Hundreds escape from Afghan jail in Taliban breakout

Saturday 14th June, 12:18 PM JST

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Betzee at 11:39 PM JST - 14th June

Money?

That they get from poppies sales. Every year since the Tailban was toppled the crop, harvested in April, has been bigger. This is how the Taliban staged a resurgence; they control the trade (which was largely banned when they were in power). There's so much heroin on the market some governments have suggested buying the crop themselves as a means to prevent increasing addiction. (There's like three million addicts in Iran and that's just a transit route not the major market.)

After 9/11 NATO voted to invoke Article 5, the only time it has done so, which states an attack on one member is an attack on all. But the US didn't want their help in Afghhanistan; they would just slow us down, etc. Nobody ever looked at the Russian experience cuz they were commies and we were the USA!

By the time NATO came in it was sold as a "peace-keeping" mission (at least in the south). The US had done the hard work. That didn't turn out to be the case, however, and NATO members have resisted deploying to areas, now most of the country, where they might take casualties. (Four US Marines killed yesterday).

The war in Iraq is so unpopular in Europe that increasing NATO deployments has become very political. "Why can't the US, with 140,000 troops in Iraq, augment its force of 17,000 in Afghanistan?" No politician is going to risk his career on this. Under a new administration we can hope for greater attention to Afghanistan as well as greater burden sharing in Afghanistan.
Sarge at 11:52 PM JST - 14th June

USAFdude - We're ARE winning in Afghanistan AND Iraq with President Bush's leadership.

And you can't tell me most of the members of your unit support Obama over McCain when McCain has overwhelming support among members of the military.
Zurg at 12:28 AM JST - 15th June

Poor Bombadere. They gave his family poppy seeds if he would blow himself up. Or they injected him with poppy-seed-juice.

Nevertheless, with Obama salami being president, there will be more escapes just like that. They know when the U.S. is weak and that is with the Liberal Government. Now is the time to act.
Taka313 at 02:03 AM JST - 15th June

when McCain has overwhelming support among members of the military.

And of course you have proof of this, right?

I guess they overwhelmingly support Sen. McCain but donate their money to Ron Paul and Sen. Obama.

From January 2007 through March of this year, service members or civilian employees of the military donated at least $766,000 to presidential candidates, according to data made available April 20 and provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group in Washington.

The analysis included donations of at least $200 made by individuals who listed their employer as one of the four branches of the military — Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — or the Coast Guard, National Guard, Army Air Force Exchange Service, armed forces or military.

These donors gave the largest amounts to Rep. Ron Paul, the long-shot Republican candidate from Texas who has acknowledged defeat in the nomination process but continues to campaign, and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat from Illinois.

During the reporting period, Paul — a former Air Force surgeon who broke with his party to vote against the Iraq war — received the most military contributions, with $201,271.

That’s significantly more than the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain from Arizona, who received $132,133 from military donors, according to CRP.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/05/armymilitarydonors050408w/

Taka
RedMeatKoolAid at 03:10 AM JST - 15th June

"Hundreds escape from Afghan jail in Taliban breakout"

I believe Khandahar is under Canadian protection. How disappointing. As an American or a Brit, to look at Canadian forces in this day and age is to acknowledge that sadly, it is a country that can no longer produce the same class of soldier your grandfather knew and served beside.

What happened?
goodDonkey at 04:51 AM JST - 15th June

Taka313
I was aware of the difficulty of success in Afghanistan when I wrote my comments. I believe I am well enough informed on the history of the Soviet Union’s attempts to bring there conflict to a successful fruition. I further believe that I am familiar enough with the prior existence of the Afghan warlords. I based my opinion on where we were in 2003 and then I considered what 120,000 additional troops added at that time could have provided. I am still convinced that had the exact same additional resources that were applied to the conflict in Iraq been applied to the existing conflict in Afghanistan that "The job in Afghanistan should have long been over." I will however concede that George could screw anything up and that my opinion is not a given under the Bush administration. In my opinion the Afghans who have still been willing to continue with their struggle could not have lasted this long had we applied the above mentioned resources.
USAFdude at 08:17 AM JST - 15th June

And you can't tell me most of the members of your unit support Obama over McCain when McCain has overwhelming support among members of the military.

Sarge - sure I can, with absolute certainty! You, on the other hand, have no proof whatsoever that McCain has "overwhelming support among members of the military". That's just your own pathetic wishful thinking.

We're ARE winning in Afghanistan AND Iraq with President Bush's leadership.

Read, and I mean READ this article. It proves you wrong to where I need make no further comment.
Betzee at 11:00 AM JST - 15th June

It's not difficult to topple repressive, unpopular regimes ruling over non-industrial countries. But it's hard to eradicate their pockets of support which generate armed resistance. Such was the case with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

In Afghanistan, however, the Taliban has reclaimed control of large swathes of the country despite the fact most Afghans were happy to see it gone. They did this by offering farmers a livelihood in the form of opium poppy cultivation. If the funds used in Iraq had been commited to Afghanistan, I'm confident an alternative livelihood could have been created. Now it's a more difficult task, however.
RedMeatKoolAid at 11:24 AM JST - 15th June

So what happens when we catch Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri or the next Zarqawi?

Minimum security prisons like this one, in the location of the wanted suspect's apprehension, are the kind we must now attempt to house the most dangerous terrorists in. Keeping the likes of OBL at Guantanomo Bay is now a violation of the constitutional rights our black-robed masters on the SCOTUS have ruled we will automatically bestow upon homicidal/suicidal Islamic supremacists when they take up arms against America or our allies.
Betzee at 11:40 AM JST - 15th June

Keeping the likes of OBL at Guantanomo Bay

It's all moot since he hasn't been apprehended.
Taka313 at 11:42 AM JST - 15th June

redmeat, I see your point. How dare the SCOTUS apply human rights to human beings, regardless of their worth, and ask that the U.S. govt. obey it's own laws. The inhumanity of it all. I mean, really, it's almost like the SCOTUS WANTS us to be more moral than the terrorists, or something. It's a darned cryin' shame when we, as a nation, can't ignore our own laws when it suits your desires.

Taka
Betzee at 11:50 AM JST - 15th June

It's interesting; redmeat disparages the competence of Canadian troops until he finds a way to point his finger at the real enemy, the American left. Then he refers to the Canadians respectfully as "our allies."

In fact the party that should be held accountable here is the Karzai government (which doesn't control much beyond Kabul). It's hobbled by endemic corruption which is going to make it hard to get international donors to actually cough up the funds they committed last week.
tclh at 03:31 PM JST - 15th June

Just a question: if Taliban survives on the trade of opium poppy,why NOT spray them(poppy) with herbicides,day in day out,year in year out.Keep doing that... how long will Taliban last? OR use strategic villages as a method to isolate Taliban and the rest of Afghan people..slowly but firmly.Without money and support what Taliban can do? Strategic villages was a brilliant strategy of the old Ngo Dinh Diem government of South VN to fight VC,slowly but surely.Unfortunately US wanted everything fast and abandonned this strategy ,gave a priceless gift to Ho chi Minh unintentionally.
Madverts at 07:14 PM JST - 15th June

"Read, and I mean READ this article. It proves you wrong to where I need make no further comment."

USAFdude, you're wasting your time. We're talking about the same bloke who clamed the other day that the Sadrist movement in Iraq is a "tiny minority".

You can't argue with these people, despite them being so consistently Wrong - Afghanistan, we know, is the only military action where the so called war on terror could have justifiably achieved something against bin-Laden and his group of red-eyed fundies....

...bu instead, it has become the centre-piece of a long list of Bush's failures. And the remaining Deciples aren't taking it too well.
Betzee at 10:13 PM JST - 15th June

Just a question: if Taliban survives on the trade of opium poppy,why NOT spray them(poppy) with herbicides,day in day out,year in year out.Keep doing that... how long will Taliban last?

Not long, but neither would the Afghan people. Opium poppies are interplanted with wheat and for that reason when this idea was proposed, it was shot down.