I just heard on CNN that 100,000 Iraqi men, women, and children have been killed in our latest Iraq War.
We have now lost 1,200 soldiers, whith about 6,000 injured.
Have I mentioned we are all going to Hell? Or Cleveland, whichever is closer at the time we die.
My God What Have We Done
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Tommy Martyn
- Mile High Club
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- Location: a desk
Well it woudn't be a war without the killing. As sad as the deaths may be, I'm glad we went into Afghanistan. It was the right thing to do. I wish we had stayed longer and committed more resources to this conflict. Not dealing with the Taliban in this way, in this area, at this time, would have resulted in many more dead.
As our president might say, hard work.
As our president might say, hard work.
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sara
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sara
"Tommy- I understand you. Green Bay is the most workiong class town in the NFL. If you want to go to a game, well you can't. Sold out with little Soul , all the soul fat white people can muster for the next 1,000000 years. Unless you are in my family and have tickets. I flew from Paris to go to a game once. We won. How working class is that?"
I believe Brett Favre is from somewhere outside of Gulf Port. oh, wait, did I put this in the wrong place?
I believe Brett Favre is from somewhere outside of Gulf Port. oh, wait, did I put this in the wrong place?
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sara
jeez, I'm just stumbling across all kinds of weird things, in weird places -- check this out:
"Next week Tracy is going to a company party. Troy Aikman will be there and you can get one item signed. If the line is not too long she will probably get a ball signed. Is anybody on here a Cowboys fan? Can't say I've noticed.
On the 26th I've been invited to see a Bengals game from one of the skyboxes. Anthony Munoz (Possibly the best Bengal ever) will be with us. The box belongs to Athletes in Action, the christian gang. I'll be the only beer guzzling heathen in the bunch. Amen."
"Next week Tracy is going to a company party. Troy Aikman will be there and you can get one item signed. If the line is not too long she will probably get a ball signed. Is anybody on here a Cowboys fan? Can't say I've noticed.
On the 26th I've been invited to see a Bengals game from one of the skyboxes. Anthony Munoz (Possibly the best Bengal ever) will be with us. The box belongs to Athletes in Action, the christian gang. I'll be the only beer guzzling heathen in the bunch. Amen."
here i go again...
this is one area in paxacidus in which we agree to disagree. i am on the record for supporting military measures in ex-yugoslavia and in afghanistan. this is coming from a guy who was a conscientious objecter in the 1980s. i think those two were based on the principles of proportionality, transparency, international majority, and limited duration.
sloth is against all such interventions; chiefton hates all governments. mc, i think, is a wishy-washy clintonist just like me. i think i can live with all such opinions; what boils my water is the old-testament-justified, based-on-cia-lies imperialist war in iraq.
this is one area in paxacidus in which we agree to disagree. i am on the record for supporting military measures in ex-yugoslavia and in afghanistan. this is coming from a guy who was a conscientious objecter in the 1980s. i think those two were based on the principles of proportionality, transparency, international majority, and limited duration.
sloth is against all such interventions; chiefton hates all governments. mc, i think, is a wishy-washy clintonist just like me. i think i can live with all such opinions; what boils my water is the old-testament-justified, based-on-cia-lies imperialist war in iraq.
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TragicPixie
- Mile High Club
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- Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:19 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
- Contact:
I didn't mind our involvement in the Taliban... okay, I wasn't *happy* about it, but I wouldn't have protested. We took care of business and probably should have spent maybe a little more time there rather than just installing a puppet government and looking the other way.
I am opposed to the war in Iraq. Until I am give a valid reason to be there - and I'm not really sure the the basis of it was an evil dictatorship is a good reason. I could make the same argument about the Bush administartion - far fetched but hey - if we were across the globe and everything maybe it could be done. Eh ... oh well hell, now I'm sad.
I am opposed to the war in Iraq. Until I am give a valid reason to be there - and I'm not really sure the the basis of it was an evil dictatorship is a good reason. I could make the same argument about the Bush administartion - far fetched but hey - if we were across the globe and everything maybe it could be done. Eh ... oh well hell, now I'm sad.
Lie to me, it takes less time to drink you pretty.
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mccutcheon
- New York Scribbler
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- Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2000 8:01 am
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
it all comes out in the wash
for the record I am a wishy washy clintonist. I think he was one of our best pres ever. I think this because the country was booming and we were not at war and he also tried his damn best to bring peace in the middle east. As for the sex stuff I wouldn't give two shits if he was gay! The horror!
I supported going into Afghanistan for all but one reason...
I felt that we wouldn't know where to stop. We'll we didn't.
It's only going to get worse and more people are going to get killed. With the economic climate here in the USA, there are three choices for most kids: be a corporate whore, work at Walmart, or join the Army.
I am disgusted at the video game ads for the Army. To me this beats all the tobacco, beer, and anti-drug ads combined. War is not a fucking game.
This is scary: I recently heard the US Armed forces actually helps pay to DEVELOP those first person shooter games I love so much. I know this much: they advertise on the fucking Playstation sites. They are the harbingers of death, sin, and maiming. Fuck them.
Rumsfeld is not leaving. This is not a good sign.
Tom Ridge IS leaving. This is good because the guy is a non-thinking 50's style war politician. The bad news is he is being replaced by A FUCKING GOON named Bernard Kerik.
The new guy looks like a bouncer at a nazi gay bar.
I felt that we wouldn't know where to stop. We'll we didn't.
It's only going to get worse and more people are going to get killed. With the economic climate here in the USA, there are three choices for most kids: be a corporate whore, work at Walmart, or join the Army.
I am disgusted at the video game ads for the Army. To me this beats all the tobacco, beer, and anti-drug ads combined. War is not a fucking game.
This is scary: I recently heard the US Armed forces actually helps pay to DEVELOP those first person shooter games I love so much. I know this much: they advertise on the fucking Playstation sites. They are the harbingers of death, sin, and maiming. Fuck them.
Rumsfeld is not leaving. This is not a good sign.
Tom Ridge IS leaving. This is good because the guy is a non-thinking 50's style war politician. The bad news is he is being replaced by A FUCKING GOON named Bernard Kerik.
The new guy looks like a bouncer at a nazi gay bar.
"a bouncer at a Nazi gay bar" - ha ha that's pretty good. Of course in reality, the Nazis sent gays to concentration camps along with the Jews, but you know if there are gay Republicans in the world, I wouldn't be surprised to see gay Nazis either.
On the war and all that I can only say this: things are not, I repeat NOT going to get any better at all for this country UNTIL they get much worse. This goes for Iraq, health care etc etc. Therefore, if a person wants things to get better, the best they can do is hope they get worse. This is how I am managing and will continue to manage Bush's second term. It does very much depress me to read how much more the world hates Americans now that the dumbfucks have voted the stinky Bush back for another term. But frankly I just hope it gets worse. Because it won't get better until it gets worse. The end.
As long as I have my booze, smoke, music and computer I couldn't give a rat's ass at this point.
On the war and all that I can only say this: things are not, I repeat NOT going to get any better at all for this country UNTIL they get much worse. This goes for Iraq, health care etc etc. Therefore, if a person wants things to get better, the best they can do is hope they get worse. This is how I am managing and will continue to manage Bush's second term. It does very much depress me to read how much more the world hates Americans now that the dumbfucks have voted the stinky Bush back for another term. But frankly I just hope it gets worse. Because it won't get better until it gets worse. The end.
As long as I have my booze, smoke, music and computer I couldn't give a rat's ass at this point.
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Tommy Martyn
- Mile High Club
- Posts: 887
- Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 8:01 am
- Location: a desk
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Guest
An Outbreak in Afghanistan
By Hayatullah Gaheez and Amanullah Nasrat, AlterNet. Posted December 7, 2004.
Some residents of eastern Afghanistan blame aerial eradication of opium poppies for an outbreak of illness. They also say the U.S. is responsible. Story Tools
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BUY
ALSO IN DRUGREPORTER
Commerce Abuse
William J. Watkins Jr.
The Great Fake-Drugs Scandal
Jim Schutze
Negotiating Three Strikes
Bobbi Murray
Feds Overdose on Drug Arrests
Paul Armentano
Partying With My Parents
Tony Newman
More stories by Hayatullah Gaheez
Amanullah Nasrat
Omardin, a farmer in the Pacheeragam district in Nangarhar province, pointed to the contents of a black plastic bag. Inside, he said, was a substance he claimed was sprayed from an airplane as part of a drug-eradication effort in the country. He said his son has been made ill by the chemicals.
"I never even bothered to grow poppy, but because of the Americans, my God-given only son is sick," he said, shaking with anger. "His skin is sore and his body aches."
As his eyes welled up with tears, Omardin vowed, "If my son dies, I will join the Taliban, and I will kill as many Americans as I can find."
Omardin is not the only person who believes that foreigners – perhaps the Americans – are spraying opium crops with herbicides here as part of a counter-narcotics programme.
Eyewitnesses in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar have reported seeing aircraft spraying poppy fields. Doctors in the region, meanwhile, said the sudden outbreak of skin diseases and respiratory ailments are due to a mysterious chemical they have so far been unable to identify.
Afghan government officials have promised to investigate these claims. Jawed Ludin, spokesman for Afghan president Hamid Karzai, denies that the government authorized such aerial spraying in the Khogiani and Shinwari districts of Nangarhar. An official delegation is now studying soil samples taken from poppy fields in the area.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium, accounting for three-quarters of global output. According to newly released United Nations statistics, opium cultivation in 2004 increased by 64 percent over the previous year.
Worried that Afghanistan may be evolving into a "narco-mafia" state, the United States, Europe and the United Nations have pledged to get tough on the opium trade. But the US military has insisted that its forces are not involved in crop eradication.
"US troops are not involved are not involved in eradication, which would include the spraying of poppy fields which we do not do," US military spokesman Major Mark McCann told Agence France-Presse last week.
A US embassy spokesperson in Kabul declined to comment, saying questions on the subject could be asked in an upcoming press conference. Last month, however, the US Drug Enforcement Agency announced that it had joined with the State Department and the Department of Defense in developing a new Counternarcotics Implementation Plan for Afghanistan. Under the program, the DEA announced that it will assist in destroying clandestine labs and seizing precursor chemicals, raw opium and opiate stockpiles.
To achieve that, the DEA said it is expanding its presence in Afghanistan by permanently stationing additional special agents and intelligence analysts in the country to enhance Afghanistan's counternarcotics capacity.
In addition, the DEA announced it would deploy foreign advisory and support teams to Afghanistan early next year to provide guidance and conduct bilateral investigations that will identify, target and disrupt illicit drug trafficking organizations. These teams, the agency said, will help with the destruction of existing opium storage sites, clandestine heroin processing labs and precursor chemical supplies.
US law enforcement agencies such as the DEA and the FBI already maintain a sizable presence in Afghanistan.
Haji Din Mohammad, the governor of Nangarhar province, is convinced that aerial eradication is already underway and that the United States is behind it. At a recent press conferen, he said, "The crops were eradicated, and farmers have seen big planes flying over the fields and spraying."
And in a separate press conference, General Mohammad Daoud, deputy interior minister in charge of counter-narcotics characterized aerial eradication as "illegal."
Asked about official US denials of their involvement in such a program, Din Mohammad said, "They control the airspace, and no plane can fly over Afghanistan without their permission."
Local residents blame the Americans for an outbreak of illness.
Sayed Asadullah, 47, a resident of Kaga district, Nangarhar province, showed a reporter a dozen children between the ages of 10 and 14 who complained of severe body aches.
Abed, 11, said, "A few days after the chemicals were sprayed, I found I had a sore throat and this terrible ache."
Mohammad Sediq, 14, said his throat was hoarse from the substance sprayed on the fields.
"Ever since I ate some spinach from our field next to the opium field, I've had a sore throat," he said.
"It is all the result of the Americans' chemicals," said Asadullah.
Others blamed the crop spraying for the death of livestock.
A resident of Asmar district, Konar province, said 14 of his animals had died. "We took all our sick animals to the veterinarian, but he couldn't do anything," he said.
Dr Abdul Ghafoor, the veterinarian who examined the animals, said they were suffering from serious respiratory problems. Ghafoor said he suspected the animals were suffering from a form of chronic asthma caused by inhalation of poisonous chemicals.
"This kind of disease is rare in Afghanistan," he said.
Several doctors in the region also blamed exposure to chemicals for the outbreak of various illnesses among their human patients.
Dr Samiullah Akbari, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said, "Those chemicals are insecticides for destroying crops. If human beings ingest them, they cause very bad stomach ailments."
Dr Abdullah Momand, who specializes in treating skin diseases, said the cases of skin irritation were "undoubtedly" caused by contact with a chemical agent. Dr. Momand was pessimistic about the ability of Afghan medicine to deal with the outbreak.
"To tackle these illnesses would require a huge amount of money," he said. "Treatment is difficult in Afghanistan, and the preventive care patients need cannot be found in these clinics."
This article originally appeared in Afghan Recovery Report, a project of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Hayatullah Gaheez is a freelance writer in Jalalabad. Amanullah Nasrat is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/20670/
By Hayatullah Gaheez and Amanullah Nasrat, AlterNet. Posted December 7, 2004.
Some residents of eastern Afghanistan blame aerial eradication of opium poppies for an outbreak of illness. They also say the U.S. is responsible. Story Tools
BUY
ALSO IN DRUGREPORTER
Commerce Abuse
William J. Watkins Jr.
The Great Fake-Drugs Scandal
Jim Schutze
Negotiating Three Strikes
Bobbi Murray
Feds Overdose on Drug Arrests
Paul Armentano
Partying With My Parents
Tony Newman
More stories by Hayatullah Gaheez
Amanullah Nasrat
Omardin, a farmer in the Pacheeragam district in Nangarhar province, pointed to the contents of a black plastic bag. Inside, he said, was a substance he claimed was sprayed from an airplane as part of a drug-eradication effort in the country. He said his son has been made ill by the chemicals.
"I never even bothered to grow poppy, but because of the Americans, my God-given only son is sick," he said, shaking with anger. "His skin is sore and his body aches."
As his eyes welled up with tears, Omardin vowed, "If my son dies, I will join the Taliban, and I will kill as many Americans as I can find."
Omardin is not the only person who believes that foreigners – perhaps the Americans – are spraying opium crops with herbicides here as part of a counter-narcotics programme.
Eyewitnesses in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar have reported seeing aircraft spraying poppy fields. Doctors in the region, meanwhile, said the sudden outbreak of skin diseases and respiratory ailments are due to a mysterious chemical they have so far been unable to identify.
Afghan government officials have promised to investigate these claims. Jawed Ludin, spokesman for Afghan president Hamid Karzai, denies that the government authorized such aerial spraying in the Khogiani and Shinwari districts of Nangarhar. An official delegation is now studying soil samples taken from poppy fields in the area.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium, accounting for three-quarters of global output. According to newly released United Nations statistics, opium cultivation in 2004 increased by 64 percent over the previous year.
Worried that Afghanistan may be evolving into a "narco-mafia" state, the United States, Europe and the United Nations have pledged to get tough on the opium trade. But the US military has insisted that its forces are not involved in crop eradication.
"US troops are not involved are not involved in eradication, which would include the spraying of poppy fields which we do not do," US military spokesman Major Mark McCann told Agence France-Presse last week.
A US embassy spokesperson in Kabul declined to comment, saying questions on the subject could be asked in an upcoming press conference. Last month, however, the US Drug Enforcement Agency announced that it had joined with the State Department and the Department of Defense in developing a new Counternarcotics Implementation Plan for Afghanistan. Under the program, the DEA announced that it will assist in destroying clandestine labs and seizing precursor chemicals, raw opium and opiate stockpiles.
To achieve that, the DEA said it is expanding its presence in Afghanistan by permanently stationing additional special agents and intelligence analysts in the country to enhance Afghanistan's counternarcotics capacity.
In addition, the DEA announced it would deploy foreign advisory and support teams to Afghanistan early next year to provide guidance and conduct bilateral investigations that will identify, target and disrupt illicit drug trafficking organizations. These teams, the agency said, will help with the destruction of existing opium storage sites, clandestine heroin processing labs and precursor chemical supplies.
US law enforcement agencies such as the DEA and the FBI already maintain a sizable presence in Afghanistan.
Haji Din Mohammad, the governor of Nangarhar province, is convinced that aerial eradication is already underway and that the United States is behind it. At a recent press conferen, he said, "The crops were eradicated, and farmers have seen big planes flying over the fields and spraying."
And in a separate press conference, General Mohammad Daoud, deputy interior minister in charge of counter-narcotics characterized aerial eradication as "illegal."
Asked about official US denials of their involvement in such a program, Din Mohammad said, "They control the airspace, and no plane can fly over Afghanistan without their permission."
Local residents blame the Americans for an outbreak of illness.
Sayed Asadullah, 47, a resident of Kaga district, Nangarhar province, showed a reporter a dozen children between the ages of 10 and 14 who complained of severe body aches.
Abed, 11, said, "A few days after the chemicals were sprayed, I found I had a sore throat and this terrible ache."
Mohammad Sediq, 14, said his throat was hoarse from the substance sprayed on the fields.
"Ever since I ate some spinach from our field next to the opium field, I've had a sore throat," he said.
"It is all the result of the Americans' chemicals," said Asadullah.
Others blamed the crop spraying for the death of livestock.
A resident of Asmar district, Konar province, said 14 of his animals had died. "We took all our sick animals to the veterinarian, but he couldn't do anything," he said.
Dr Abdul Ghafoor, the veterinarian who examined the animals, said they were suffering from serious respiratory problems. Ghafoor said he suspected the animals were suffering from a form of chronic asthma caused by inhalation of poisonous chemicals.
"This kind of disease is rare in Afghanistan," he said.
Several doctors in the region also blamed exposure to chemicals for the outbreak of various illnesses among their human patients.
Dr Samiullah Akbari, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said, "Those chemicals are insecticides for destroying crops. If human beings ingest them, they cause very bad stomach ailments."
Dr Abdullah Momand, who specializes in treating skin diseases, said the cases of skin irritation were "undoubtedly" caused by contact with a chemical agent. Dr. Momand was pessimistic about the ability of Afghan medicine to deal with the outbreak.
"To tackle these illnesses would require a huge amount of money," he said. "Treatment is difficult in Afghanistan, and the preventive care patients need cannot be found in these clinics."
This article originally appeared in Afghan Recovery Report, a project of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Hayatullah Gaheez is a freelance writer in Jalalabad. Amanullah Nasrat is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/20670/