tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19769829.post7328858653390419760..comments2024-02-09T19:44:17.241+00:00Comments on AngloAustria: The death march goes onJack Maturinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00903651577858853608noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19769829.post-19692549739168751342008-12-22T13:22:00.000+00:002008-12-22T13:22:00.000+00:00Yes, the Russians possessed a land border, willing...Yes, the Russians possessed a land border, willing Quisling puppet politicians, a virtually inexhaustible supply of conscripts, all the products of the only relatively successful part of the Soviet economy (the war machine), all the experience of wiping out the Wehrmacht in eastern Europe, and a brutally ruthless determination to succeed at all costs; but STILL they lost, which also helped bring down their horrible socialist empire.<BR/><BR/>Yes, the CIA fed their allies, such as Osama Bin Laden, with stinger missiles and other assorted military goodies, but it was still the forerunners of the Taliban who did the hard bloody work of pushing the Russians back over the border.<BR/><BR/>As I think as Michael Corleone said in one of the Godfather films, if the people you are fighting are prepared to die for their cause, and you are not prepared to die for yours, then you will lose.<BR/><BR/>Or as Uncle Murray Rothbard would have put it, it does not matter how much military hardware you have at your disposal, unless you are prepared to brutally slay whole sections of the population, you can never hold any ground or any territory in which the people are ideologically opposed to you. Hence the reason the state so heavily subsidizes the intellectual class, to get them to persuade the rest of us that the state is necessary.<BR/><BR/>Which is why it is the same Kabul quisling intellectuals who supported the Soviets who are now supporting the Americans. Everyone else wants NATO to go back to the North Atlantic, and stay there.<BR/><BR/>And as Pat Buchanan relates, they may as well do this sooner rather than later, because they are going to lose. Though I have a horrible feeling, that just as FDR used WWII as a cover for his appalling mistakes in prolonging the 1930s depression, Obama will use the ongoing Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran war to cover his upcoming mistakes in prolonging the 2008 recession to well into the next decade.<BR/><BR/>The difference is, of course, that Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons, and there are enough fanatics around willing to use tem if they get the chance. It could all get very messy indeed, unless we get out of there quickly and just stop interfering in other people's countries.<BR/><BR/>Still, at least Obama will follow through on his promise of 'Change'. He will change the numbers of American troops in Afghanistan, and put even more boots on the ground, and murder even more innocent Afghan women and children via indiscriminate US air force bombing sorties. Because that's the kinda caring, sharing guy he is.Jack Maturinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00903651577858853608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19769829.post-80618439992696520312008-12-22T07:34:00.000+00:002008-12-22T07:34:00.000+00:00Irrespective of the difficulties the British Empir...Irrespective of the difficulties the British Empire had in Afghanistan back in the 19th Century, the fact that the USSR gots its arse whipped when it invaded just 30 years ago should have been good cause for sober reflection. Alas no.not an economisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08679610738502901666noreply@blogger.com