myth, the lie if you will, was smashed...The truth is the first casualty of war - an axiom lewrockwell'ists live by.

You think those who demonstrated are terrorists? I'm not sure what you're getting at...who's "fellow terrorists?" What worked so well for terrorists in Iraq?

Fint, I honestly don't think those who demonstrated in Afghanistan are terrorists...

Maybe not. They, however, are ill-informed and lied to at the very least. They are much like the rest of the world who get fed selective media, media intended to manipulate them in various directions. Even American perception is vulnerable to this selective media and intentional distortion of fact. They [foreign Arabs] are also manipulated by an ideology, a gruesome and barbaric ideology that warps their intellectual and philosophical and psychological fabric.

It is easy to say what you think and what you don't. It is nothing more than opinion. Everyone has an opinion and many have one unfounded in fact. You saying who you think the demonstrators in Afghanistan were is such an opinion. For example, I am sure an outsider of America could easily believe that the American anti-war demonstrations were led by peace-loving hippies. They would be dramatically in error. Anyone who has done an ounce of research apprehends that those responsible for organizing and sloganeering for the "peaceful" left are nothing more than tyrant worshiping communists in drag...same goes for the illegal immigrant marches.

It is not hard to understand how the world fails to acquire an accurate picture of themselves or the world around them. There are many who have interest in keeping them in the dark. America is no exception, yet the theory is just as accurate here. We have the resources to be informed, yet we are not. People continue to believe and recite lies, as if a truth, regularly. There are few who have the resources or time to search and discern what is truth and what is not in the world...I being one, you not.

Odd, that the same sort of story the returning soldiers told when the Soviet Union attempted the exact same thing 25 years ago.

And just as accurate.

To the US government, their agents, and their accolytes anyone in opposition to the US government illegal attempted occupation of Afghanistan are terrorist or friends of terrorists. Same crap when the Soviet Union tried to "help" the country. The excuses for being in Afghanistan that are being used by the Bush'ists are the same that were used by the Soviets.

All to excuse naked aggression.

These aren't soldiers - they are contractors. Long haired, surfer types, well at least one of them is.
So to be clear you have not been to AF or IQ yet call *inaccurate* stories from friends & coworkers of mine that have. Yes?

IOW, they're mercenaries. With a vested interest in the status quo.

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So to be clear you have not been to AF or IQ yet call *inaccurate* stories from friends & coworkers of mine that have. Yes?

More precisely, I'm calling them a mixture of inaccuracies, lies, and irrelevancies.

According to locals on the ground there, the protests were organized by the same folks who are committing the terrorist acts there. Most of the actual protesters are just ignorant illiterates without access to much information that were misled into the belief that the accident was an intentional act. The terrorists use the cover of the civilian protesters to take pot shots at local police and US troops. They hope the return fire will kill innocents and further their cause...just like their evil friends in Iraq do on a daily basis.

If this is true, why aren't we arresting them for terrorism?

The good news for people of your ilk (are there others?) is that the Afghanistan adventure was a key cause of the collapse of the Soviet regime. And history may well repeat...

I know you need to block this part out of the Soviet regime catastrophic failures, but, whether you like it or not, socialism was the single largest contributor to their demise.

The truth shall set you free, weenie.

We do when we can.