And I further agree that it is the illegality of these drugs (and our “War” on them) that perpetuates bloodshed in these countries.

Interesting how, in any war, our objectives and mindsets effectively create the battlefields themselves, and not the other way around.

I think that, that is a completely different topic. Drug production is violent and rampant precisely because we have declared a “War on Drugs”. The difficultly in obtaining drugs increases their price, and their illegality ensures that violent measures will be taken to protect their crops.

Perhaps we need to look at how we’re conducting that “war” and see what is going wrong there, just like we need to look at the war in Afghanistan and determine if we have objectives and if they are in any way realistic.

Afghanistan has a history of getting rid of foreign invaders and certainly don’t allow governments propped up by those invaders to last long once the armies retreat. If in the end it is no different this time around, then we are wasting a lot of good lives, on both sides, for nothing.

Matt I was just wodering if you could point me in the direction of your source for this information? I have only studied Middle-Eastern archaeology in a couple of courses a number of years ago, but at that time when discussing the origins of agriculture all the literature I’ve read puts the origin between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago.

your quote “I’d rather have nobody experience war period. Not for a taste not for livelihood.”

I could not agree more…

And I don’t imagine the standards will be lowered with you around here… after all, Matt allows the likes of me to grace this site, so there is nowhere to go but up…

No I get what you’re saying…I don’t know how it is where you are but a few recruiters have been overseas…and some soldiers believe firmly in the validity of this operation….

My position is really simple. I’d rather have nobody experience war period. Not for a taste not for livelihood.

Here comes the plug….everybody should run marathons for Right To Play…you can see my link in a post below…

Look forward lowering the standard in the summer around here. Thanks for your thoughts and well wishes.

Your quote was “It sucks. Very bad. If you’ve experienced something that sucks bad, that’s really all the empathy you need.”

That is my point… if you’ve EXPERIENCED it… most don’t realize the full ramifications of their enlistment until they are knee deep in the shit… most don’t share that empathy… walk into any Army recruiter’s office and they sell war as an exciting video game… Would these young recruits be any less likely to join had they had spoken to returning vets prior to enlisting? If they had seen the realities of war? I happen to think so…

If Chris Hedges’ “War is a Force that gives us Meaning” or General Smedley Butler’s 1935 classic “War is a Racket” were required reading in our schools, gung-ho 18-year-olds like myself would have not been so filled with bloodlust…

I have been a soldier, I am in the media… I’ve seen some unimaginable things, and then I’ve seen those unimaginable things censored from the general public… we hide the realities to keep the machine greased… We in North America have gotten off easy… we gallop across the globe, looting and plundering and wreaking havoc along the way… never fully understanding the full consequences of our actions…

You bring up the conversation you had in the garage… where family and friends expressed the want to carpet bomb, yet your returning friend remained silent… I’d argue that his combat experiences had made him less likely to agree with their desire for genocide… he knew better…

I have arrived at the personal opinion that humanity is easily led and frighteningly ignorant… Sometimes a child must burn his hand on the stove in order to fully understand the inherent danger.

I would argue that most of us who have seen the realities of war would be far less likely to wage it again…

In closing - congrads to you for coming aboard Matt’s team… I look forward to reading your perspective on things…

Cheers - R

Think the war in the former Balkans… Wash rinse repeat….

The affiliation of warlords in the north is, of course, also responsible for the continued opium trade, which has increased since the invasion.

Stephen Coll’s “Ghost Wars” should be read with regards to renewed US contact with them.

Of course, now many of those warlords are part of the Afghan government. Unfortunately, as terrible as these warlords are its better to have them in government than out, and causing even more trouble and suffering.

It sucks. Very bad. If you’ve experienced something that sucks bad, that’s really all the empathy you need.

Because there are those that experience war and don’t see the need to stop it but cause more war….to rise against…to strike back..and that is a cycle that I think happens more often than not.

Now…if we were to encounter those, meet those that have suffered from it…

I was welcoming back a friend on Thursday night who had just served as a targeting officer with the dutch battlegroup in the ‘Stan.

I’ll be best man at his wedding actually. We were sitting in the garage with family and friends. We talked about old times and inevitably the breach of experiences over there would come up.

There are those who missed him so much and had worried about him day in and day out that there response to the solution was carpet bomb the entire country…

As frustrating as it is to hear such ‘logic’ I asked them what in fact that achieves. The complete genocide of a country and the moral ramifications of killing innocents aside, on a military strategic level what mission does that achieve.

It would in fact create angrier neighbors. It would create the wrath of those that “take to the hills”.

Any military campaign ever held will show that taking ground is the easier part compared to holding ground. Air superiority, a critical tenant to success in all military tactics courses during the cold war, doesn’t do very much good when it comes to situations like Afghanistan and Iraq.

To that end I was able to slightly sway those n that smoke-filled garage in the early hours of Friday morning. There are those that are so angry and confused that the only solution that helps them feel their grievances resolved is blood shed.

Interestingly enough despite his family and friends debating with me the merits of final solution for Afghan - my returning buddy remained silent.

Most of us have no idea what it feels like to see a menacing fighter plane or attack helicopter in the sky headed right at you. It puts you into a state of absolute panic while the taste of metal fills your mouth…
Or a random bomb on the street… when you are knocked unconscious by the percussive blast and awaken deaf, confused and covered in red mist and dust…

War hardens you to the point of either being crippled by fear, or fearless… Perhaps if more of us personally experienced the chaos of war, we’d be a little less apt to wage it…