Comments on: The American Way of Abandonment

By: Paata Chkheidze

Paata Chkheidze — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:38:51 +0000

It is terrible, if we have to anticipate the same future for Georgia.

By: khanfactor.com » The American Way of Abandonment

khanfactor.com » The American Way of Abandonment — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:41:58 +0000

[...] Source [...]

By: Thomas O. Meehan

Thomas O. Meehan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:57:15 +0000

Clearly in Karzai we elevated the wrong man. We compounded that error by putting up with him for far too long. We cannot change any of that now. Our efforts should be to creating a bulwark against a total Taliban take-over. In this we need to eject the idiotic democracy rhetoric and just aid those who have a common interest in keeping the Pushtun/Taliban from consolidating power. We cannot build a nation where non exists, but we can aid regional/ethic factions that share our regional goal.

By: tz

tz — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:25:01 +0000

The problem with the media and administrations were to describe Karzai and the monstrous war-lords as anything other than corrupt monsters just after 9/11. Think Samoza under Carter. Or the Shah – who far from paying any huge price (which I doubt Karzai or the top warlords will pay), instead go to a luxury villa in some nice corner or europe or elsewhere and live il dulce vita until their death at a ripe old age.

The question is not why we are telling the truth now, it is why didn’t we tell it back then and deal with it – throw Karzai to whichever wolves were convenient and appoint a just proconsul who would create an example of non-corruption instead of sending blackwater thugs to help the warlords do the opposite while we watched while preaching “democracy”.

By: Sheldon

Sheldon — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:54:58 +0000

Oh, Gene T, you missed MY point: I just want a recommendation. The war was a bad idea, Pat has been saying, but we shouldn’t blame Karzai if we decide to leave. Is his real point we should leave, but not blame Karzai? As if the major consequence of our departure would be a bit of hypocrisy. I still don’t know what Pat – or you, for that matter – think we should do.

By: Gene T

Gene T — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:26:07 +0000

Yes, in imagining an inconsistency on Pat Buchanan’s part, Sheldon indeed seems to have missed his point. I had made Pat’s same Diem analogy to friends last week after listening to some of the latest sanctimonious media prattle about Karzai.

By: DDanicic

DDanicic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:53:14 +0000

I think what Pat’s saying is that we should take moral responsibility for our decision to leave, if we do, or our share of responsibility for failure if we stay and fail (just as we will if we stay and succeed). Villifying these people now is a way of shifting blame for all the damage done. Stay or go?” is a separate question.

By: Sheldon

Sheldon — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:57:10 +0000

Pat Buchanan on October 30:
“Looking back, how has all this fighting advanced U.S. national interests? We have a “democratic” Iraq that is Shia-dominated and tilting to Iran. We have an open-ended war in Afghanistan that will likely do for Obama what Iraq did for Bush. But we can’t pull out, it is said, for if we do, Kabul falls and Afghanistan becomes the sanctuary for an Islamist war to take over Pakistan and its nuclear weapons. And if that should happen, it would indeed be a crisis. And so, how has all this intervention availed us?”

Pat Buchanan today: “But what does it avail us to insult these people who have cast their lot with us, many of whom will, with famines and friends, pay a far more terrible price than we if we lose these wars.”

So what do we do, Pat – stay or go?