19 January 2013

All You Need to Know About the Afghan War in Two Articles

First is the Telegraph's excerpt from William Dalrymple's upcoming book in which he spends time embedded with Afghans and explores their perspectives on their own history and conflicts:

"...some American officers called us to a hotel in Jalalabad for a meeting. One of them asked me, 'Why do you hate us?’ I replied, 'Because you blow down our doors, enter our houses, pull our women by the hair and kick our children. We cannot accept this. We will fight back, and we will break your teeth, and when your teeth are broken you will leave, just as the British left before you. It is just a matter of time.'"

In truth, all the Americans here know their game is over. It is just their politicians who deny this.”


Second is this news item from the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Sen. Mitch McConnell... expressed optimism about an 11-year war that now stands as the longest in American history, and the prospect of Afghans assuming a lead role in the fighting.

"I think there's a widely held view among the American military leaders there... that this has a very great potential for a happy ending..."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd add a third article. The Onion one titled "Our long nightmare of peace and prosperity is over," which was printed at the cusp of Bush's first term. In this prescient satire, Bush promises to involve us in at least one war.

Anybody with any brains could see all of this coming.