and as always I wonder what is wrong with people who think this is an appropriate response to anything.

for all sides

we, as a species, never seem to learn that lesson.

It is as if people think "THIS act of violence will fix it all".

And then a whole bunch of new fresher people have to learn lessons all over again.

Especially now, when people are going mondo whacko over "You can't tell me what to do!".

Obstinate ignorance has become a respectable, acceptable, even desirable commodity. That is sad.

as Danes or French or Americans?

1. From someone else's OP this morning: 11 Reasons To Be Glad You’re Not A Republican

#6: "When someone is in need for help, I don’t ask “Why?” but “What can I do to help?”

HOW we help is always a complicated question, but the desire to help is a liberal trait.

2. Of course they matter as much. Even if they live far away, they are much like us.

Nice post

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
John Donne

we'll see tomorrow's news and forget all about the horror that happened in Afghanistan this morning. There will be a cute kitten cuddling with a duckling and a video of a dog howling that sounds like he is saying "I love you!" and maybe the iPhone 8 will be released and nobody will care.

Pain and suffering in another country filled with people who don't look or sound like us isn't real news. If people gave a shit about stuff like that they'd probably abhor the politicians who supported those wars and demand that we pull out of that region instead of killing more.

I was in Iraq in 2004 when a car bomb blew up in my sector in the town of Khan Bani Sa'ad and killed more than 50 people. I don't even think it made the world news let alone anyone remembered by anyone other than me, the guys in my platoon who stuffed bodybags and garbage bags with human remains, and the families of people nobody cares about who lost their loved ones that day. But who gives a fuck? That was more than 10 years ago and it should be forgotten and the people who supported that war should get a pass from the American public on their support and elected president of our country. Yippee!!

By the time you read this they'll be up to the iPhone 9s.

One of my nephews was there at the same time

You never know who you run into.

My brother was in Iraq the same time I was, but he was with a completely different division hanging out at Baghdad International Airport. I go to a PTSD support group from time to time and one of the guys in the support group I share stories with actually served directly under my brother. They knew each other quite well.

I worked with the 1st Infantry Division and my sector was directly north of Baghdad, between the Sadr City neighborhood and Baqubah. I lived on FOB Gabe and frequented FOB Warhorse, FOB Scunion, and Ballad Air Base on a very regular basis. If your nephew was at any of those places between FEB 2004 and March 2005 chances are we pass each other in a chow hall.

I was actually assigned to 2-2 Infantry Battalion, but my platoon was attached to a Combat Engineer Battalion for the duration of my deployment to Iraq. I spent all of my time with the 82nd Engineer Battalion on FOB Gabe. If any of this sounds vaguely familiar to you or your nephew, I'd be really interested to know.

and Fallujah is now worse than ever

if you are, then I am.

I watched it happen with my own eyes this morning.

I felt it go off. Thought a helo hit the building, as there was one right over us as it went off. The building shook and ceiling tiles got knocked around. Grabbed a rifle and ran outside to make sure it wasn't my compound that got hit. I look down the way and there's black smoke coming up.

What a fugging mess.

The true true believers will never stop. Ideology is timeless. We can be here another hundred years, but on year 101, some Imam or mullah is going to rally the young men to usher in another era of footloose town, complete with beheadings and burkas for all. The forward thinking, modern, and educated afghans are all leaving the country. In the end, you have a super refined, concentrated poplation of extremist supporters, or those that just cant be bothered to care either way. We just have to decide whether we are going to stay and hold back the tide, or leave now, cut our loses, and see mass executions on the soccer fields via CNN. If we stay, there is a chance. not a good one, but a chance.

is that the US military is in Afghanistan to do good.

Pure rubbish.

If they pulled out tomorrow, you'd see tribal and ethnic cleansing that would make the Turks blush. The president and his administration don't want another Iraq on its hands, and that is EXACTLY what we'd be left with. The afghans cannot prop their selves up against what would happen without direct support, and that is a simple fact. We broke it, and now we're damned into buying it for a good long while. There's more to it than the whole MIC, money, oil, etc tropes that get paraded out when it comes to this sort of thing. Are corporations making bank off of it? Without a doubt. Such is the reality of fighting a war with an army that doesn't cook it's own food, drive it's own fuel, and forge it's own wrenches. While I think Iraq had more to do with sweetheart deals, handshakes and business moves, the same cannot be said for the current state of the ongoing operations here in afghanistan. It's far more complicated than most people realize, and I'm discovering each day just how much there is I never knew I didn't know.

Bye.

that our presence will never result in stability and justice for Afghanistan. Our involvement there has, from the beginning, been purely self-serving.

until we die.

Fitting.

Much like the clogs in a drain fittingly deny clear water. Good luck!

The world wasn't all Americans on 9/11. We weren't all French with that attack. It's all our small attempts at finding meaning.

Nobody, anywhere, doesn't go to work tomorrow because some tragedy happened somewhere far away today. We all go back to our own daily lives, whatever that may be.

yes yes yes and yes

The Taliban are monsters

These groups have a foot on the neck of the communities they are in. They cause more death and destruction to their own people then to us. We want to help the people, but that is impossible without troops on the ground for a very long time and hitting them way harder then we have. Unfortunately that would also result in many civilian deaths.

People say 'why don't the civilians rise up?". But they live in fear every second of every day.

I wish I knew what the solution was. My heart breaks for the people under the rule of the Taliban, BokaHarem, Isis, etc. They are monsters with ZERO redeeming value to society.

Mission Accomplished

We could have had universal health care and then some with that much money.