Afstan: Globe reporter declares quagmire
Geoffrey York does it without actually using the "Q" word. It's hopeless; time to cut and run.
...
Just like the U.S. troops in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s [See! It is a quagmire!], the coalition is trying to prop up a corrupt and unpopular government. Local governments are dominated by so many warlords and gangsters that many Afghans express nostalgia for the Taliban regime of 1996 to 2001, which at least was not perceived as corrupt and immoral.
"The Afghan population is throwing up its hands," a veteran aid worker in Kandahar said. "The disorder today is coming from the government itself. Its mandate was to clean out the warlords, but instead it's engaged in an endless dance with them. Everyone says that the Taliban regime, if nothing else, at least stopped the corruption and created law and order."..
Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler both built the Autobahns and eliminated unemployment. Stalin and Mao both increased literacy remarkably. Pol Pot excelled at population control.
This is the same Mr York who called the B-1 a "stealth bomber" in his recent article, Bombs kill Afghan villagers.
Update: Mr York is a graduate of the Carleton University School of Journalism. Enough said.
Upperdate: Another Globe reporter, Graeme Smith, called the B-1 a "stealth bomber" in this article, Karzai tries to calm fears over violence; perhaps he was reading Mr York's copy. Silly boy.
Uppestdate: In response to a comment, I have provided a brief analyis of why Mr York's Vietnam analogy is bogus in the third of the Comments.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
...
Just like the U.S. troops in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s [See! It is a quagmire!], the coalition is trying to prop up a corrupt and unpopular government. Local governments are dominated by so many warlords and gangsters that many Afghans express nostalgia for the Taliban regime of 1996 to 2001, which at least was not perceived as corrupt and immoral.
"The Afghan population is throwing up its hands," a veteran aid worker in Kandahar said. "The disorder today is coming from the government itself. Its mandate was to clean out the warlords, but instead it's engaged in an endless dance with them. Everyone says that the Taliban regime, if nothing else, at least stopped the corruption and created law and order."..
Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler both built the Autobahns and eliminated unemployment. Stalin and Mao both increased literacy remarkably. Pol Pot excelled at population control.
This is the same Mr York who called the B-1 a "stealth bomber" in his recent article, Bombs kill Afghan villagers.
Update: Mr York is a graduate of the Carleton University School of Journalism. Enough said.
Upperdate: Another Globe reporter, Graeme Smith, called the B-1 a "stealth bomber" in this article, Karzai tries to calm fears over violence; perhaps he was reading Mr York's copy. Silly boy.
Uppestdate: In response to a comment, I have provided a brief analyis of why Mr York's Vietnam analogy is bogus in the third of the Comments.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 7:32 a.m.
7 Comments:
This blog can do better.
Um, no it can't. It's being written by right whingers who don't know how to do anything but sneer at anyone who dares to criticise Dear Mission.
observor69: A good rebuttal of Mr York's professional ability to analyze things military is the fact that he calls the B-1 a "stealth bomber".
Moreover in this piece he compares the Afgan insurgency with Vietnam--but leaves a very false impression. He does not mention (more likely does not know) that the Viet Cong insurgents were beaten comprehensively--the war was won by NVA regulars with tanks and artillery, and only after all American combat support had been withdrawn from South Vietnam, and economic and military aid severely reduced by Congress.
If Mr York means to say that the Taliban might win only if all similar assistance were cut off from the Afghan government, why does he not come out and say so? As it is he is leaving the impression, by false analogy, that the situation is essentially hopeless.
Enough rebuttal for you?
It's not the Carleton degree (I have one myself); it's that it's from J-school.
Mark
Ottawa
See what I mean, observer69? People like Mark are simply incapable of rebutting what they read because they're incapable of understanding what they read. Mark's comment does nothing to rebut York's claim that we're supporting a corrupt and unpopular government in Afghanistan just like the Americans did in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s.
All Mark and people like him see is the Vietnam reference and this causes them to shriek hysterically that it's not like Vietnam. It's not! It's not! It's not!
It's the Marks of this world that need to be ignored, not the Geoffrey Yorks even if they do get the niggling details wrong. The former are only fools who work to dismiss developing problems with their shuck and jive act until the problems become so big they can no longer be acted upon.
The Left troll McClelland pokes his nose above the slime he lives in to puke forth the words:
"It's the Marks of this world that need to be ignored, not the Geoffrey Yorks even if they do get the niggling details wrong."
For a professional Mr. York is supposed to get the "niggling details" correct. That he is too lazy to do a Google search for "B1 Bomber" and read a little tells me that his whole skew is dishonest and therefore worth less than the rag he write for.
Not sure why you even read and comment on any blog McClelland since you only confirm the warm and fuzzy knowledge that your side "left" is the more intellectually dishonest side and my side "right" is just what the word says, right!
Now to get back to the point at hand, which you have yet to refute, is that the journalist (snicker) can't write a decent piece on the military because he is too pre-occupied with trying to drag it down. Like I said he is too lazy to even do a simple fact check on military equipment, his analogy sucks and Mark is right.
"The Left troll McClelland "
I take extreme umbrage at the use of "left" and "McClelland' in the same sentence.
I request, politely, an apology.
Sorry Cameron no apology will be offered. Having seen his rants I have to place him on the left side of the spectrum. Each side has a cross or two to bear, I am sure you can point at rabid silly men and women of the right too. He just rubs me the wrong way I guess and I lose perspective and civility.
Actually, it would be delightful to see someone put a stake through Mclellands heart. He is the vampire who proudly stated on HIS BLOG "fuck the Jews".
He has no credibility and he is a racist bigot bastard.
Pay no attention to him. He is a overgrown mosquito.
Even though I support our troops, our current federal government and the USA in it's war against the Morloc, I, like most ordinary citizens, do not have the information necessary to accurately assess and criticize what is going on in Afghanistan other than to say, women there can now learn to read and write without risking certain death in a soccer stadium.
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