Our Guy Karzai

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1822948' date='Apr 2 2009, 07:25 PM']I said "not as informed as you thought you were". If you have been following the situation in Afghanistan, I can't imagine how you don't know the name Karzai. And there is NO democratic situation in Afghanistan. It is an Islamic nation. Yes, the US forces defeated the Taliban initially and incredible strides were being made, but the Taliban is back and Karzai himself has been guilty numerous times of impeding any semblance of democracy that the Americans thought they could establish there. Karzai wants the Taliban out, but not because he wants democracy. He wants them out because they threaten his own power. He is not our friend nor a friend of the Afghans.[/quote]
I don't see how you can blame me for the fact that the Canadian media has at no point reported that democracy has disappeared in Afghanistan in the last two years. It's hardly my fault that the information I have access to is flawed.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1823176' date='Apr 3 2009, 01:04 AM']I don't see how you can blame me for the fact that the Canadian media has at no point reported that democracy has disappeared in Afghanistan in the last two years. It's hardly my fault that the information I have access to is flawed.[/quote]


Might I suggest that you stop reading only Canadian news?? There is a plethora of other news sources available to you via the internet. Bloggers are a good source of news as well. I don't just read CNN and all that. If I were going to do that, I might as well go live in a hole.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1823281' date='Apr 3 2009, 05:24 AM']Might I suggest that you stop reading only Canadian news?? There is a plethora of other news sources available to you via the internet. Bloggers are a good source of news as well. I don't just read CNN and all that. If I were going to do that, I might as well go live in a hole.[/quote]
Unfortunately my life as a full time student demands that I don't spend every waking hour cruising news sites and blogs.
To be perfectly honest, at this stage in my life I'd rather have 95% in chemistry 30 than be able to recall off the top of my head the name of the president of Afghanistan. (That's because I finished social last semester.)

[CatherineM]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1823524' date='Apr 3 2009, 12:52 PM']Unfortunately my life as a full time student demands that I don't spend every waking hour cruising news sites and blogs.
To be perfectly honest, at this stage in my life I'd rather have 95% in chemistry 30 than be able to recall off the top of my head the name of the president of Afghanistan. (That's because I finished social last semester.)[/quote]

Good for you. That's what you are supposed to be focused on. You have plenty of time later to get middle aged and cranky, and seeing terrorists under every rock. I'm describing my husband of course, not me. He watches CTN News net non-stop, except when he starts thinking CSIS is talking to him through the TV, then I make him turn it off. He's more worried about the Russians than the Taliban though. He had an unpleasant stay with the KGB once. Besides, it's hardly worth the time to learn the names of all the temporary presidents in the world. By the time you learn them, they will be deposed.

[HisChildForever]

Legalizing rape in marriage? Needing the husband's PERMISSION to go to school, work...to go to the doctor?? This is absolutely repulsive. Nice to know that a woman's purpose is to be a subordinate slave to her husband.

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1823524' date='Apr 3 2009, 01:52 PM']Unfortunately my life as a full time student demands that I don't spend every waking hour cruising news sites and blogs.
To be perfectly honest, at this stage in my life I'd rather have 95% in chemistry 30 than be able to recall off the top of my head the name of the president of Afghanistan. (That's because I finished social last semester.)[/quote]

Who asked you to spend "every waking hour" reading the news? No one. And if you are unsure about a political situation or a political figure (something as simple as knowing a name), you can pop it into Google. There is nothing time consuming about that. Frankly I am surprised that such a busy and determined student has enough time for an online forum but not enough time for current events.

Edited April 3, 2009 by HisChildForever

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1823648' date='Apr 3 2009, 03:00 PM']Who asked you to spend "every waking hour" reading the news? No one. And if you are unsure about a political situation or a political figure (something as simple as knowing a name), you can pop it into Google. There is nothing time consuming about that. Frankly I am surprised that such a busy and determined student has enough time for an online forum but not enough time for current events.[/quote]
now THAT was definitely uncalled for.

I believe what I specifically said was, and I'll quote this right now:
[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1821751' date='Apr 1 2009, 08:51 AM']if you had asked me who the president of Afghanistan was before I read this thread, I wouldn't have been able to remember.[/quote]
Quite obviously that means that it wasn't something I could pull off the top of my head.
Yes, it's something simple like knowing a name. It's one name. Who cares? I can 'pop it into Google' and have it within 0.18 seconds (I just checked). The fact is that I do know my world events. I often don't know small specific details. Can you honestly say that you know every detail about current events? Doubt it.
Respectfully, I think that your (and MV's) attacks on my comments are immature, selfish, and pointless, and I would very much appreciate it if you drop the element of personal confrontation and condemnation. You attacking my personal knowledge of this issue is a waste of my time and yours.
Thank you.

[cmotherofpirl]

I think people missed their regularly scheduled naptime...

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1821162' date='Mar 31 2009, 05:14 PM']There seems to be more appeasement going on in Afghanistan than anything else. I watched a documentary last night about the Taliban in the tribal areas on the border and into Pakistan. Just scary stuff. Some of the areas have been allowed to reintroduce Sharia laws just to try to appease the Taliban. They showed the schools that only boys are allowed to attend, and one 13 year old boy was talking about how much he'd like to be a suicide bomber, but he would have to get permission from his father first. He had the same look on his face as a 13 year old western boy who might be talking about having to get his dad's permission to see a PG-13 movie.

Politicians are the same all over. They promise whatever they think will get them elected.[/quote]


Be careful. Someone might think you spend your time just "reading about Islam stuff".

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1821649' date='Apr 1 2009, 02:30 AM']So much for me always saying that Afghanistan is doing so well... I feel betrayed.[/quote]

It's always sad when a beautiful fantasy is ruined by an ugly reality.

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' post='1823524' date='Apr 3 2009, 02:52 PM']Unfortunately my life as a full time student demands that I don't spend every waking hour cruising news sites and blogs.
To be perfectly honest, at this stage in my life I'd rather have 95% in chemistry 30 than be able to recall off the top of my head the name of the president of Afghanistan. (That's because I finished social last semester.)[/quote]


You should make every effort that you can within the limitations that you have to be abreast of world events, ESPECIALLY those which involve and/our influence your own country and its allies.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1824067' date='Apr 3 2009, 09:42 PM']It's always sad when a beautiful fantasy is ruined by an ugly reality.[/quote]
That would be what I was referring to. Ignorance is often happier. Just less accurate.

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1824076' date='Apr 3 2009, 09:46 PM']You should make every effort that you can within the limitations that you have to be abreast of world events, ESPECIALLY those which involve and/our influence your own country and its allies.[/quote]
I never said otherwise.

[abercius24]

Now I'm not saying that these abusive applications of Sharia law are acceptable by any means, but frankly I expected that this would happen out of necessity. Our purpose for invading Afghanistan was to eliminate a real and imminent threat against the American people and to ensure that threat could not restablish itself. That is why we toppled the Taliban and continue to fight its remnants.

But others began the grand scheme of thinking we could change the Islamic people of Afghanistan into a more palletable Western society and lead them to abandon most of their extreme Islamic practices. When I heard that, I couldn't help but laugh. There are 2 strategies that would need to be deployed to make such a grand scheme successful: overbeaing violence against civilians and/or decades of imported cultural influence. We (the Americans) have not the moral inclination for violence against civilians. Furthermore we have been on a very strict time table in Afghanistan given the fact that the global threat of terrorism clearly exists en masse outside of this one country. It has been my contention from the beginning that the only way we would be able to establish a viable, post-invasion government in Afghanistan is to allow it to be a part of the existing Islamic culture there. It will take far too long to establish a true western democracy. If we don't get this war wrapped up soon, we won't have a military force available to send into the next country that attacks our civilians. Iran, Syria and North Korea are still strong sources for future attacks, neither of which we are ready to respond to given how over-stretched our military resources are today.

I say continue to put pressure on Karzai to tone down the horrific applications of Sharia law. But if Sharia law is what gets us out of Afghanistan, leaving a allied government in power, then we are much better off than we were pre-911.

Edited April 4, 2009 by abercius24