The evening was balmy and the moon almost full.

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WASHINGTON " There was no trip to New York and no fancy outing as the Obamas celebrated their first wedding anniversary since they moved to the White House.

Instead they kept it simple, with a dinner out Saturday night at an elegant, American-fare restaurant near Georgetown. The evening was balmy and the moon almost full.

President Barack Obama stayed in all day before taking a motorcade with Michelle Obama to the Blue Duck Tavern to mark their 17th wedding anniversary.

Mrs. Obama stepped into the restaurant wearing a backless knee-length dress while the president wore a dark suit.

meanwhile in other news;

KABUL " Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The U.S. has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers.
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PADANG, Indonesia (Reuters) " Indonesians dug a pit for a mass burial in the earthquake shattered city of Padang on Sunday, while in nearby hills villagers with wooden hoes clawed in the mud in a near-hopeless search for hundreds entombed by landslides.

Rescue teams combing the rubble of Padang said there was little prospect of finding more survivors from a disaster that authorities say may have killed 3,000 people.

As relief workers pushed deeper inland from the coastal city, they found entire villages obliterated by landslides and homeless survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.
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TEHRAN, Iran " The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Sunday there is a "shifting of gears" in Iran's confrontation with the West to more cooperation and transparency and he announced that international inspectors would visit Tehran's newly revealed uranium enrichment site on Oct. 25.

The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, speaking at a news conference in Tehran with Iran's top nuclear official, said his agency "has no concrete proof of an ongoing weapons program in Iran." But the IAEA has "concerns about Iran's future intentions," he said.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 1,920 • Replies: 46

[+3] - edgarblythe - 10/04/2009I never understood the government thinking re Afghanistan. To me, it made sense to attack the Taliban in the wake of 911, and to pursue Laden in that early period. But, a protracted war,...

I never understood the government thinking re Afghanistan. To me, it made sense to attack the Taliban in the wake of 911, and to pursue Laden in that early period. But, a protracted war, particularly as it has been fought from the beginning through today, never made any real sense. When the first attack was launched, my young half brother excitedly told me how we were going to triumph in a short order. My reply: "They are never going to pacify that area." I still say it will never happen.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

I never understood the government thinking re Afghanistan. To me, it made sense to attack the Taliban in the wake of 911, and to pursue Laden in that early period. But, a protracted war, particularly as it has been fought from the beginning through today, never made any real sense. When the first attack was launched, my young half brother excitedly told me how we were going to triumph in a short order. My reply: "They are never going to pacify that area." I still say it will never happen.

If we engage in a justified war, as I believe we did in this case, then it would seem to be appropriate to continue until the enemy is defeated. We don't want to give the rest of the world the idea that the US can always be defeated by waiting us out because we are never very committed to anything. Furthermore, it seems to me that the Taliban are an evil group that ought to be opposed.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

why is it our job to oppress evil, Brandon?

is that in the constitution somewheres?

i musta missed it...

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

why is it our job to oppress evil, Brandon?

is that in the constitution somewheres?

i musta missed it...

As is well known by one and all, we attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan because they gave support and safe harbor to a group that attacked our country and murdered thousands of American civilians in our cities and in the air. The fact that I would have to remind you of this is astonishing.

It provides additional motivation that the group we are fighting is indeed evil. One might choose to actively oppose evil people for several reasons, such as for instance if allowed to continue and prosper they would be likely to pose a danger in the future or do harm to innocent people in the future, both of which apply to the Taliban.

Obviosuly, it is impractical to actively oppose even great evil at all times,because there's too much of it, but the Taliban were brought to our attention when they supported a group which attacked us. You do make me curious, though. If you are against opposing evil or believe that it's foolish, what do you advocate doing about evil when you encounter it?

3 Replies

@Brandon9000,

i make fun of it...

(evil hates to be ridiculed)

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

but the Taliban were brought to our attention when they supported a group which attacked us.

Really? I'd thought that the Taliban were brought to the US' attention in the 1980's - does Operation Cyclone mean something for you, Brandon?

1 Reply

as much as i hate to do it i have to agree with brandon on this one

the problem is, bush dropped the ball, this should have been the war from the beginning, not drive them into the hills, leave a peace keeping contingent behind and go to iraq

1 Reply

A protracted war need not have been in the cards. I believe it became so, only because Bush took his attention off the ball and went after Iraq. He was content to let Afghanistan roll along.

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

i make fun of it...

So, if you saw innocent people being oppressed, killed, tortured, arrested, or mistreated under your nose, you'd deal with it by making fun of it. Ineffective to say the least, and of no real help to anyone.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:
but the Taliban were brought to our attention when they supported a group which attacked us.

Really? I'd thought that the Taliban were brought to the US' attention in the 1980's - does Operation Cyclone mean something for you, Brandon?

I didn't say that was the first time.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

A protracted war need not have been in the cards. I believe it became so, only because Bush took his attention off the ball and went after Iraq. He was content to let Afghanistan roll along.

That was then, this is now. Now we are where we are.

2 Replies

@Brandon9000,

"Ineffective to say the least, and of no real help to anyone. "

the same could be said of people with no sense of humor.

(you should see someone about that stick in your ass)

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

edgarblythe wrote:

A protracted war need not have been in the cards. I believe it became so, only because Bush took his attention off the ball and went after Iraq. He was content to let Afghanistan roll along.

That was then, this is now. Now we are where we are.

you are where you are, because of then

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Quote:

As is well known by one and all, we attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan because they gave support and safe harbor to a group that attacked our country and murdered thousands of American civilians in our cities and in the air. The fact that I would have to remind you of this is astonishing.

The US has given, still gives safe harbor to a number of terrorists. The US has actively engaged in terrorism on a massive scale since its inception. The US has attacked and murdered MILLIONS around the world.

Quote:

It provides additional motivation that the group we are fighting is indeed evil.

Funny, the US had no problem providing material support to this "evil" group of people, nor did it have any problem doing business with them. Gives you a good indication of who it is that is truly evil.

And you're one of 'em, Brandon, one of the evil ones because you actively seek to support such evil.

1 Reply

Brandon shifts gears;
"R is for Race, right?"

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Rockhead wrote:

"Ineffective to say the least, and of no real help to anyone. "

the same could be said of people with no sense of humor.

(you should see someone about that stick in your ass)

Since you have provided no supporting argument for your response to my post, I assume that you cannot. Case closed.

0 Replies

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

edgarblythe wrote:

A protracted war need not have been in the cards. I believe it became so, only because Bush took his attention off the ball and went after Iraq. He was content to let Afghanistan roll along.

That was then, this is now. Now we are where we are.

That doesn't mean we can't use our brains and stop the senseless mayhem.

1 Reply

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:

edgarblythe wrote:

A protracted war need not have been in the cards. I believe it became so, only because Bush took his attention off the ball and went after Iraq. He was content to let Afghanistan roll along.

That was then, this is now. Now we are where we are.

you are where you are, because of then

And now we have to deal with where we are now.

0 Replies

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Quote:
As is well known by one and all, we attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan because they gave support and safe harbor to a group that attacked our country and murdered thousands of American civilians in our cities and in the air. The fact that I would have to remind you of this is astonishing.

The US has given, still gives safe harbor to a number of terrorists. The US has actively engaged in terrorism on a massive scale since its inception. The US has attacked and murdered MILLIONS around the world.

Quote:
It provides additional motivation that the group we are fighting is indeed evil.

Funny, the US had no problem providing material support to this "evil" group of people, nor did it have any problem doing business with them. Gives you a good indication of who it is that is truly evil.

And you're one of 'em, Brandon, one of the evil ones because you actively seek to support such evil.

Our hypothetical culpability on other occasions is irrelevant to the question of whether we should continue the war in Afghanistan.

0 Replies

The evening was balmy and the moon almost full.

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