On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 17:37:48 -0800, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 12/11/2010 5:08 PM Robert Green spake thus:

We should let the Taliban back in, let them build their government up and
THEN topple it.

Why should we even plan to do that? What gives us the right to dictate
the type and composition of governance of the Afghan people? Where do we
get off playing cosmic overlord there?

I agree with everything you said UP to that point. Let the Taliban back
in. Leave the country. Then let an international group try to deal with
the problems we exacerbated by invading the place.

Really, the Taliban have about zero interest in us or what we do,
provided we're thousands of miles away from their home. Remember, they
did not attack us on Sept. 11; rather, it was their guests. They may
have been sympathetic to the attack, sure, but they also have a very
strong impulse towards self-preservation.

Those who spout and pontificate about the Taliban really owe it to
themselves (and to the rest of us) to educate themselves on the subject
first. I'd recommend the book /Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil &
Fundamentalism in Central Asia/ as a very good starting point.

Right now, they're doing the same to us, blowing up whatever WE try
to build.

Yes, which is completely to be expected when WE are there trying to
wreck everything they have--homes and lives.

I don't care much for the Taliban myself; they're essentially
anti-democratic, misogynistic and their mindset is hopelessly
12th-century or so.

But that still gives me *zero* right to wade into their homeland and
smash everything up. Unless they attack us, which they have not (and
have shown almost no interest in doing).

The reason we police the world was stated very well by a true American
hero, Major General Smedley Butler. He won the medal of honor in two
separate wars, and the Brevet medal in the Marines. His take was that
the wealthy in America know that they can make more money abroad than
at home, and the soldiers go to protect those investments. That is
always why we go to war, not Mom, Apple Pie, WMDs or Democracy. Cold
hard cash.