Family pleas for captive U.S. soldier's release
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numbskull
Obviously scripted, but nonetheless true. Americans will continute to refuse to accept defeat, probably get all cocky in negotiations, and this young man will be executed. Executing prisoners for not receiving demands is dishonorable and despicable, but how much flak would the Taliban have received if they shot him on sight and left him to bleed to death in the mountains? I am sure we do this with the Taliban on a regular basis. By comparison, beheading is a mercy.
The way I see it you have only two rational choices: support the continued folly in Afghanistan and take this soldier's execution in stride, or realize that its all for naught, pay whatever ransom and do whatever prisoner releases are necessary and start working to get our troops home from the hopeless wasteland that is Afghanistan.
Unfortunate choice of words. Its not "going to be". It already is. And pride is the primary reason Americans refuse to admit it. Pride is why this man will die.
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numbskull
Oh, and with the above, I emphasize the word "rational" in rational choices. I know perfectly well that most people will take the irrational choice that we have every right to be in Afghanistan and therefore, all Taliban actions are totally wrong, and that the Taliban does not belong in Afghanistan, as if it were a single mouse we could kill instead of group of people with an offensive ideology. Also they will choose to be angry about his execution and act like they did not forsee the possibility that he could be killed in even worse ways. In short, they will act like it was totally unexpected and the worst possible outcome.
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WilliB
And they think the Taliban care about the tender feelings of a kuffar family??
How deluded.
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numbskull
Yeah, I am sure the lack of remorse had to do with being kuffar, and nothing with being a foreign soldier in their land. Had you been alive during WWII, I am sure you would have met the Japanese at Pearl Harbor with flowers in hand.
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HonestDictator
Its really sad this poor man did not get KIA. Its a lot better than what most orginizations like the Taliban/extreme fundamentalist islamic groups do. Instead of killing soldiers on the battlefield they will most likely slaughter him later on. My condolences to the family because instead of recieving news from the military that their son died fighting, they will most likely get a really disgusting video which instead of "frightening" the enemy will usually be more likely to enrage them.
Sadly because we don't want the Taliban to think that keeping hostages will allow them to get leverage of any kind or they will continue to use the same method expecting the US to bend over backwards for any demands they want.
btw numbskull, its not about "choosing to be angry" I remember someone showed me a video of some islamic fanatics beheading some unknown arab village man. I was automatically incensed with rage. Not because they were jihadists or islamiphobia, but because it showed the pure and complete disrespect of human life that they didn't even pause to murder someone like they were slaughtering an animal. I'm not even christian and I prayed for that mans soul to be in a better place than the sick hellhole he was in. There is a line that is drawn that if a person or group of people show that kind of disrespect towards a human being, they need to be eliminated from society.
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numbskull
A Talibani could not have said it better. Its just that his idea of disrespect and yours don't mesh well. Also your ideas of "eliminate" are different. He beheads with his own hands, and you have hired guns looking down bombsights. Its like you are standing in front of a funhouse mirror, pointing a finger at an image, it is pointing back!
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HonestDictator
You wish, I'm not so blind as to play the "we're no different" than them card. As much as you don't like it, the reason for killing someone or a group of misfits over-rides this so called "we can't tell them what to do because it would make us no different". if you can't tell the difference between trying to support and build up a nation by trying to give them a stable government platform to work up from, compared to a group of rabid religious fanatics that behead, beat, murder people because of their supposed religious law, as well as ignoring
The taliban if you've forgotten, or just out right ignored have done and been doing some very bad things, and it didn't help their case that they had other extremist groups having free reign in their territory. I don't see you complaining about the US assistance in Serbia to stop genocide there.
Unlike some folks, the US is not going to lay back and just let the world go on about its business because if you don't remember the US always took a position of staying out of international affairs, until it affects us. This was always the case until WWII. Look it up.
You need to not look only in the mirror, you need to look at the world for what it is. If you don't want think about, or do anything about it until it comes and starts beating you in the face thats your problem. The US doesn't sit around and wait anymore, and prepares for the consequences.
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SuperLib
You don't have to go back to WWII to see the US's mistake in thinking we could just not get involved and everything would work out. That's the situation that happened in Afghanistan before 9/11. We knew it was an open playground for terrorist groups but we did nothing about it. That allowed groups like Al Queda to flourish, and now we're paying the consequences of inaction.
Pretty creative. I suppose one could say that a cop sometimes shoots and kills people, so in reality they're no different from a criminal. Since you're eliminating things like motive and intent I guess we could have a field day and redefine anything we want just based on primitive descriptions. I'm guessing your taxes went to pay for part of the weapons that are killing people in Afghanistan, so you're no different than someone who raises money on behalf of terrorists who chop of heads. It's all just a matter of opinion and things like right and wrong can never be defined as an absolute, right? Shall we continue?
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numbskull
I can see the difference, but its not the point. Afghanistan is their land, not ours. And it being their land, what hope do we have of winning? We have nothing to lose, and them, everything. They won't quit. They CAN'T. They don't actually have a place to go, with the exception of Pakistan. Its much like the Viet Cong swimming through Cambodia.
And you accuse me of ignoring things? I never thought of the Taliban as anything but a necessary evil to be contained because they cannot be eliminated no matter how much you dream. And here we are 8 years later and they are as strong as ever. Your ideas have handed them credibility, and one of our soldiers.
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ProfJuanColePhd
Oh my. Such simplistic thinking, and your moralizing ( the Taliban are "evil" ) coupled with those violent urges about "containing" them.
You, sir, are no better than the tiny, tiny handful of misinterpreters of Islam who have given the Taliban such a bad name. Your ideas have handed them credibility, and I would even go so far as to say you have handed them one of our soldiers.
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numbskull
Add the caveat that the cop is outside of his juristiction shooting criminals that committed no crime in his juristiction, and you might have something. But no surprise that you just casually disregard inconvenient points like that.
This suggests that 9/11 would not have happened if only we had done something about Afghanistan sooner. You seem to be somewhat ignorant of where the 9/11 terrorists lived, trained, and where they came from and also how they could pull off what they did. It is true that Afghan was a major place of training, but how special of a place do you need to train to brandish box cutters? The most important training took place right in the U.S. of A., the flight training, done with visas gotten as early as 1999. And where did all the hijackers come from? All from Saudi Arabia and one from UAE. In other words, invading Saudi might have done more to prevent 9/11. In fact, a military take-over of the U.S. might have! The role of Afghanistan in 9/11 was not minor, but it was not paramount either. So why the hell are we there again?
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ProfJuanColePhd
Oh my, this really must stop. Your crude misrepresentation of something as complicated as 9/11 and your talk of invasions and military takeovers is too much. It is disgusting the way you equate things as willy-nilly as is convenient for you at the time.
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numbskull
How does "contain" conjure up violent connotations in your mind professor? Especially considering the other options aleady in progress?
And unless you would like me to write you a book, I am afraid all you are going to get from posts here are going to seem simplistic. Well, unless you have the gift of extrapolation. I guess you don't. Kill all the Taliban, contain them, or defeat them militarily, I am afraid that no one has suggested anything that a limited mind could not immediately declare "simplistic".
First, how have I misinterpreted Islam? Second, as my ideas are not being generally employed, how have they handed the Taliban credibility?
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numbskull
What is really disgusting is your declaration of the short posts here to be simplistic and crude (mis)representations. Space is limited professor. Also disgusting is your criticism without presenting your own viewpoint for examination. One might even call it cowardly.
And in case you don't realize, I am not the one who suggested Afghanistan should have been invaded sooner.
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HonestDictator
Slight note, the Taliban is conidered a fanatically religious orginization that took control of Afghanistan and ran it according their perception of religious edicts. They are not considered the will behind all Afgani peoples. Pakistan doesn't percieve the Taliban as Afghanistan encroaching on their lands, they see them as a religiously fanatic group causing them more misery because they were pushed out of Afghanistan and now want to make a safe haven on Pakistans territory. I think its safe to say that not just the US wants the Taliban and other kinds of groups/tribes like these to be a non-entity in their lives.
The US didn't even bother with what was going on in Afghanistan until they were attacked by a religious orginization based in Afghanistan that the Taliban was in charge of at the time and it was the Taliban that didn't bother to control their actions. The only good news that has come out of this is the fact that it more widely known that such extremist orginizations do exist and are not just something that probably could have done a lot more damage if given more time without international awareness.
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