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The Hornet’s Nest

Along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, insurgents are gaining in strength.

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  • Posted By: Shah Rukh @ 12/29/2008 8:13:38 PM

    I just read what militants/terrorists are doing in Swat. It is terrible, terrible. Swat has been turned into terroris heaven. I take my words back which were said in anguish. India and Pakistan need to get together and root out terrorists but this religious bigotry has to stop. People are people and there is no religion bigger then humanity. Insaniyat is the biggest religion of all religions. May Paki army and its ISi get some wisdom and find a way to give up the people behind the mumbai terrorists. May everyone live in peace and harmony. War is not the answer for India and Pakistan. They need to cooperate with each other in rooting out the terrorists which are the common enemy of Indian and Pakistani people.
    Zardari is correct when he said - "we created a cancer and we recognize that we did, the terrorists are imposing their agneda on us." Let us support peace between 2 countries.

  • Posted By: Shah Rukh @ 12/25/2008 6:01:37 PM

    Paki Government has refused to provide legal services to the caught Lashkar terrorist from Pakistani faridkot near depalpur in okara district of pakistani occupied punjab.
    This is what happens to pakistani terrorist.
    he is recurited fom poor villages, his family promised money. He is then trained by pakistani military and ISI officers.
    pakitstani military and ISI provide monetary, support to terrorist Lashkar chiefs and officers. The Mullahs in the pretense of Allah brainwash the Poor Paki youth promising them a ticket to heaven in case he dies.
    In this case things didn't turn out well for pakistani military and ISI and its terrorists the Lashkar e taiba.
    Mohmmed Ajmal Amir Iman/Kasab was caught and given a great beating by mumbai civilians within first hours of the Pakistani terrorists attack.
    Mohmmed Ajmal Kasab was interrogated and he spilled o ut all information that he was trained by Pakistani Lashkar terrorists who we all know was created by Pakistani military and ISI to launch terror attacks against India.
    Remember Thaht Pakistani terrorists killed citziens from all over the World. Americans, British, french, German, israelis, Japanese, Chinese, australians, Canadians, italian all were murdered by pakistani terrorists.
    Remember that Pakistani terrorists did not even spare a young child. They killed Indians and Indian muslims.
    Pakistan is the headquarters of World Terrorists.
    Al Qaeda, Taliban, Lashkar e taiba, Jaish mohammed, ISI, and all terrorists are based in Pakistan.
    Unless US invaed Pakistan with foot soldiers , Osama laden, zawahiri and Mullah Omar are never going to be caught.
    Thankfully Obama may be going in that direction.
    Unless Pakistan is invaded and taken car eof permanently, terrorists will continue to come out of there and launch terror attacks against the World.
    Remember that it was Pakistani who is associated with tyerror attacks in spain, Britain, USA - 9-11, China, Indonesia, India I mean almost everywhere it is Pakistani hands somehow.
    Unless Pakistan is invaded with foot soldiers US is wasting its time In Afghanistan because Taliban is hiding in Pakistan after launching attacks against colition troops.
    Taliban roams freely in Pakistan and pakistanis know who they are where they live, what they do.
    Paksitan is playing double game with US and the World.
    Look at how these pakis come together in their hatred of India, if only they came together when faced with terrorists , pakistan won't be in the mess it is right now.
    But how could they? Why would they? Because they are the ones who created them. The terrorists, the Pakistani military and ISI are Pakistanis!! That is why.


  • Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 09/22/2008 12:28:03 PM

    John McCain is an avid reader and is known for rereading many works of his favorite authors. The favorite author of John McCain is Herman Wouk who has written The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, and the Caine Mutiny. Wouk served as an executive Naval officer aboard a minesweeper during War War II and used that experience in forming the character of Captain Queeg in the Caine Mutiny. Victor Henry the main character in Winds of War and War and Remembrance was a naval officer who became a confidant both to FDR and Harry Truman. FDR and Harry Truman went outside the normal channels of military command and relied on Victor Henry for straight talk advice on how to approach Russia and Germany and Japan prior and during World War II. John McCain sees himself as the Victor Henry character who was a realist in foreign policy and understood the nuances of war and foreign policy better than anyone. John McCain is a realist and more knowledgeable about foreign policy than either Joe Biden or Barack Obama due to his experiences and also just growing up as the son and grandson of Navy admirals. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have no military background between them and do not even have the background to know who to connect with to get straight back channel information. Barack Obama and Joe Biden lack the knowledge to even ask the right questions even if they could line up a current day Pug Henry commander to give them the straight scoop. It is totally inaccurate to argue that John McCain is somehow dogmatic in his approach and understanding of foreign affairs. Herman Wouk wove history into his novels. There is saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat history. John McCain knows history and has lived it and will use that knowledge to guide the United States through the tough challenges that we face in the war on terror, radical Islam and dealing with a resurgent Russia.

  • Posted By: mosobczak @ 09/11/2008 9:55:55 AM

    Holly Garfield. I don't know you, but you are so refreshing to read. I have been to Afghanistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iraq. I have seen the insanity of Bosnia. With all the failings of our system, the biggest problem Americans have is getting fat. OUR SYSTEM works. Our system is based upon "do to others as you want them to do to you" and it is powered by a pretty good legal system. Those other countries are run by people who only care for themselves and use God or race/tribe as a tool to keep the people suppressed.

    Thank you for posting your comments. It really is wonderful to see that I am not alone in loving what America not only stands for, but is.

    • Posted By: TheVigil @ 09/12/2008 8:34:41 PM

      1. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America, so obesity is indeed one of the bigger problems we have, and not a trivial one.

      2. We get fat because we consume so much of the world's resources disproportionately and at an utterly unsustainable rate. Our system is not a paradise nor is it one that the environment ultimately will be able to withstand.

    • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 10:49:55 AM

      Thank you for your compliment. The people that you know over there are the same people that I see over here. These are the ones who gave up everything to come here not knowing or bringing anything except the clothes on their backs and what they could carry. They didn't even know the language. They are also what made this country what it is today, and what it will be in the future.

  • Posted By: Trooper101st @ 09/11/2008 7:41:51 AM

    EXPAT, you seem to forget that this is the area that harbored the "people" responsible for the WTC attack. I guess you think the Moros in Mindinao are "freedom fighters" also. Not only are we going to cleanse A-stan, those 157 training camps have already targeted, and they are in "PAKISTAN". The claim of soveriegnty by the P-stani's is a JOKE. Next time I make the trip to Zambo, I'll look ya up so I can "educate" you.

    • Posted By: rangerone314 @ 09/11/2008 2:29:45 PM

      Trooper101st.... I agree with you. There is a HUGE difference between "claiming" sovereignty and "exercising" sovereignty. If Pakistan cannot exercise sovereignty over the areas inside Pakistan that have Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps, then Pakistan's claim of sovereignty is INVALID.

      • Posted By: TheVigil @ 09/12/2008 8:32:35 PM

        It's invalid more or less by fact. If they can't get in to prevent international terrorism from taking place, they don't really rule the area. And we do have enough evidence there - in stark opposition to most of the places where we've CLAIMED we've had evidence - to justify going in and trying to clean out these insurgent nests.

        Either way, we have to stop pouring money and lives into Iraq's sinkhole and find a way to target these Pakistani border areas without turning that nation completely against us...

  • Posted By: snakeheadkiller @ 09/12/2008 4:58:24 PM

    I am glad to see that the fight against these fanatic Islamicists is finally happening in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Afghanistan is corrup, has always been corrupt and will be corrupt. As we sweep out the fanatics, we need to get rid of the poppy fields as well, Screw these warlords who are today loyal to the govt,,,These warlords should be sitting in the cells of Gitmo also,,

    The real fanatics that are being recruited are often Pakistanis , Chechens, and Arab Muslims from Europe, and the Arabian Gulf. Let me show up and send them home dead in boxes as that is the only way the families will realize that their children are becoming religiously corrupt.

    There have been very few good things about Iraq: We got rid of Saddam, freed the Kurds, gave good training to our Armed Forces, tested our new weapons including drones, and pointed out the ways of the miserable AL Qaeda to other Iraqi Sunnis who turned and fought them. Yeah we sure wasted a lot of time , lives, and money going in there but now we cannot change the hands of time but could some of the few positives of this,,,

    Onward to the Afghan-Pakistan border so we can clean out the areas of these fanatics and close these training camps. IF Pakistan refuses to assist, we do not need to give them any more money and let them deal with their economic and social issues alone. Unfortunately they do have nuclear weapons and hopefully General Kahani of the Pakistan Army will guard these well,,,

  • Posted By: bleed101 @ 09/12/2008 11:49:53 AM

    Biased media outlets LOVE to print that civillian casualties are happening. They would rather print propaganda than facts. The national media has to print facts, or opinions. that what they write improves the morale of the opposition and decreases ours. Take some responsibilities media, you think you are helping, but in fact are hurting our soldiers on the field. Talk about and print what they are doing to mothers and daughters and sons over there. Show footage of military outposts next to residential areas. Print excerpts of mistreated children, raped women, and forceful techniques that the Taliban employ.
    Instead of showing your opposition to the war by printing their propaganda, and show our boys over there that Americans are behind them. Quit giving the enemy free publicity....

  • Posted By: neophyte @ 09/11/2008 1:40:37 PM

    I was a U.S Army guy 38 years ago. We didn't give kids candy bars. We shot people who looked at us funny. Our troops followed the same procedures in Iraq for the first years we were there. An american life was worth more than any number of lives of foreigners. The aspect of the surge that has changed things in Iraq is not the increase in troops, it is the change in tactics. The troop increase was necessary to tamp things down that we had let get completely out of hand while we pursued our Rambo, tough guy strategy. The improvements have come from a belated realization that we had to pursue a counter-insurgency strategy. In the 2000 election we heard Bush and his faction of chest pounding, flag wavers expound that the U.S.A. didn't do "nation building". Well, unfortunately for a lot of families here, the mission we got needed the skills of "nation building" and we were not equipped to meet that mission. We still aren't doing it well in Afghanistan, although the challenges there are different than Iraq. We need to apply counter-insurgency strategy to the Afghan situation, and airstrikes and shock and awe are not the tools that will succeed.

    • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 3:44:53 PM

      The program on the 10th Mountain Division showed that if our troops handed a kid a smile and a candy bar that the kid would tell them about the insurgent around the corner with the AK-47. Candy bars saved more than a few fire fights and casualties, both US and civilian. Cheaper than a dozen clips of M-16 rounds, too.

  • Posted By: expatincebu @ 09/11/2008 3:36:33 AM

    Good for the insurgents. The US and NATO have no business being in Afghanistan, they are the terrorist, not the Afghans (once again) fighting to drive out foreign invaders. And if you think this is a just war then you are just plain ignorant.

    • Posted By: rangerone314 @ 09/11/2008 2:26:54 PM

      A few hundred cobalt bombs dropped on Afghanistan would eliminate the need for US and NATO to be there.

  • Posted By: Frank Zhang @ 09/11/2008 12:37:06 PM

    ???911??? ----7 years
    NO violence

  • Posted By: audie @ 09/11/2008 11:46:11 AM

    Is that woman nuts? She obviously has not had any contact with the U.S. immigration services if she thinks the U.S. welcomes the "poor, huddled, masses." I married a foreign woman 3 months after 9/11. It took 3 years to get her a green card. We are calculating 5 years from now to get her citizenship, and you cannot even imagine the heinous process if you have not been inside it.

    • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 12:21:27 PM

      I live in an area that has 20% immigrants, virtually all from distressed areas. Yes, it may be hard, but not impossible. One of my closest freinds was a former Iranian soldier who drew some pictures that the Ayatollah didn't like. He was imprisoned, and went through Japan, Germany and the UK before arriving here. He was a Wal-Mart cashier for some years, took computer graphics courses at the local community college and finally got a job in New York as a graphic artist. He has been a citizen for under a year. But he is now working for a high tech graphics animation company, and very happy. I have seen the faces of the people who know what a nightmare really is, and US immigration paperwork is not anywhere near that kind of nightmare. I worked in a cell phone call center. US citizens had similar nightmares with US bureauocracies getting government relief. It's part of living in the USA. We have paperwork nightmares. We don't have nightmares that the Taliban and AlQaeda give, though. If your wife had a choice between the US Immigration Service procedures and living with the Taliban which would she choose?

      We have been a bit 'spoiled' here in the US. We think of a trip to Immigration or the DMV as a headache. I will not pretend to believe that I know anything at all about what is happening in these overseas societies. I know that my friends who have come back from combat tours, often severely wounded, don't even begin to look like my friend who lived in these overseas nightmares. One friend looked like she was straight out of the pictures of Auschwitz. She had already been her a couple of years. Two years later she still hadn't changed. The gaunt', skeletal face, looked like she had the body to match, the sunken, black eyes. never changed. There was a teenager I thought was a drug addict at first. His eye sockets were totally charcoal black. He looked like he hadn't slept a wink in three years. The family helping him were immigrants themselves. It took months before he could walk without staggering and months more before he started to look human. The paperwork and procedures may be a nghtmare to you, even maybe your wife, but it is still better than what these people came from. 3 months after 9/11 this whole country was still in a justifiable paranoid panic. You state you had problems, But you also state that even that close to this country's biggest nightmare to hit it's shores since 12/7/41 you wer still able to get your wife into this country.

      My sister worked at Tripler Army Hospital on 9/11. I think 3 months later she was still getting her car (all employees of this huge hospital) searched for bombs every day she went to work. If workers with top secret clearance can't even get to work after 3 months why would you think an immigrant would have an easy time back then?


  • Posted By: garysgary @ 09/11/2008 11:12:51 AM

    The only thing wrong with Afghanistan is...they have been ruled by religious conservatives for centuries...think about it. Holly Garfield....You want to help the Afghans so much...why don't you go over there and and volunteer your time and money to help free them!

    • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 11:28:48 AM

      I would be a burden, not an asset, with my lack of skills needed over there. I have no farming, educational or medical experience. I am a late 50 something who has never learned a foreign language. I have diabetes and high blood pressure. I could not add more than I would burden. I do what I can in these postings.

  • Posted By: Akmatic @ 09/11/2008 11:04:24 AM

    Ah yes, the brave and honorable mujahideen/insurgents, fighting for their own greed, power and incredibly outdated religious beliefs which somehow justify the use of women and children as human shields, murdering innocent civilians and acting like overall savages in the name of Allah. It???s amazing how you can twist religion to suite your own needs when you???re dealing with a country of completely uneducated individuals.

    Am I the only one who thinks it???s kind of ironic that expat would bother to use the word ???ignorant??????b/c I???m pretty sure no one would care about or be in Afghanistan if it didn???t provide a haven for the exportation & training of fundamentalist terrorism? I???d be fine with allowing them to grow as much poppy as they can and rule the country via their disfigured hard line form of Islam as long as they keep it inside the country. If they were capable of that, we wouldn???t need to be in the first place.

    Unfortunately, in order to get the people of Pakistan to accept what needs to be done in those tribal areas for the greater good of everyone, they???ll need to suffer more civilian casualties via terrorist/insurgent bombings amongst the general populous in order to get popular support for extensive military intervention versus the current mentality of ???not our problem???. Until then, the problem will only escalate b/c the US isn???t looking to sit on its hand and let the situation sort itself out.

  • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 8:43:13 AM

    Comment end:

    To the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan: are you a tired, poor hddled mass yearning to breathe free, free of violence and tyrrany, free to choose what you want to be and work to become that person, free to live and move as you wish, to make your own way in life? Seconds before the cowardly scum that lives among you sent their infection out to murder 3,000 innocent, unaware people like yourselves that day 7 years ago that infection flew over that lady with the lamp, the Statue of Liberty. As the inscription says at the bottom of that statue:

    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

    Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

    "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

    With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

    We in the US welcome all to our shores. Even those who live among the dastardly cowards of 9/11. Welcome you even though the Statue of Liberty looked over the World Trade Center as those beautiful twin towers collapsed. We here in the US have welcomed you as long as we have existed. Most of us are either those who lived what you are living or are 1 or 2 generations removed from the world's victims of the tyrrany you are living. We know your suffering. That is why we are there in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We know, know more of treachery, horror, stifling, torture, mass execution, desecration than any other country on earth. We know because almost everyone here is a victim or son or daugter, grandson or gradddaughter of thse victims like you. My friends and neighbors are Russian, Iranian, Ukranian, Serbian soldiers and families, among many others too numerous to name. We all work together in peace here. The Muslim works next to the Christian to help the Jew and Hindu. We worship in holy buildings side by side. The patents for that compact disk in you computer is held by a Baptist Christian. The lead scientist who developed those patents was a Hindu who was educated in Britian. His wife had a PhD in high definition television. they all live or lived right where I am. If you want to stay where you are then we can still help by showing you how to live free. The Taliban and AlQaeda can never do anything like that. They are incapable of letting others live who are not their underlings. Let us in with open arms and you can have it all, if you wish. Or come her to the US if you wish.


  • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 8:40:25 AM

    comment continued, sorry for the repeat:

    I can see why a ruthless, backward bunch of sorry thugs would want the US out. US troops treat children with kindness and human respect, and give them hope for the future. The children will sell out any Taliban or insurgent for a smile and a candy bar. The US had something else that the lowly Taliban fear... a commissioned officer, a helicopter gunship pilot, that was a woman. These scum are afraid of their women finding out that in the world outside of their compound women are treated with intelligence and respect. Women can do anything a man can do, and are given a chance to do, outside of their forced, tiny world. Women know that with the Taliban and AlQaeda they are cooks, cleaners, baby factories and cannon fodder. Nothing else. If they can rid themselves of these vile dirtbags then the women are finding out they can run businesses, be doctors and nurses, teachers and administrators, and even global leaders. The fear that the Taliban and AlQaeda have of their milchcows finding out that the whole world is open to them if the milchcows leave these 'men' (I use that term loosely in this case) behind is their biggest fear of all. The fear that their little lust toys and cannon fodder are real, valuable people to the rest of the world is unbearable to them.

  • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 8:39:15 AM

    my comment continued:

    On this day, the second day to live in infamy, this is the news we need to support the US troops already in Afghanistan and to add as many as necessary to root out the cowardly, despicable rot that hides among the good civilians in that area of the world. These filthy worms attack civilians around the world for nothing but their own sick, warped hatred. They cry like babies and hide behind women's skirts when even a small amount of the violence they export to others comes back an hits them. They are nothing but bullies and thugs hiding behind their mother's skirts and their children's bodies. They make their filthy money by dealing drugs around the world and kidnapping those trying to help the good people of Afghanistan for money.

    The Presidents of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now working even more closely with the US and coalition forces to get the sick evil out of their countries. They can't do it alone. Afghanistan is growing its army and the US is training them in geurilla fighting and developing local good will. The leaders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now both ready for combined US and coalition help and teamwork. They want our troops out and to rid themselves of vileness. They know that getting the US troops to both keep the scum in check and train their own forces will free them to live and be productive once again.

    A documentary on the US 10th Mountain Division, the main Army force in Afghanistan, showed that the US supplies tractors (10 to one village alone), school books and supplies, trains farmers in simple veterinary skills, develop roads and buildings, helps local leaders develop an organized government run by the whole population and other things to make them a more happy, productive people. The Taliban and AlQaeda are trying to turn back the clock two thousand years for these people. The civilians would rather grow food for themselves rather than grow opium poppies for the Taliban and the world's drug lords. The US is helping them do this.

  • Posted By: Holly Garfield @ 09/11/2008 8:37:19 AM

    On this day, the second day to live in infamy, this is the news we need to support the US troops already in Afghanistan and to add as many as necessary to root out the cowardly, despicable rot that hides among the good civilians in that area of the world. These filthy worms attack civilians around the world for nothing but their own sick, warped hatred. They cry like babies and hide behind women's skirts when even a small amount of the violence they export to others comes back an hits them. They are nothing but bullies and thugs hiding behind their mother's skirts and their children's bodies. They make their filthy money by dealing drugs around the world and kidnapping those trying to help the good people of Afghanistan for money.

    The Presidents of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now working even more closely with the US and coalition forces to get the sick evil out of their countries. They can't do it alone. Afghanistan is growing its army and the US is training them in geurilla fighting and developing local good will. The leaders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now both ready for combined US and coalition help and teamwork. They want our troops out and to rid themselves of vileness. They know that getting the US troops to both keep the scum in check and train their own forces will free them to live and be productive once again.

    A documentary on the US 10th Mountain Division, the main Army force in Afghanistan, showed that the US supplies tractors (10 to one village alone), school books and supplies, trains farmers in simple veterinary skills, develop roads and buildings, helps local leaders develop an organized government run by the whole population and other things to make them a more happy, productive people. The Taliban and AlQaeda are trying to turn back the clock two thousand years for these people. The civilians would rather grow food for themselves rather than grow opium poppies for the Taliban and the world's drug lords. The US is helping them do this.

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