Comments on: Walking like a pretzel

By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:50:56 +0000

Lex – what an interesting piece. It’s chilling to think we might be stupid enough not to learn from this history.

By: Oooga Boooga

Oooga Boooga — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:14:17 +0000

I think I figured out why soldiers who come home from Afghanistan are so fucked up. They spend so much time trying to figure out the enemy there and yet after all this money and effort they are stymied. They are no further off than at day 1 of the invasion. And it finally dawns on them, a brief moment before they fade off into insanity, that the enemy is smarter than they are. How could it be that a bunch of simple mud hut dwellers outsmarted the most powerful army in the world? And so faced with this paradox, their minds instantly warp, like a kernel that has popped from too much internal pressure and becomes something else entirely.

Now, apply this to the entire organization that is the US government and its military, and you understand the insanity behind the entire enterprise.

By: BlogBites. Like sound bites. But without the sound. » Blog Archive » The Soviets had the exact same problem with Afghan government legitimacy that the US is having now. They had the same problem with the Pakistan-Afghan border land that we hav

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:01:34 +0000

[...] it rhymes and in this case we’re merely looking at history translated from Russian to English. Scholars and Rogues » Walking like a pretzel « Everybody else has to stay in Special Torture Jail forever on accounta they have [...]

By: UNRR

UNRR — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:28:52 +0000

This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 11/16/2009, at The Unreligious Right

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:21:03 +0000

Terrific, Lex. Thanks for the history lesson.

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:35:50 +0000

Being under the control of the occupier has little or no benefit to the population. Being under the control of the established central government is often worse than being under the control of the insurgency.

I hate to say it, but I’ve almost reached the point where I’d like to see the Taliban in power.