Reply #4: In the event you want answers [View All]

[Robb]

What makes you think the Taliban will be blamed by the locals?

Because the locals are not idiots.

None of this shit happened before the US troops came... no IED's... no air strikes. Simple folks, maybe, but they can use deductive reasoning.

Simple folks who used murder and extortion to advance their agenda. Do not attempt to paint a rosy picture of pre-invasion Taliban with me, I will not go down that foolish road with anyone. Afghans who speak well of the Taliban are little different than those who speak well of the drug cartels in other countries -- they are afraid of reprisals or are benefitting from the situation.

The Taliban can simply spread the word that it was another errant US bomb. What can we do to correct that?.... not much, since the locals know that the Afghan government is a US puppet. Hell, Rush, Fox, and the whackjobs can spread bullshit 6 feet deep.. and that's in a country with a literate, educated, population and lots of other media. Imagine what the "Afghan telegraph" can accomplish.

Literacy does not track with intelligence. No one on the ground there doubts what the Taliban are capable of. While it may not be taught in American schools, the "Afghan telegraph" is quite aware.

Robb... I don't know what "moral relativist" means. Do you mean that killing is killing? Should we get out now and avoid more killing? Or do you mean we should stay in and protect the innocent, because the Taliban are bad.

DU's moral relativists are the ones who post fervently about every civilian casualty caused by the US, but are notably absent when a bomb left in a bicycle kills children.

Does it make me a moral relativist to get the fuck out of there and let them sort out their own moral (and political) questions?

No, it makes you an isolationist. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it ignores our role in creating the problem.