On 11 Aug 2009 00:13:44 GMT, Jim Yanik wrote:

(Doug Miller) wrote in
:

In article , Jim Yanik
wrote:
(Doug Miller) wrote in
:

In article ,
David Nebenzahl wrote:
This is aimed at one particular person here, who posts as
, and who said in an earlier exchange about
Afghanistan, among other things:

We took the Taliban out of power and showed the world that if you
sponsor terrorism, you run the risk of having the US take out
your little empire, blow up your house, and kill your family.

Well, you're wrong about that. Check out this article, from today's
/Wall Street Journal/, no less, which says:

The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top
American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its
strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number
of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern
city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home.

Well, what do you expect? The previous administration took its eye
off the ball, and started mucking about in Iraq when they should
have been tending to business in Afghanistan. The Taliban have the
upper hand there now, because we *allowed* them to.

SO many people fail to see the strategic key that Iraq is to the
Middle East.
Iran has seen it,that's why they have interfered so much in Iraq.
Changing Iraq was a powerful strategic move by President Bush.

Yes, it was -- but tactically, it was badly bungled. And it took our
attention away from destroying the people who attacked us on Sept. 11.


"badly bungled" is an exaggeration,IMO.
Yes,mistakes were made,but the same happened in WW2.
Things have been turning out pretty good in Iraq.

and it really did not "take our attention away" from destroying the 9-11
perpetrators.If anything,political concerns about Pakistan did more.
And that is now changing.Pakistan is now seeing the threat that Al-Qaida
and Taliban are to their country.


So lets see, this master stroke of bushes that you applaud has
accomplished what exactly?? 200000 to a million dead and Al Queda
stronger then ever. Yeah, that's a real success story. 7 years later
and we are worse off then when we started - wow, what a success!!


you shuld realize that this sort of threat is new to the US and tactics not
prepared for it prior to 9-11.

It was NOT a new threat when bush took office. Clinton's people knew
of the threat and had been preparing for it and told the incoming bush
idiots about it and those idiots did NOTHING. They let all the
Clinton programs die on the vine.