Channel 4 documentary / 48 minutes / 2007
An excellent report from Afghanistan. Not very cheerful, but it will give you some insight of what is like over there.
Once again it that British openness and honesty that makes this report so special and valuable.
Some words of sanity compared to McCain’s dribble.
This is not about terrorist propaganda, this is not about free speech, this is not about radicalizing the public - it’s about the truth.
American politicians, American media and most parts of the so called American public simply "sanitize" reality to they don’t have to face the ugly truth: their own soldiers and mostly innocent people die in this stupid war on terror.
Don’t look away! This is your war. You decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - now stand up to it and face the blood.
This is the 21st century - you won’t be able to hide such videos and censor images - like the return of your own dead soldiers.
But America has learned from the Vietnam experience - and all side are making HUGE efforts to keep the TV screens clean. Because shocking images can make people change their minds - but cool 3D animations with heroic videos - but no blood or gut hanging out - do not offend …
BBC News: Gun T-shirt ‘was a security risk’
This guy was denied his flight, because of the very T-Shirt he is wearing on the photo above. How can a comic character be a threat to public security?!
Oh, the stupidity!
Expanding NATO is a good thing. Expanding NATO to get new cannon fodder for war that has hardly anything to do with NATO is a bad thing.
When America attacked Afghanistan after 9/11 NATO stood behind the US of A and pledged it’s support with troops and money.
It was understood that America would take the military lead and the Europeans would do the whole nation building stuff (together with the brave Canadians and Australians) - like they did in Kosovo.
But instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan the Americans rushed off to fight another little war in Iraq and dropped the ball. Suddenly the rest of NATO found itself in the hot zone.
Once again Bush showed is incompetence building alliances and offending his allies. And still Afghanistan doesn’t get the support it needs to rebuild the country and provide security - and some European countries should do more … it’s not all the Americans fault …
Keith Olbermann once again points out the truth: the US Goverment made huge efforts to legalize their perverse desires and allow torture again as a means of interrogation.
It is such a sad story.
Just because you have the mental strength to kill yourself, doesn’t mean everybody admires your willpower.
Mission Statement from 2003:
Start a War based on lies. 
Alienate all your European Allies.
Piss of the whole Muslim world.
Save money on protective gear and Hummvees.
Totally ignore the Shia and Sunni conflict in the region.
Totally ignore the Kurdish and Turkish conflict.
Ignore security and rule of law in postwar Iraq.
Dissolve the Iraqi Police for more crime.
Dissolve the Iraqi Military for more crime.
Torture your prisoners and take snaps for everybody.
Ignore war crimes of your own troops.
Forget to secure huge amount of weapons and ammo.
Drive up the price for oil.
Ruin your own military.
Start a job boom for Blackwater and other mercenaries.
Make Halliburton even richer.
Funnel Billions of Dollars into dark holes.
Funnel Billions of Dollars to contractors who waste the money.
Encourage a culture or corruption in Iraq.
Blame everything on Iran and al-Quaida.
Promise to pay insurgents to fight for you - and then don’t pay.
Lay the foundation for another war in the region.
Did I miss anything?
From the great Link.tv
With ‘putting’ Al Qaeda into the Gaza Strip America and Israel have the perfect reason to flatten it. So a new war might be coming soon - even involving Hezbollah from Lebanon and the US.
On the other side: constantly firing rockets into Israel doesn’t help either. Hamas and the other groups should be smarter than that.
I am all for making Afghanistan a better place and fighting the Taliban. I also agree that Germany and so many other NATO members have to do more.
But let’s not forget: the NATO mandate was to support the rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan and provide some policing. It was expected that the Americans would continue their war on the Taliban.
But what happened? America went to Iraq and allowed the Taliban to remerged. They also ignored warnings from Afghans and the international community that the US sock puppet Hamid Karzai does not have the backing and power to push serious development in Afghanistan ahead. Instead corruption, drugs and local warlords succeeded. The Taliban are back and more and more locals support them instead of ‘their’ government.
Also the international rebuilding efforts were uncoordinated and wasteful. Not the kind of results you want to have to convince the locals that western democracy is better and improves the lives of the poor Afghan people.
The US loves to shift the blame to NATO for it’s own failures. While the rest of NATO is going through a tough realization of their shared failure. Loosing Afghanistan is not an option they say - but most countries lack the political will and commitment to make it work.
Very sad.