Three years ago

[Gonz]

Today.

Afghanistan began as the frst volley in the greater War on Terror. That war now includes Iraq, The Phillipines, Indonesia, assorted sectors of North Africa, Pakistan...altogether, about 100 countries have seen some form of military or intelligence action resulting in a huge restructuring of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

On Saturday, Afghanistan will hold their first free elections...not since the Russians left, not since WW2, not since the American Revolution...their first free elections ever.

Iraq will hold it's first free national elections in January. They are already holding local elections. Many of the City Councils currently sitting in Iraq were freely elected since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Indonesia, the country with the largest precentage of Muslims on the planet, recently held free elections. They even changed Presidents.

Libya has turned over its previously unknown assortment of WMD's & WMD research material. Sanctions have been lifted & they have rejoined the world community.

Several Arab countries have started the process to switch over to some form of Democracy. Several others have kept a lower profile.

President GW Bush said, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks,

"Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

He also said

"America is a nation with a mission, and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace -- a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman."

He has followed through.

3 years is a long time. Dead is forever.

 

[chcr]

KABUL - Afghanistan’s powerful warlords face an unusual fight this week, when democratic ballots replace bullets for the first time in the nation’s history.

Ranging from some of Afghanistan’s wealthiest men to local thugs wielding ethnic, regional or religious clout, the warlords dominate large swathes of the country with armed militias funded by drug money.

While a secret ballot in the presidential elections on October 9 should give Afghanistan’s 10 million voters a chance to express their own preferences, the warlords are working hard to maintain control of their fiefdoms.

Source
As I keep saying, nothing will really change for the average citizens. It does sound pretty though.

 

[Leslie]

Lots'n'lots of forever deads in that three years.

chcr is right though, it's a lovely spin you've got goin on there.

 

[Gonz]

As I keep saying, nothing will really change for the average citizens. It does sound pretty though.

Pessimism & naysaying does what to move the world forward?

One step at a time, starting with the first.

 

[chcr]

I'm not a pessimist, Gonz. Look at the historical record.

 

[catocom]

Nothing has change for the average???
Have you been to the gas pumps lately.
and what about the price of milk.

 

[Gonz]

I'm not a pessimist, Gonz. Look at the historical record.

I will, on Sunday.

Also, look back to several S American countries in the late 80's & early 90's & we see very similar situations.

 

[MrBishop]

"Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

Including Ireland, Spain, England, Canada etc etc... and USA?

Define harbour
Define Support
Define terrorism and how it differentiates from freedom fighting

Then tell me how the USA, which can't even control drugs, gang violence, the KKK, antisemitism, rape, terrorist acts, etc..on its own soil will succeed throughout the world.

 

[Gonz]

Refuge, give safety
Allow to operate, finance, allow to exist
The US & it' coalition partners are freedom fighters. Those that target unarmed & innocent civilians are terrorists.

Why wouold we control the Klan or antisemitism? They have a right to exist. If their actions are illegal, they are arrested.

The rest is controlled. It's not stopped because it's hard to control individual actions. Of course, when people prefer to say it can't be done & naysay instead of getting thier hands dirty, well, the job is just that much harder.

 

[MrBishop]

Why wouold we control the Klan or antisemitism? They have a right to exist. If their actions are illegal, they are arrested..

Because both cause terror. The same as gay-bashing causes terror etc...

 

[catocom]

Well the klan has been controlled to a certain extent, in certain parts.
Some groups can't where hoods anymore, and has cause the numbers to
greatly diminish.

 

[chcr]

Also, look back to several S American countries in the late 80's & early 90's & we see very similar situations.

Yes, we do. In fact, Columbia is very similar to what Afghanistan is headed for.

 

[freako104]

I thought Columbia was still under a dictatorship?

 

[chcr]

I thought Columbia was still under a dictatorship?

They have elections, but (just like everywhere else) the people with the money really run the country. In Columbia (like Afghanistan) the people with the money are druglords. It is a little dangerous in Columbia to run against whoever the druglords want in power. Very dangerous to actually get elected.

You have to keep an eye on the big picture. Knee-jerk reactions are useless at best.

 

[MrBishop]

Actually... a good chunk of the world comes to mind if we're talking about dictatorships or non-American type democracy.

Most of Africa, for instance. Saudi Arabia too. Cuba, Nicaragua, etc...

 

[Gonz]

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s first-ever direct presidential election began Saturday, with people across this ethnically diverse land casting the first ballots in an improbable experiment with democracy.

After 25 years of near constant war — and under a Taliban threat of ruinous violence — voters descended on bombed-out schools, blue-domed mosques, and bullet-pocked hospitals to choose their leader for the first time in their history.


Interim leader Hamid Karzai is widely expected to win the vote against 15 rivals, among them warlords, royalists and even an Islamic poet. But the size of the field could deny Karzai the outright majority needed to avert a run-off.


A 19-year-old Afghan refugee in Pakistan became the election's first voter early Saturday, casting a ballot in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.


"I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am," said Moqadasa Sidiqi, a science student whose family escaped Kabul in 1992 during the Afghan civil war. "I would never have thought I would be able to vote in this election."

May it become commonplace.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

How desparate of you Gonz to try to make this sound like it’s a good thing. Yeah so what their voting, but will the process get the approval of the whise Jimmy Carter. Not every political problem has been solved in the last threee years, how can you call it democratic when it's not done perfect.

I think people shouldn't be risking their life to vote, I think no one should show to vote and prove the evils of America will never be right for the Afgi's.

I mean who do these idiots think they are? What right do they have placing themselves in harms way to vote to try and have a free country of their own when it will only help GWB get re-elected in the long run.


If these Afgi people knew the truth about the situation over there they wouldn't be out voting in the first place would they?

 

[chcr]

How desparate of you Gonz to try to make this sound like it’s a good thing. Yeah so what their voting, but will the process get the approval of the whise Jimmy Carter. Not every political problem has been solved in the last threee years, how can you call it democratic when it's not done perfect.

I think people shouldn't be risking their life to vote, I think no one should show to vote and prove the evils of America will never be right for the Afgi's.

I mean who do these idiots think they are? What right do they have placing themselves in harms way to vote to try and have a free country of their own when it will only help GWB get re-elected in the long run.


If these Afgi people knew the truth about the situation over there they wouldn't be out voting in the first place would they?

Yep, if we just get 'em to have an election, everything will be okay...

 

[ResearchMonkey]

yeah! you have to make an effort to effect change. this is how you come out of the 7th century form of rule.

I do see your point thoo, do nothing and everything will be peachy.

 

[Gonz]

Traced far enough back, all the naysayers would have kept us all in caves.