The Taliban isn't the Enemy

AWP

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"In the case of the 10-year old Global War on Terror, Taliban you are NOT the enemy!"

(I had to channel my inner Maury Povich for a second. Apologies)

So yeah, the guy Obama brought on board to bolster his foreign policy doesn't think the TB are the bad guys.

Stay classy, Mr. Vice President.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/vp-biden-says-that-the-taliban-per-se-is-not-our-enemy/

“We are in a position where if Afghanistan ceased and desisted from being a haven for people who do damage and have as a target the United States of America and their allies, that’s good enough. That’s good enough. We’re not there yet. Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us.”
 
I think he has something of a point but it's muddled up. The Taliban is a tactical enemy (thinking globally) but they're not a strategic one.
 
I think he has something of a point but it's muddled up. The Taliban is a tactical enemy (thinking globally) but they're not a strategic one.

I disagree.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural Address
Friday, January 20, 1961

"...We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more..."

De Oppresso Liber
 
I disagree.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural Address
Friday, January 20, 1961

"...We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more..."

De Oppresso Liber
IMO, that line would have been much better if it ended with, "...in the United States."
 
All I want to do is not only to be the POSSESSOR of freedom & liberty but I want to be the PROTECTOR of it, not just for myself but for MANKIND!"


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Remarks at the Parliamentary Luncheon, Wellington, New Zealand.
October 20, 1966
 
36.gif


Remarks at the Parliamentary Luncheon, Wellington, New Zealand.
October 20, 1966
A fine personal ambition, and one at that that was conceptualized sometime alongside his idea of the Great Society, which took away American freedoms.

The United States of America was founded by freethinkers as a social experiment in limited government. A social experiment in which its citizens would be free from government tyranny. In our attempt to police the globe and ensure that others may have freedom, we have been rejected by those we wish to help. We have witnessed our own freedoms at home get chipped away by security-minded politicians. We have witnessed a terrible recession in which we still find ourselves. We have accrued an insurmountable debt. All at the taxpayers expense.

I don't like the fact that millions die of starvation under the tyrannous rule of the North Korean state. I don't like the fact that people suffer in Syria, Iran, Sudan, Uganda or any other totalitarian cesspool, but it is absurd, even as the world's "superpower", to think that we have the power(money), to fix the world. It is neither achievable nor logical. What it is, is tragic. I wish we did, and I wish it was as simple as toppling these regimes, but it isn't. We simply don't have that kind of power.

What we can, and should do is focus on our own freedoms and our own borders. By being the country we are supposed to be, we serve as an example to the rest of the world. A free society is a rich and powerful society. Let them see us prosper and let them realize what it takes to be prosperous. You can't force democracy on a people who know nothing of it and want nothing to do with it.

That is my fundamental disagreement with the current American foreign policy.

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."
-Thomas Jefferson
Founding Father of the United States of America and Freethinker
 
Good post.
Do you think that is truly feasible in today's global society?
 
Good post.
Do you think that is truly feasible in today's global society?
Feasible?
Well, I just registered as a Republican so I can vote in the primaries for Ron Paul. If my vote makes the difference, then yes. LOL.

In all seriousness, I don't know anything for certain, but I think it is possible.
 
I disagree.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural Address
Friday, January 20, 1961

"...We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more..."

De Oppresso Liber

Since when was Afghanistan about liberty? Quotes from politicians are all well and good but at the end of the day politicians are wankers who never believe what they say themselves.
 
Since when was Afghanistan about liberty? Quotes from politicians are all well and good but at the end of the day politicians are wankers who never believe what they say themselves.

They're not about liberty, we sheepdogs are. :D Inside every Afghan, there is a Republican waiting to come out.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45791868/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/#.TvkNldRAb_M


KABULAfghanistan will accept a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to start peace talks but no foreign power can get involved in the process without its consent, the government's peace council said, as efforts gather pace to find a solution to the decade-long war.
Afghanistan's High Peace Council, in a note to foreign missions, has set out ground rules for engaging the Taliban after Kabul grew concerned that the United States and Qatar, helped by Germany, had secretly agreed with the Taliban to open an office in the Qatari capital, Doha.
U.S. officials have held about half a dozen meetings with their insurgent contacts, mostly in Germany and Doha with representatives of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura, this year to prepare the way for face-to-face talks between the group and the Afghan government.
A representative office for the group is considered the starting point for such talks and Doha has in the past served as a meeting ground for initial contacts.
 
The United States: Not only do we negotiate with terrorists, we legitimize them.

It is like a game of Survivor and we're voting ourselves off the island.
 
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