Recently, the American people have seen Secretary Gates and Secretary Rice with increased intensity traveling around the world pleading with and lobbying NATO countries to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. To the vast majority of people throughout the world, it is no surprise that the U.S. is getting a cold response because the U.S. does not have a viable plan to succeed in Afghanistan. Even if lets say the U.S. were to get NATO countries to commit the extraordinary number of another 40,000 combat troops to the fight, seven years from now the world would still see a significant Taliban military force in Afghanistan threatening the Afghanistan government and people and the world would see that hundreds of NATO soldiers had died in the fight in Afghanistan over the prior seven years. Until the U.S. comes up with a plan to get Afghanistan farmers off the poppy crop which currently is a primary funding source for the Taliban militants and “severely corrupts” large portions of Afghanistan and a winning plan to build a solid education system through the university level throughout Afghanistan which will inspire and show the Afghanistan people how to build a country that is good country not a rights-deprived country which the Taliban only offer the U.S. does not have a viable plan to succeed in Afghanistan. Part of this successful plan would require that Afghanistan farmers be guaranteed a good price for their non-poppy crops and be guaranteed a good means for them to transport their non-poppy crop from their fields to the marketplace; the Bush Administration would be pursuing the right strategy in Afghanistan if they would bring this anti-poppy crop plan to fruition. One thing that is a shocking surprise about this whole Afghanistan matter is, how the United States of America’s military which has performed so extraordinarily brilliantly in Iraq (they have pursued local community reconciliation, job creation, infrastructure building, etc.) can be offering such lousy leadership on Afghanistan; the U.S. military’s leadership on Afghanistan amounts to this: essentially the only thing the Afghanistan effort needs to succeed is more soldiers to fight which is a false hope and frankly a failure to themselves and the American people, let’s hope the U.S. military’s leadership will soon start to perform at their potential on Afghanistan!

The US in its haste to extract revenge for the attacks of 9/11 invaded Afghanistan and installed the Northern Alliance as a replacement for the Taliban. The Northern Alliance was a minority group in Afghanistan and has never had the support of the Afghan people and is therefore doomed to failure.

The Taliban, on the other hand, has the support of both the people and the warlords that actually run Afghanistan today. The fight against the Taliban is fundamentally a fight against the Afghan people and cannot be won.

No nation should understand better that governments must originate with the people of a nation as opposed to being dictated by the political agendas of foreign powers than the United States and yet we repeatedly fail in this regard. We forced a government on S Vietnam and it failed. We forced a government on Haiti and it has failed. We forced a government on Afghanistan and it is failing. We forced a government on Iraq and it will eventually fail.

The solution for both Afghanistan and Iraq is for all foreign powers to remove their armies and let the people of those nations determine their own future without foreign intervention.

last time i checked, we had a coalition in Afghanistan. Remember, Germany, Britain, France, Spain all were integral parts of the fighting force.

lol, right.

how about we move some asses from smoking some of the opium up north over to the east. i think you can see what country i am specifically talking about, the one that took over Europe 60 years ago. Yes, we could use that fighting spirit.

Interest is the key word....so far IMO I don't think the USA is interested in Afghanistan their presence is just a pretense a cover up or an excuse to be in Iraq.

The USA stand a very good chance in succeeding in Afghanistan if they really want to than in Iraq because in Afghanistan all major super powers are stepping aside and not interfering with the USA because they too have no interest in AFghanistan.

Karzai have said that he is willing to be a puppet of the USA, unfortantely the USA are not interested.

Pakistan is the only country that is supporting the Taliban in an indirect way and so far Pakistan is willing to work with the USA especially if pressure hard such as threatening to build India up as a super power in that region.

The USA need to let go of their "right of conquest" claim over Iraq and allow the rest of the super powers or allies to enter Iraq independent of USA interferance and or control.

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"The wise is never confused; the benevolent is never worried, & the courageous is never afraid." CONFUCIUS

Eh...no? Can you tell me when Germany had fighting forces there? Germany always declined it. Well it doesn't matter cause 1) a soldier fights a brutal way always 2) the ISAF requests meanwhile more often warplanes.

Karzai's brother is one of the most "famous" drugdealers in Afghanistan. What does this say?
The Afghans are backing the Taliban cause they had established an order (at all), not nothing, as it is now. An order where not everyone got kidnapped.

Black - Red - Gold.
If you start like this it is obvious.

And 75 years since Hitler's "takeover."

Well, it's simply not my problem and don't see it as a problem if there are still people who will and want to blame us forever. What you overlook is, that it isn't a specific problem of Germany, it's a problem of humanity.

You mean a "spirit" the Nazis had? For 22 000 deserters. Prisoners of war. 6 million Jews. Sinte and Roma. Homosexuals. Easterner. Communists and socialists. Leftwingers. Pacifists. The Scholl sibs. Carl von Ossietzky. Bonhoeffer and the Confession Church. All resistance fighters, political prisoners, for the own soldiers, 57 million dead soldiers. Or in fact for total war and destruction.

If someone wants to committ genocide on Afghans - what we're actually doing - this "gene" truly would be the best.
And this now all Germans (must) have?

Those who may have this "fighting spirit" are those of the NPD (is a neonazi party). I can tell you in general, for the majority of Germans, that there's no "fighting spirit" that you could use for war plans, no glory about war, no pride about the military. 86 % are opposing the mission in Afghanistan. It won't need so much time until the government gives up.

I'm full of confidence that such images won't exist anymore. In one or two years the war is over.

The minority government from the Northern Alliance is doomed to ultimate failure because it does not have the support of the Afgan People.

I am kind of suprised Germany is participating in Afghanistan, given that they dislike foreign adventurism. Are there any German units in Iraq?

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"Oh people, know that you have committed great sins. If you ask me what proof I have for these words, I say it is because I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you!" -- Genghis Khan, Bukhara 1220