I don't read many news articles that completely piss me off, but this one did it...

[Will Bozarth]

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago

KABUL – Taliban gunmen used a firing squad to kill a young couple in southern Afghanistan for trying to elope, shooting them with rifles in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region, officials said Tuesday.

The woman, 19, and the man, 21, were accused by the militants of immoral acts, and a council of conservative clerics decided that the two should be killed, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of the southwestern province of Nimroz.

The two had fled their homes and hoped to travel to Iran, but their parents sent villagers to bring them home, said Sadiq Chakhansori, the chief of Nimroz' provincial council. Once back home, the pair was either turned over to the Taliban by their parents or the militants came and took them by force, the officials said, providing slightly varying accounts.

Riflemen in the remote district of Khash Rod shot the man and woman with AK-47s Monday, said Chakhansori.

In remote and dangerous regions of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters operate what are sometimes referred to as shadow governments, where militant leaders serve as government officials and run their own police units and pseudo court systems.

The Afghan government has no access to the remote region where the two were shot, said Jabar Pardeli, the provincial police chief of Nimroz.

The conservative Taliban movement ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and put in place harsh social rules that forbade unmarried men and women to talk or meet in public. Women were not allowed out of their homes without a male relative, and girls couldn't go to school.

Taliban fighters have widened their influence the last three years and now control many remote districts in Afghanistan where there are not enough U.S., NATO or Afghan forces to establish a permanent presence.

Responding to commanders' requests for more troops, President Barack Obama recently announced that the U.S. would send 21,000 more troops to the country this summer to bolster the 38,000 U.S. forces already in the country.


I'm all about the war in Afghanistan. Take them out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan, I say.

 

[Dead Winter]

I'm all about the war in Afghanistan. Take them out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan, I say.

That's exactly what they're doing right now, to the tune of around 17,000 US troops being added. Still, it's not enough, as we are LOSING the war in Afghanistan.

It's funny to see people's reaction when they hear things like that. It's like you just punched their baby or something. The fact is, Iraq is going better than Afghanistan, if you can believe it.

I still say that winning of hearts and minds will never work. War is about killing, and if one doesn't have the stomach for it, then he/she shouldn't be involved in the employment of forces or the creation of policy for war. War has become something of a national pastime in the US, and it shouldn't be like that. It's not a reason to flex your muscles, as the last administration has used it. It's a last resort...however, as a last resort, it should be remorseless, swift, and devastating. We're in the business of killing people, not making them like us.

Same shit with these pirates. Destroy them on-sight and you won't have very many more problems with piracy off the coast of Somalia.

 

[Nightshade]

That's exactly what they're doing right now, to the tune of around 17,000 US troops being added. Still, it's not enough, as we are LOSING the war in Afghanistan.

It's funny to see people's reaction when they hear things like that. It's like you just punched their baby or something. The fact is, Iraq is going better than Afghanistan, if you can believe it.

I still say that winning of hearts and minds will never work. War is about killing, and if one doesn't have the stomach for it, then he/she shouldn't be involved in the employment of forces or the creation of policy for war. War has become something of a national pastime in the US, and it shouldn't be like that. It's not a reason to flex your muscles, as the last administration has used it. It's a last resort...however, as a last resort, it should be remorseless, swift, and devastating. We're in the business of killing people, not making them like us.

Same shit with these pirates. Destroy them on-sight and you won't have very many more problems with piracy off the coast of Somalia.

You're right. It's not a popular sentiment, but you're right. I'm all in favor of balance, understanding, education, putting yourself in the other person's shoes, trying to build them up so they can succeed, etc. But when and if you decide your country is going to war with another country, exactly how many different historical examples do you need that being 'civilized' about it is going to put you at a disadvantage? For that matter, it doesn't even have to be war. It can be an armed conflict between two people and still, the one most willing to pull the trigger 'wins'. It's not rocket science. If you're not willing to do what would be necessary to win the war, perhaps you need to rethink your decision to go to war and find another way through your problem.

And, all that said, the country may be backwards and religiously retarded, but it's probably important to put things in perspective -- they publicly executed a couple for eloping, which they consider wrong. It's not like some guy strangled them, cut them up and put them in the freezer to eat later....

 

[slashvanyoung]

The Russians spent a whole decade trying to bring them down and didn't succeed... The topography makes it almost impossible to do so. And that these guys don't have a French attitude by any means doesn't help either.

People say Iraq is another 'nam... when the situation in Afghanistan is way worse.

 

[Lord Foul]

I agree that a lot of what goes on in the Islamic world is heinous, but I just don't see why we should invest our time and resources in foreign wars of this sort. Sure, we could carpet bomb Afghanistan until it is a smooth, level, silent desert, but wouldn't that effort be better spent on improving any of:

Our crime rate
Our education system
Our health care system
Our economy
Our environmental irresponsibility
Our toxic lifestyle
Any of a thousand fatal and/or debilitating illnesses
Our subsidized corn and wheat farming base
Our racism, homophobia, and general intolerance
Our deeply polarized, left vs. right political system
etc
etc
etc

This list could be pages long, and the fact is that even if we are successful beyond all possible imagining and Iraq and Afghanistan become perfect little US puppet democracies, we will have obtained FAR less in return for the vast amount of time, lives, and money spent than making a single major stride in even a single line from the above list.