NATO, and that means us, are gonna lose the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
What was the point of going in there if the old fundamentalist order just comes back as it was before? The Taliban were never the objective anyway. We were supposed to catch or kill Bin Laden, or to a lesser extant his lieutenant, Zawahiri. And we know they're hiding in Waziristan, Pakistan; but nothing is being done. NATO forces will not enter Pakistan and the Pakistani security forces will not enforce the laws in Waziristan, so what's the point?
Canadian soldiers are dropping like flies in Khandahar, the former Taliban stronghold of Afghanistan. The Canadian army has the mandate to try to pacify the region until at least 2009 and perhaps longer. Prolonged military occupations are always a disaster, so what the hell are they thinking? The longer we fight the Talibans, the better they get at insurgency and guerrilla warfare. In fact, the Talibans have stopped attacking Canadian troop in direct combat, a losing strategy. They instead now use road side bombs. A tactic the Canadian commander in Afghanistan has complained to be cowardly. Somehow I doubt the Talibans will have pangs of conscience because our commanders got all emo.
Complaining the enemy is using unfair tactics in guerrilla warfare is a sign you don't know what the fuck you're doing.If the US wanted a show of force after 9/11 but didn't want to get rid of Osama, they just had to bomb Afghanistan and go home. It would have been more logical. And why is Canada suffering the heaviest casualties of NATO in Afghanistan? The Canadian government wanted to please the United States after our refusal to join the coalition of fucktards that went to Iraq. I guess joining one failed war is better than joining two. But why not none at all?
But it gets worse. The
AP reports that
more Afghani civilians are killed by allied bombs than by the Talibans. Forget about hearts and minds, we can't even seem to protect their limbs. And as
William S. Lind mentioned recently,
"calling in air [strikes against an insurgency] is the last, desperate, and usually futile action of an army that is losing".
For a while, supporters of the war in Afghanistan have said that we shouldn't confuse the war in Iraq with the one in Afghanistan. That opposition to Iraq does not equal opposition to Afganistan since they are two different missions. While Iraq was about lies, Afghanistan was indeed a haven for AlQaeda. And the Talibans were guilty of crimes against humanity or close enough. And I don't disagree with that. Would eliminating the Taliban with extreme prejudice be a worthy cause? Fuck yeah! Is bringing democracy to an oppressed people a noble cause? That too. But to do that, you need to win the war.
Whether there is such a thing as a just war is irrelevant if you don't win that war in the first place. A lost war is never just or fair to the loser. And in the Canadian context, the fact is the only ones at war are the soldiers in Khandahar. What sacrifices are the Canadian people doing to win this conflict? The Canadian government tells us this war is important, but they don't tell us to win it. And from what I see in the United States, I suspect the same goes for other NATO allies. The Talibans can stay forever in Afghanistan; we can't.
It doesn't matter that the Talibans are fighting for a disgusting ideal, nationalism is always stronger than democracy.
Why don't the Canadian government raise a war tax to support the war effort? With the money raised we could build more schools than the Talibans have bombs. But the government, especially the Conservatives who are in a minority position, would not risk its next election by raising taxes. And the Canadian citizens simply have no stake in Afghanistan that would be worth taxing. There are many countries that are poor and oppressed. One more or one less won't affect the programming on cable TV or won't stop the suburban grass from growing. In other words, nobody cares. And you can't win a war nobody cares about. And unless your survival lays in the balance, you don't enter a war you can't win.
This
Don't let the rumor that the Transformers movie is not as bad as everyone thought it would be, ('specialy for a Bay film) fool you. Remember when Dungeons & Dragons: the movie came out and all the D&D fanboys were saying it didn't suck that much, until a year later they had to admit it was an abomination? I think we're seeing the same thing with the TF fanboys. 
If at least the action had been exciting, the stupid story wouldn't be so obvious. The Autobots are looking for a pair of glasses on which Megatron inscribed the location of the Allspark cube, with which the Decepticons can conquer the world. Problem is, the Autobots where not present when Megatron inscribed the location of the Allspark cube on the glasses. So how the hell do the Autobots know that?? Then at the end Optimus tells Sam (the human hero) that if they can't stop the Decepticons, he needs to shove the Allspark cube in his chest, which will destroy Optimus, but the cube as well. That's supposed to be the moral of the story about sacrifice. But Sam shoves the cube in Megatron, which kills the bad guy's boss and saves the day. If there was no need for sacrifice, why didn't Optimus tell him to shove the cube in Megatron?? That makes Prime's willingless to sacrifice his life meaningless.
