What I recall is a 2-3 week time period (from Bush’s first post 9/11 speech) where the Taliban had ample time to give up bin Laden. They refused, not us.

What police force would you have liked to send into Afghanistan? A better question is what force would have willingly gone, knowing they’d be killed for their efforts?

You’re good at reciting left wing talking points-FAR left wing, at that. You must have done a lot of research on Chalmers Johnson’s works.

But you’re missing the point, which you also seem to be good at: of the actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the government had almost OVERWHELMING domestic and international support.

Or didn’t you read the papers then?

What interests of mine are being protected in Somalia right now, where we are bombing from carrier based aircraft on the regular? Nobody knows exactly HOW regularly, because the Pentagon does not allow reporters to cover fleet operations and does not give out the info willingly. The only mention of it you can get is from African news agencies on http://alafrica.com.

What interests of mine are served by maintaining the huge air and naval base, arms dump and secret prison complex at Diego Garcia, for example, about as far away from Atlanta GA as you can get and still be on planet Earth?

What interests of mine are served by building the latest next-generation fighter jet (which they’re doing less than 10 miles from where I live in Marietta GA), each of which costs in excess of $100 million, when no country on earth is willing to take to the skies against the current generation of tactical aircraft, and the only conceivable opposition is from other countries we have sold F-16s to??

You cannot even ask, let alone answer these questions if “empire” and “imperialism” are off the table.

We have given military aid, military training, and arms transfers to at least 50 of Africa’s 54 counties in the last few years, to turn the place into a war-torn genocidal hellhole that makes it easy for us (as in the Congo) to extract the natural resources.

As for Afghanistan, the only visible fruit of our invasion has been a drop in the price of heroin. The Afghan president’s own family are opium smugglers, and so are lots of his cronies. But they are the only Afghans who will throw in their lot with the empire, so we’re stuck with subsidizing them.

Going after Al-Qeada should have been a police operation, not a war. The Afghan government offered to give them up, to deliver Osama to the US, remember? Bush refused because he wanted a war instead, to whip us up for the main event, Iraq. Don’t you remember any of this? Go back and read the newspapers from 5 years ago.

Neither of these articles specify that a nation which preemptively or preventively attacks another is wrong.

Resolution 1441 did find Iraq in breach of its obligations pertaining to the cease fire of Desert Storm, and warned Iraq that they faced “serious consequences as a result of its continued violations of its obligations.” I don’t think they meant by that more failed sanctions.

More importantly, there was nothing “preventive” or “preemptive” about Afghanistan. That was retaliation for an attack by al-Qaeda planned for under the protection of the Taliban. Again, a majority of the world felt we were justified in the action; NATO even invoked Article 5 of its charter, which had never been done before.

You and I have had the “empire” argument, so I won’t rehash that here. Besides, it’s actually irrelevant to this post.

So I’ll rephase my questions, in hope of an answer this time: When do we reserve the right to attack another country because of actions taken by terrorist groups allied with the government of that country?

The US has about 800 military bases around the world. No way you can call that “defense”, my friend. The word is “empire”. Empires are inherently unjust. The idea that some god or gods chose the rulers of the US to run the affairs of other peoples in other lands is shameful and odious. It is financially bankrupting us, and it long ago morally bankrupted us.

- KXB

“Waging peace” and cutting back on our defense spending (including that for intelligence processing and gathering) is what directly contributed to the events of 9/11.

Of the two wars (Iraq/Afghanistan), recall that Afganistan was the one where we HAD the support of the international community.

On the real, it’s just another invasion of somebody else’s home, indefensible on any level and for any reason, and another “destructive demonic suction tube” to use Dr. King’s phrase, through which resources are sucked that could be devoted to improving education, infrastructure, to job creation and the environment and other human needs.

More incompentency in the Bush Administration. Par for the course.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/27/obamas-former-pastor-builds-a-multimillion-dollar-retirement-home/

Obama’s Former Pastor Getting $1.6M Home in Retirement

As a capitalist myself – I ain’t mad at him. Get yours when they’ve got their check books open, luving what you are telling them.

But hey, this is to be expected from the Black Bourgeois who ally themselves with the White Liberal/progressive agenda. You put that first and Black needs and concerns second.

TLW

Sick