Dr. Gonzo – you are hopeless naive. I pity you.

Actually no, but although a bit of a tired point, it’s not govt’s job to “root out terror” it’s to keep the nation safe. There’s a difference. “Terror” can exist anywhere and at any time. But the whole “war on terror” is a joke anyway. There is no real enemy, no objective goals, hence the war can last forever, (and so far it has), the profiteers keep profiting, the police state keeps advancing, and Bush-41’s NWO continues to establish itself rather nicely in the mideast.

Actually to blame 9/11 on either Clinton or Bush shows a complete lack of understanding surround the event. 9/11 was a complete failure by the intelligence community.

Something like that.

http://zero911movie.com/site/

Now, substitute the United States for the Soviet Union in that sentence and tell me how true it rings, both as a statement of history and a likely prediction of our future. (With the exception, of course, that Afghanistan is far from our borders, and we haven’t nearly the reason the Soviet Union had to intervene there.)

The world was agreed that the U.S. was justified to revenge itself for 9/11, against both Al Qaeda and the Taliban that supported them. But being justified does not mean being wise. George H.W. Bush understood that the U.N. authorized coalition would be justified in removing Saddam Hussein after his invasion of Kuwait and failure to withdraw under U.N. sanctions, but it wouldn’t be wise to do so, because then we would we responsible for replacing him and we had no replacement that would be better than Saddam himself. That is the case today, where we have installed a government favorable to the Shiia majority of Iraqis, which government will always be more attached to their co-religionists in Iran than they are to us.

Ron Paul had it right – launch an air assault upon Al Qaeda encampments that would effectively destroy them as a force for international terror, and assist friendly governments, such as those in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, to wrap them up whereever they would seek sanctuary. But don’t put American boots on the ground in lands where we are unwanted aliens, in support of artificially concocted governments that can’t sustain themselves among their own people. If that means we let Osama “get away”, then we let him get away. If we had walked away on our terms, it wouldn’t have mattered. We would have made our point, and everyone would know we could do it again if we had to. But now we have to live with Osama uncaptured under circumstances where we are increasingly seen to be losing in Afghanistan, and where we have already spent what capital we had among the Afghan people that may have allowed us to steer them towards a government friendly to our interests. We can’t “win” this war anymore than the Soviet Union, the British Raj, or any other power in history has been able to. We can’t even bomb these people “back to the stone age”, as some would like, because they are already there.

We have already “fixed” Afghanistan, that after we leave they will establish a government which for many years will be hostile to us and have no desire to do us any favors. If we continue on this course, we will leave nuclear-armed Pakistan the same way. In other words, we have already “lost” in Afghanistan as we have “lost” in Iraq, and the only question now is how much more we will “lose” the longer we stay.

Give it your best shot.
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A government in Afghanistan has never, nor will they ever control the whole country. The best they can hope for is to control the major cities. Afghanistan is a tribal country and it doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon.

The Soviets went into Afghanistan to take it over. Our mission was justified by almost everyone in the world. At that time, there was nobody standing up for the Taliban.

I agree a legitimate leader is something that needs to be installed. Although, Karzai’s legitimacy takes a hit when NATO continually bombs civilians. Nothing much Karzai can do about that.

The biggest reason is because we haven’t put the real focus on Afghanistan. We need to pull all resources from Iraq and focus on Afghanistan where the actual threat is.

belle,

Actually to blame 9/11 on either Clinton or Bush shows a complete lack of understanding surround the event. 9/11 was a complete failure by the intelligence community.

9/11 happened on George Bush’s watch and he failed the American people. You can slice it and dice it any way you want but that’s the truth.

And for those who believe the myth about the “great” Rudy? I was in Tower One of the WTC when it was attacked and it was the firemen and policemen who were the real leaders. While Rudy was cowering in safety, they risked their lives for us. Rudy is a legend in his own mind.

Maybe not trying to do in Afghanistan in this decade what the Soviets tried to do thirty years ago would have shown a greater understanding of history and would have been less stupid than what we have done.

Barr in no way advocates an interventionist foreign policy. He just lives in reality. The place where most purists have never heard of.

Overthrowing the Taliban was definitely justified. To no do so would have been stupid, and compeltly ignorant of history.

Regarding Barr and his ilk, my mother would caution me in my youth not to “cut off your nose to spite your face.” You can post excuses for their words and deeds all day long, but the damage has been done. Barr & Comp. are missing their noses, and I might add, their brains as well, not to mention their principles. Alienating Ron Paul supporters. many who had decided to vote for Barr, while at the same time praising Bush of all people (!!) was just plain dumb. What a disaster for the LP in 2008. R.I.P.

I like Barr and consider him to be honorable and smart, but
He. Got. Pwned.

Bob Barr should point out that we don’t know exactly where Al Qaeda is and destabilizing a nuclear powered Muslim country is not in our interest. It is unwise to make Pakistan our enemy. He should point out we screwed up big at Tora Bora (some say where we lost the War on Terror). The bad guys got away. He should discuss how the US government’s foreign policy produces terrorist. It isn’t because they hate our freedoms. Our wars and support for unpopular regimes in the Middle East are radicalizing Muslims, leading them to terrorism. We are doing exactly what Osama Bin Laden wants. We are destroying our liberties and our economy because of war. He wants us out of the way so he can go after the regimes in the Middle East. Are they worth the risk of terror and the loss of blood and treasure? We need to stop growing the hydra (stop what is upsetting the Muslim world), work with other regimes to bring these people to justice, and only attack when we know exactly where Osama Bin Laden/Al Qaeda leadership is.

have no idea who Eric is. I was stating the truth. Besides the Paulites, the vast majority of Americans laughed at Paul’s foreign policy stances.

You can be non-interventionist and still be tough on national security. Paul didn’t seem to realize that.

You expect Barr to go on national television and say I don’t care about rooting out terror? Please tell me people aren’t really this stupid. No wonder this party has continually received less than 1% of the vote. Thankfully we have a professional politician that knows what it takes to sell our principles to the American people.