Arhar: lol! very nice, bring us more.
How about we do the real version? Some numbers I've been picking up here and there from news sources.
$350m
Half a dozen Hind-D Gunships
Several dozen old Soviet Tanks.
200,000 Taliban fighters. Those are the guys who have been fighting for 20 years solid now, and STILL ARENT DEAD. That means that they are quite good at fighting.
20ish Stingers (most have been used)
300 million potential new recruits the second the US and its 'allies' (read, people too scared to disagree) puts a diplomatic foot wrong.
Yes, lets do a real version shall we.
$350 million. I guess they could set it on fire and throw it at the enemy since the borders are squeezed tight, all their international assets have been frozen and seized for the most part and most countries now won't sell them jack
oink as jack has left town.
-Several dozen Hind-D gunships. Mmmmmm, Hind-D tasty. You know why the Russians stopped making them like that right? Because of the unreliable aeronautics and engines not being able to work right in desert conditions without almost constant repair and maintenance. The Taliban don't have the diagnostic equipment or spare parts to just strip them down and keep them running all at once. Nor do they have the armerments to keep those beefy wings loaded with rockets and missles. So in the end they have glorified, loud, and slow troop transports/scouting choppers.
-Several old Soviet tanks, T-61 and T-62 tanks to be exact. Yes, they have about 160 of them and they're all over 12 to 15 years old which means that some of them don't work and that a sniper/demolition team can take them out with a rifle firing experimental ramjet anti-tank rounds before the enemy even knows they're there. Oh yeah, and lets not forget the worlds greatest enemy to the tank, the apache helicopter which is fantastic for desert and mountain manuvers or its ultra high tech big brother the comanche, the only helicopter in the world that can successfully dogfight with over 70% of the worlds fighter jets.
-200,000 taliban fighters. Well, not quite, the entirety of the taliban government is only about 40,000 or so and most of them are buerecrats, not soldiers. Then theres about 200,000 or so others that are mostly armed with AK-47's and some grenades. And alot of them haven't been around for 20 years because it was the Muharjadin that fought the Russians and the majority of them are with the Northern Alliance now due to the Taliban trying to totally disband them.
-20ish stingers. More like 60 and most haven't been used, they were stock piled because the russians didn't have a heavy aircraft involvment during the war other then hind-D gunships which were preferable to capture, not blow up.
-300 million new recruits. HAHAHAHA!! Lets see, ok. Old men and cripples over here, children over there, people who can actually fight over there, and no women aloud cause you're all evil creatures. We'll give you guys who can fight some guns but we aren't sure if they work and you have to find your own bullets. You kids can throw rocks and burn some flags if you can find matches or flags. You old guys can pretend to be muslim clerics to boost our moral and make goofy radio broadcasts to try and instill fear in the enemy who isn't really listening cause Bob Hope is funnier.
-5 old Russian MiG fighter jets that lack missles or reliable on board computers that probably don't work anyways cause the Taliban had to rip them out after banning TV.
-Scattered dozens of sam batteries and anti-aircraft guns, mostly guns. That can't track fast enough to actually shoot down the typical US fighter jet or even detect something like a stealth bomber. They're very good at shooting down remote control spy planes though, its to bad that large sling-shots with hand grenades are just as good.
More importantly. Nobody has ever won a military campaign in Afghanistan. Alexander The Great tried, Attila The Hun tried, the Red Army tried. They all lost horrendously, in the Soviet Unions case they made Vietnam look like a rousing victory.
This war could easily destroy the US, if they do it wrong.
Actually you should get your facts straigtened a bit as its nobody SINCE alexander the great has successfully won a war in afghanistan. Alexander the great bowled it over quite nicely. Everyone since then has gotten baddly mauled. The reason why? Because the Afghani fighters are experts on their own terrain which is unique compared to other places and nobody has ever gone seriously beyond a ground war. The US is proven to prefer the air war and its very much the smarter choice in this case. In a ground war the US would win, but it would be so slim and such great losses on the US's part that its not worth it. With a combined air and covert ops war the US and its allies have an incredible percentage chance of success with minimal losses.
The Brits tried really hard and were able to stay for a number of years before being forced to retreat.
Its also interesting, Ive noticed from several US people Ive spoken to that you seem to believe the Taliban are unpopular with the Afghan people, Bush spoke of 'liberating' Afghanistan. Thats interesting because the CNN`s reporter in Kabul, unable to put out reports on CNN because he was censored, was writing in the British newspaper The Guardian, about just how strong the support was for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and moreso over the border in Pakistan.
I have to say this is the first to time a foreign invading army has been trying to liberate people from their own government that they support. It reminds me of when the US liberated the Native Indians, and Hitler liberated France from the French. Is Bush just straight out living in another universe of his own creation?
Well yes, Bush probably is, but I'm sure its a very pretty universe.
Though once again your facts aren't quite correct. The average afgani hates the Taliban and lives in fear of its oppresion. Even about 40% of the Taliban government is sick of its higher ups oppresive and demented behavior and is ready to defect once the opportunity presents itself so they won't be executed. Women despise the Taliban as do almost all the old war veterans and the northern alliance.
Rando: I see you've watched Behind the Veil as well. It was a very disturbing and dismaying documentary.
Possibly similar to the oppressive monarchies supported and sustained by the US in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait...?
Since when is the monarchy in Saudi Arabia oppresive? From everything I've heard and read they are nothing in comparison to the Taliban. Kuwait oppresive? Pardon me while I laugh really really hard.
There are several regimes in the Middle East who have been supported at various times by CIA and military involvement from the USA, and these regimes are famously corrupt and authoritarian. It is this that is one of the bones of contention against the US amongst the Arab world.
The oil-rich states of Arabia are virtually the last medieval countries on the globe, because it suits the US that friendly people are in charge of the oil.
So what? You think the US is the only country in the world that has or is doing that? Maybe if all these angry arabs got rid of their famously corrupt and authoritarian regimes then there would never be a need for any foriegn involvment. Oh yeah, they're to busy being pissed off at the US to do that and the ones who try are usually caught and executed for trying. I guess the US must be an easier target cause it won't kill them right away. And whats wrong with having friendly people in charge of oil? At least they're friendly and not trying to build a nuclear arsenal to destroy the western world.
There has never been a country of any real power that has not or does not, in some way, take advantage of a poorer and/or weaker people. England has done it countless time, as has Spain, France, the U.S. and many others.
True, and everyone learns it from someone. Iraq got it from the US, the US got it from England and to a minor part Spain. Of course back in those days they vindicated it as colonization and educating the primitive world. On the comparitive scale the US is one of the few countries that has at least tried to do as much good as it has caused trouble. It doesn't make them any more innocent, but at least it makes them a little more humanitarian and helpful. Hell even Canada has probably done a few bad things in its time, though I can't think of any off the top of my head.
For example, last year the US was the #1 contributor in the entire world of humanitarian aid to Afganistan in spite of the fact that we do not support the Taliban. That's $140 million of our tax dollars.
And almost none of it actually got to the people, but it was sent anyways. Same thing with the soccer stadium that was funded by international governments and groups that the Taliban now use as a public execution grounds to massacre women, free thinkers, foreigners, and people who don't like the Taliban. The worst part or perhaps most grimly humorous about it is that when a Taliban official was asked about it on camera in an interview shown on the documentary Behind the Veil, the official said that those same groups and governments should build the Taliban a place to hold these executions, basically a slaughter house, so they wouldn't have to use the soccer stadium. Talk about self-righteous nut-bags.
Why don't you do it? 