Holy crap, this Obama guy! First he stone-cold orders the death of Osama bin Laden after Bush and Romney both said it was no big deal, and now he jets off to Afghanistan to wrap that clusterfuck up in a high-profile way. Who does he think he is? The president?
jonst
Who is he? He’s the guy that just committed the US to be in Afghanistan till, at least, 2024. That’s who.
redshirt
The arrogance!
How dare the President do stuff for the good of the country and world and then campaign on those acts!
lamh35
Yep, stepped all over the GOP/R-Money freakout over Bin Laden.
Every GOP member who called Bin Laden ad grandstanding now saying that this trip was a good idea.
Suck on that McCain
Skippy-san
Wrap things up? Hardly. He is signing us up for an additional ten year commitment to that hell hole-and basically paying off Karzai to do it. The people of Afghanistan have had ten + years to get their act together-they still suck. So better to just cut them loose and let them wallow in their ignorance. The US can contain them until they finally chose to join the civilized world. At least no more Americans would have to die for that worthless piece of real estate.
redshirt
@jonst: Your point?
4tehlulz
@jonst: 0/10
jl
I bet that corrupt little campaign junket cost a mint.
Can we impeach that jerk for using foreign policy in his campaign?
Right thinking people in the US will be outraged.
Could be Good News, for Republicans.
Cluttered Mind
@Skippy-san: You misspelled “centuries” there. They’ve had significantly more than 10 years to get things together. I have yet to hear a good reason why it’s our job to make it happen.
redshirt
And herewith begins another episode of “Why Liberals don’t get nice things”, with special guests, “The Firebagger Brigade”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m in a hotel that has no MSNBC, so I’ve been following this off and on with CNN. Blitzer et al are hard core concern-trolling that this trip will be seen as “political” and “spiking the ball”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Skippy-san:
These two sentences contradict each other. Either we contain them, or we keep our soldiers safe.
beltane
Who are all these new Firebaggers and when are they going home?
4tehlulz
@jl: -1/0
lamh35
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: that’s straight from Drudge. fuck Blitzer
lamh35
CNN has audio of POTUS talking to soldiers in Afghanistan, it’s good. If ya’ll can hear it you should.
It was heartfelt and dare I say heartwarming. He seemed a little emotional.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Blitzer has nothing on Dana Milbank’s column today.
The preezy of the United Steezy is making me queasy.
PS: Jim – CNN? No Weather Channel in your hotel room?
Mino
How many think Karzai is still gonna be there in 10 years? 5 years? 2 years? Nice theatrics, but probably not really significant.
Elizabelle
@lamh35:
I would love to hear POTUS speaking to the troops. Maybe there will be a link later.
Skippy-san
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): No its not. We don’t have Soldiers on the ground there. The Afghans can deal with their own issues.
But what about Al Quaeda you ask? Well they are still rampant in Pakistan and we are killing lots of them-without 100000 troops on the ground.
Mino
@Elizabelle: Trying to stay “fair and balanced” is screwing with his eustachian tubes.
pseudonymous in nc
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Shouldn’t he stick to what he’s good at, i.e. staring at Mila Kunis’s tits?
jl
@pseudonymous in nc: But I did not see a picture of Blitzer staring at her tits. All the pictures I saw, Blitzer looked like he had his arm around a lamp post, zoned out on quaaludes. The pics of him at the press carnival creeped me out.
RalfW
@jl:
I’m thinkin’ Obama better write a personal check for $200 million for this one.
And how can Obama go on this showy desert vacation when people at home are too poor to golf? Or something.
Ash Can
And in other news, Breitbart Legacy Genius Joel Pollak schools us all on how President Obama’s campaign motto “Forward” proves he’s a communist. Or a fascist. Or a Nazi. Or maybe a mau-mau. Or something. But whatever it is, it’s really, really bad.
::headdesk::
How this infantile cretin managed to get any votes at all vs. Jan Schakowsky should make everyone who lives in in my congressional district blush with embarrassment.
General Stuck
Pammycakes Geller is going to self combust if this uppity president don’t stop stealing her wingnut mojo.
jl
@Ash Can:
“infantile cretin”
Thank you for that. I was making a list of appropriate descriptions of for the likes of Blitzer, Moldbank, Milbank, whatever, and any other officious nincompoop brown nosing corporate hack jackass shithead who decides, for whatever reason, to push GOP campaign BS into their ‘reporting’ or ‘analysis’ for public mental feces smearing, for money, and and schmoozing brownie points, or whatever they think they are doing.
Your phrase got the right kind of words into my head.
4tehlulz
@Ash Can: You forgot Jewish.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
fuck spiking the ball slam that motherfucker over the goalposts.
chopper
some dipshit at fox is saying ‘even afghanistan is a campaign stop for obama’.
man, these guys really know that foreign policy is not mitt’s forte.
KXB
The agreement is less about Afghanistan, that it is about Pakistan. Basically, the U.S. and Afghanistan are signalling to Islamabad that any ideas they have about flooding Taliban troops into Afghanistan after America leaves should be left on the shelf. Pakistan will also have to get used to drone attacks from Afghan airbases, which they could stop if they simply got off their backsides and shut down all the camps that are established in Pakistan.
lamh35
@Elizabelle: CNN and MSNBC just showed the video of POTUS speaking to the troops. It was as usual Obama at his best.
I think Tweety is gonna cry.
Ash Can
@jl: When he was running against Schakowsky he gave the public only the merest glimpses into his pathology. I myself was convinced that the worst things he’d do if elected would have been to be a standard-issue tea partier, and to ignore US government and law and do only Israel’s bidding in Congress. Bad enough, to be sure, but nowhere near the depths of puerile depravity he’s exhibited since signing on with the Breitbart sewage system. I guess now that he’s not trying to win votes he figures he’ll really let his freak flag fly.
David Koch
PPP: Black Jimmy Carter opens up 8 pt lead in critical swing state of Virgina.
quannlace
Yes, cue the poutrage!
Paraphrasing Charlie Pierce: How dare the guy who wants to be relected President, tell us the reasons why he thinks he should be relected President.
jl
@KXB: Both Pakistan and India see Afghanistan as a strategic asset. The current Afghanistan leadership has too many India partisans in it for Pakistan’s taste.
The Afghan Taliban in Pakistan that have been causing trouble over the border, are tolerated in Pakistan in part because they are tools to maintain Pakistani influence there.
So, there is a complicated geopolitical game going on in Afghanistan, not just ‘bad guys’ running around, because, EVIL.
Ahmad Rashid is an Pakistani journalist and expert on the region, and he had a great interview on Daily Show recently that goes into it.
Ash Can
@4tehlulz: Not to mention — dunh-dunh-dunnnh! — cheesehead (h/t LGF).
AA+ Bonds
Karzai is a fucking criminal
Villago Delenda Est
He IS the president. He THINKS he’s Sheriff Bart.
The Dangerman
@KXB:
This.
Afghanistan is a hell hole that just happens to be next door to where the real problem is (or have we forgotten where Bin Laden was whacked, namely, within a short drive to one of their military academies).
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
How much is this costing the tax payers? Another entitlement seeker looking for government hand outs. Buy your own plane ticket next time!
Mickey
@jonst: 0.0
ericblair
@David Koch:
Way too early of course to draw any conclusions, but hurdehurhur. I’d like to see how it breaks down in the internals. I don’t think Mittens gets a lot of resonance here.
KXB
@jl:
I agree it is complicated, but India’s role is exagerated. Their aid is entirely civilian – India does not even train police. India and Afghanistan have had a relationship going back decades – Afghanistan was one of the first nations to recognize independent India in 1947. Just because Pakistan does not like it is no reason for them to destabilize Afghanistan, and the agreement is signalling that. Obama has told them, “Forget ‘strategic depth’ and settle your issues with India bilaterally.” Which is what they are doing now.
Mickey
The nerve of him taking these spontaneous vacations on the taxpayers dime. How much is this trip costing? He could have done all this from Washington. Where is Issa, we need a congressional hearing into these excessive expenditures.
Quaker in a Basement
You’re on your own, Hammie. Good luck to ya!
arguingwithsignposts
According to libertarian in DC downstairs, the SEALs are pissed that Obama shined a spotlight on the team. Good thing nobody ever heard of SEALs before last year.
David Koch
Black Jimmy Carter just gave a masterful impromptu speech to the troops
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0c6X156fyLgOm/610x.jpg
fucker!
lamh35
@David Koch:
I know many people are not into all the “oh rah” soldier stuff, but this speech to the troops that POTUS gave just now was heartfelt and dare I say emotional. It was Obama at his best and without teleprompter may I point out. Can’t imagine R-Money doing the same.
President Obama Addresses the Troops In Afghanistan.
Mickey
@Skippy-san: I designate thee todays poster child of why firebaggers are masters at self marginalization.
Clime Acts
@jonst:
Who is he? He’s the guy that just committed the US to be in Afghanistan till, at least, 2024. That’s who
BINGO.
hahahaha…cynical city. So the U.S. will pay Afghanistan to build facilities which will belong to Afghanistan, or give them existing bases the U.S. built and paid for, but the U.S. will use them as it sees fit. hahahahaha…yeah, the war sure is over.
What a complete fucking joke. That you bots are all on board with this charade is beyond shameful. If Bush did the same ass-covering, nothingburger deal that “ends” the war by keeping things the same, you’d be shitting your pants.
Clime Acts
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He has the privilege and ability to do it, but of course that’s what it is. He could do the agreement signing from his WH office if he wanted to. But the fake visuals will be useful in the Fall.
chopper
@Clime Acts:
honestly, the president should have addressed the troops via a whole bunch of tweets from the oval office.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mickey: You spoke too soon.
AA+ Bonds
@arguingwithsignposts:
According to my enlisted friends’ Facebooks the current myth is that some high-ranking Republican officer or another actually “made the call” on bin Laden
But this True Hero is also a superior military-bred being who has kept the secret safe because he’ll die before he’ll betray his oath even to a Muslim Communist (or talk to the Communist news media about it as a stinking Muslim would)
The name of this super secret white sure-‘nough-Christian officer seems to change a lot
Billy Rae Valentine
sounds like the deal sets us up for what we have all over the world; a foothold in someone else’s country.
“firebaggers” have a concern but it’s about as valid as somebody being riled up because we have tens of thousands of soldiers in Germany. yeah it’s messed up in a way but some would argue it’s necessary in a way. i am conflicted, personally.
but with this specific development, it sounds like we will be withdrawing from Afghanistan around 2014. virtually all of our combat troops will be gone in the best deal we can get. we will probably still have some troops or personnel there for years after, but it’s no worse than the other 700 places where we have bases. if you need the total destruction of our military complex globally before you can be happy about the ending of a war, i think you will go to your grave unhappy.
i roll with obama 10 times out of 10 and think it’s the best way to get the most i can get.
AA+ Bonds
I’ll take this opportunity to point out that
1) We have no goddamned clue what actually happened the day we killed bin Laden
2) We do have enough information to know that the Obama administration has changed its story multiple times
3) Murder isn’t cool even when we don’t like the guy
chopper
@AA+ Bonds:
i suspect the venusians.
Calouste
@Ash Can:
Obama’s “Forward” constrast nicely with all the Republicans talking about “taking the country back“.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Clime Acts: So you think we should leave Afghanistan to settle it’s problems by itself, like we did in 1989?
Phoenix_rising
Comment #25 was the first to use the term of art for this type of behavior.
I am seriously disappointed by y’all. How could ‘Uppity’ NOT be the first reply?
geg6
Heh.
That is all.
Brachiator
@Skippy-san:
I think that the US should withdraw, but anyone who thinks that the US can easily contain anything in Afghanistan, or has any other crystal ball pronouncements, is smoking some heavy stuff.
xian
@AA+ Bonds: so we don’t know what happened but it was definitely bad
the fugitive uterus
and i have never seen such gnashing of teeth, rending of garments and hysterical tears and incoherent babblings from the republicans
they are absolutely shitting and pissing themselves all over the airwaves out of pure jealous rage
the fugitive uterus
@Ash Can: i think the point being that the people they are speaking to do not even know the difference between Communism and Fascism, nor do they care.
Linda Featheringill
@the fugitive uterus:
Personally, I have no opinion on this issue but if the Prez is pissing off the Righties, then he must be doing something right.
Go, Obama, go.
Yutsano
@AA+ Bonds: Your concern is duly noted.
Semi OT: got sent home from work because things started to get ugly in downtown Seattle. Six and a half hours of PTO!! WOOT!!
Villago Delenda Est
@the fugitive uterus:
Yes, aren’t they?
My schadenfreude meter is pegged.
Roger Moore
@jl:
Yeah, but if they would just get their shit together, their massively more powerful neighbors would stop treating them like a geopolitical football!/Skippy-san
feebog
@ Clime Acts:
Does the deal call for keeping 100,000 combat troops in Afghanistan until 2024? If it does not, and you know full well it does not, then your statement above is completely and utterly wrong. Look, we get you are a right wing asshole dressed up as a concern troll for this blog, but please, try harder.
Xboxershorts
How do you like your new iPAD Grandpa?
I love it. I use it every day!
http://nitpiq.com/v/4817
Skippy-san
@Brachiator: I’ll reiterate, What is the threat? Afghans behaving badly? No. It is that a radical Islamic group can use the country as a spring board for attacks on the US. We have lots of means to stop that-and lets not forget, most of our terrorist problem is now in Pakistan, a country we do not occupy. ( But bomb when we need to). If need be, we can still light up the Afghan sky-but there are other ways to deal with the threat. That’s what Bush and Rumsfeld never understood. Its not about helping them-its about helping us.
Xboxershorts
@feebog:
We’re still in Korea, 70 years later. Still in Germany and Japan 60 years later.
Perhaps, we should seriously consider this as an extended cost of deploying the full force of the American military?
Nah, America was 97% on board with Afghanistan when it unfolded. We fuck ourselves all the time apparently. And douchebags like Clime Acts cheer gladly when it kicks off, but are too shortsighted to realize that, long term, we pay through the nose (and other orifices) whenever we do this.
And we’ve done it far too often.
Fuck you Clime Acts.
Remember this, Andrew Bacevitch was kicked out of the American Enterprise Institute. He has repeatedly warned about the costs of maintaining the American empire and, woe be to him, stated very forcefully that Terrorism is best dealt with as a criminal matter.
Merely one of the many saner voices of the right that have been kicked out of the “right” in recent history.
4tehlulz
{Clime Acts claims to have been opposed from the beginning before it was cool.]
Yutsano
@Xboxershorts:
To be fair, South Korea would literally shit themselves if we up and left the DMZ there. Japan by Constitution cannot have a standing army (the JSDF is a legal weasel that probably wouldn’t survive a court challenge). Germany uses our presence to keep their military spending minimal. We do spend money to have a presence in all three countries true, but the relative peace they get out of the deal makes it worth it for them.
Xboxershorts
@4tehlulz:
If so, I apologize to Clime Acts. But the point remains valid, even when not intended for him, there are millions who did get behind Military intervention in Afghanistan
Chris
@jl:
Afghanistan, and the Taliban in it, also serve to provide training grounds and safehavens for terrorist groups who’re then going to be pointed at Kashmir.
The bottom line is that the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment has always been fixated on India as their Ultimate Nemesis. To them, the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 are at worst a needless distraction, and at best a valuable asset in their cold (and sometimes not so cold) war against India. I don’t expect them to stop supporting them as long as that’s true.
Xboxershorts
@Yutsano: The point has nothing to do with what S Korea would do or not do.
It’s about America disregarding the extended costs.
Yutsano
@Xboxershorts: I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that was snark.
burnspbesq
@AA+ Bonds:
And Mullah Omar isn’t?
Xboxershorts
@Yutsano: No. It isn’t. Korea has cost us a lot of fucking money, resources and lives.
Why should anyone think Afghanistan would be different?
But…we repeatedly ignore our own effing history, over and over again.
Did you honestly think Afghanistan could be settled WITHOUT a lengthy (decades long) occupation?
RalfW
So is the thread to talk about the speech happening live now?
Xboxershorts
@RalfW: Pre-Crime division
Mnemosyne
@Xboxershorts:
So we should just say, “Hey, South Korea has a pretty good economy now, so we’re just gonna take off and let you and your neighbor figure things out for yourselves. See ya!”
I’m sure that wouldn’t have any impact on the global economy at all. I mean, it’s not like South Korea is in the G-20 or anything, so even if North Korea did overrun them or decide to nuke Seoul, it wouldn’t affect anything outside of the peninsula. Good plan!
ETA: And if you’re wondering what my plan would be, it would be getting rid of the Kim dynasty in the north and reunification under Seoul’s government, but that also would cost quite a bit of money since the US would probably need to help finance the reunification.
Raven
@Xboxershorts: “Fucking” and “Effing” in the same post? Get a grip.
Raven
Oh god, “the light at the end. . .” He’ll get smoked on that one. Who the fuck wrote that?
Xboxershorts
@Mnemosyne: talk about missing the point….
burnspbesq
@Clime Acts:
Hey, nice fact-free rant. Do carry on.
Dallas Taylor
This is shameless liberal pandering of the worst sort. If only Mitt Romney had some kind of spokesman on foreign policy who could tell us all what Obama’s really up to.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Dallas Taylor: I see what you did there.
Mnemosyne
@Xboxershorts:
Then what is your point? It seemed to be that the US needs to immediately withdraw from Germany, Japan and South Korea regardless of the consequences to those countries and the regions they’re in.
Germany and Japan could probably adapt pretty well if the world allowed them to have their own armies again, but simply withdrawing would leave them legally defenseless. Withdrawing from South Korea would basically be handing North Korea a giant “Invade Here!” invitation.
Like it or not, the US can’t just pull every soldier out of Afghanistan tomorrow and let them figure things out for themselves like we did after the Soviets withdrew — we’ve already seen the results of that. It also makes no sense to keep 100,000 troops there and try to force an impossible outcome.
So, yes, there will have to be some kind of middle (and, by definition, half-assed) solution, because both of the two extremes will have even worse consequences.
Xboxershorts
@Raven: touche
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Chuckie Todd concern trolling his ass off.
Also, I think Cenk Uygur just shat himself.
Xboxershorts
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Mnemosyne
For those of us still stuck at work, here’s the pre-release of the president’s speech.
I was hoping for an accelerated schedule of withdrawal, but if there is one, it’s not in the prepared remarks. Looks like we’ll be sticking to the already-established 2014 schedule.
Xboxershorts
@Mnemosyne: All the parts you skipped son are here:
Perhaps, we should seriously consider this as an extended cost of deploying the full force of the American military?
You skipped this. You gave a partial quote. You tried to breaitbart me. Maybe you didn’t do it on purpose, but hey, I said you missed the point, why would you refuse to go back to see what point I was making?
Instead you made me repeat my own words?
Xboxershorts
Again, apologies to Clime Acts, I incorrectly saw them as the snarkifactor and I was wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Xboxershorts:
I’m not sure who you think you’re arguing against here at Balloon-Juice. I think all of us (trolls excepted) were well aware that there was going to be an extended cost to both Afghanistan and Iraq no matter what the Bush administration said. Speaking only for myself, I was willing to pay that extended cost in Afghanistan, only to see the Bushies pull out and redirect everything towards the unnecessary clusterfuck in Iraq.
Now, unfortunately, we probably are at a Korea-like point with Afghanistan where we’re going to have to bog resources down for even longer than we would have had to just to keep Pakistan and India from each other’s throats, plus trying to keep Afghanistan itself from falling back into total lawlessness where criminal groups can run rampant. It sucks but, frankly, it’s some of those Cold War chickens coming home to roost.
Ideally, the US will turn more of the day-to-day responsibilities in Afghanistan over to countries that have some experience with actual nation-building like Great Britain and our other allies and withdraw to doing mostly things we don’t completely suck at, like air support.
SiubhanDuinne
@David Koch:
That photo is beautiful.
SiubhanDuinne
@chopper:
Great reply, too bad Clime Acts is too dense to get it.
Xboxershorts
@Mnemosyne:
There was never any argument with anyone here on my part. I made a counterpoint to Feebog @ #70, who said this:
“What a complete fucking joke. That you bots are all on board with this charade is beyond shameful. If Bush did the same ass-covering, nothingburger deal that “ends” the war by keeping things the same, you’d be shitting your pants.”
It’s my own fault, I fed a troll.
JWL
Did Obama pose with a cardboard turkey platter? Even Jimmy Carter would have that.
Xboxershorts
@JWL:
No, It looks like Obama gave Grandpa Karzai a new iPAD
http://nitpiq.com/v/4817
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Xboxershorts:
You are aware that the ‘peace’ between N. Korea and S. Korea/US is only a cease fire (armistice), right? That hostilities could kick up again, which our leaving just might encourage N. Korea to do?
Just checking…
Xboxershorts
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Well, fuck me to tears, I had no goddamn clue.
Clime Acts
@AA+ Bonds:
Oh my. How uncivil of you to say these truths out loud here at Botulism Central.
Clime Acts
@Xboxershorts:
Apology duly noted and accepted. I was one of the lonely 15 percenters screaming wtf is the plan? when the Bush boy started bombing Afghani ant hills as a diversion from his real war plans for Iraq.
But of course I was told to STFU then, just as I’m told the same here at BJ now.
Not really getting why you would assume I was ever a supporter of any of these fucked up stupid so called wars.
Xboxershorts
@Clime Acts: I misread the comment thread…lost the point where you were responding to others.
The fact that we are still deployed in significant numbers in multiple locations at great expense to taxpayers always seems to go over people’s heads.
Aside from the moral hazards of going full metal jacket at the drop of a hat, the cost alone of all these continuing deployments is worthy of numerous NY Times best sellers, yet the punditry and most of America gloss it over…and have done such glossing for decades now.
I’m a veteran. I served in the Persian Gulf. I have an idea of the cost of continuous deployment.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Xboxershorts:
I’ll pass. I’m sure you find another willing soul somewhere.
ETA: Glad to see that you and the pedo got that misunderstanding straightened out.
Xboxershorts
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Meh…I have a decent grasp of history. Not a professor, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I read an awful lot.
Nellcote
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s visit to Washington this week came after an announcement about American forces in Japan. Some 9,000 Marines will be transferred from Okinawa, the prefecture that hosts the majority of U.S. forces in Japan, to three other sites: Guam, Hawaii, and — on rotating training deployments — Australia. The deal broke the gridlock that had been holding up a reduction of U.S. troops in Okinawa.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/01/opinion/cronin-okinawa/index.html
AA+ Bonds
@burnspbesq:
Man, you must be the best lawyer on the junior high debate team with flawless logic like that
“AINT WITH US YER AGIN US, TERRORIST” –burnspbesq, I mean George W. Bush, I mean burnspbesq
AA+ Bonds
@xian:
You having trouble following what I’m saying? I don’t know if I can dumb it down any further.
I’m just joking – I realize that what I’m dealing with here are intelligent and educated liberals in denial, which I realize is psychologically painful for y’all . . . it’s okay
AA+ Bonds
I just think it is maybe not the best thing that the Obama administration has already admitted that it did not tell the truth about what happened during the hit on Osama, and more than once
Perhaps we should stick to the truth when we’re flying around the world shooting people – once again, even when people we do like order the killing of people we don’t like, which I know very well is the hard part for liberals to accept
The rule of law: it’s a tough one!
Mnemosyne
@Xboxershorts:
Yeah, that one’s a tempting mouth to feed when he opens wide like that, but you gotta resist the temptation.
AA+ Bonds
@4tehlulz:
Exactly why the fuck is it so hard for liberals to believe that many people were opposed from the beginning to this ludicrous bullshit war
The evidence is literally at your fingertips as you read this; the Internet existed then too
Lex
We didn’t wrap up shit. We just committed to spend one and a quarter trillion dollars in that shithole by 2024.
ONE AND A QUARTER TRILLION DOLLARS. WHICH WE DO NOT HAVE.
To say nothing of the nontrivial possibility that many more Americans will die there during that period. Hundreds? Probably not. Thousands? Certainly not. But even one is too many at this point.
I’m going to vote for Obama again. But anyone who thinks this is a good thing can’t count.
Mnemosyne
@Lex:
So what was the other available option? I’d honestly like to know.
If the US pulls out entirely, the Taliban swarms back in, effectively giving control of the country to the worst elements in Pakistan. Remember Mumbai in 2008? How many of those do you think India would tolerate before they decide to strike back? How long do you think China would stay neutral in a regional war between India and Pakistan? How long would NATO stay neutral once China got involved?
Danny
@AA+ Bonds:
Arguably true, but not more so than us still not having a god damn clue if the gubmint are hiding aliens in Area 51. The troof is out there.
Indicative of them trying to be forthcoming with details from the start and transparently correcting stuff that was found inaccurate. If they had wanted to cover something up they wouldnt have given detail in the first place.
Since this was a military strike the appropriate legal context is the Geneva Conventions, thus if ObL was terminated improperly that would be called a “war crime” not “murder”. And there is no evidence suggesting a war crime was committed.
RadioOne
I wish liberals were more willing to defend the President, instead of just mocking conservative arguments on the internet.
Clime Acts
@RadioOne:
I wish the President was a liberal.