Who knows?

right

Thanks

We are closer to 2/3thirds are civilian and it has gone up steadily since WW2. Keep searching you will find it. Great project! I would like to build free video communication for the whole world.

Me too , because that would mean free education is possible ... and peace .

IF they ARE guilty , let them be found so and justice done in a court of LAW ! If they are just PAWNS to inspire fear otherwise will be done !

Voted up !

U R so right, but the mainstream media no longer covers the war in Afghanistan because editors say the American public is suffering from "war fatigue" and are no longer interested in what is happening in Afghanistan.

"Editors" are merely henchmen of the military industrial complex ...

There is no war in Afghanistan, it is and always was an illegal occupation with the local people organizing resistance.

But, what would you call the subjugation of the population (especially women) by the Taliban before we got there?

We asked for them to hand over Bin Laden, they said no, what were we supposed to do in 2001?

Now, Bush took his eye off that conflict and went to Iraq which I ALWAYS thought was a scam which didn't allow us to find OBL and restore some sanity to Afghanistan. Our biggest problem with Afghanistan is this country is so primitive that I don't think anyone was aware that we can and could never transform them into some kind of democracy. They have no need or desire for this.

So, the big question is; what do we do now?

It's not about the war fatigue it's simply about the entertainment value, the ratings! The public's bored with war, they need to see what's new with paris hilton (or whoever the current mindless bimbo in the lime-light is)! Now that's where the entertainment ratings are! This is what you get when you let everything be "for profit", when laissez-faire runs rampant, when NEWS is entertainment instead of public service information as it MUST be in a decent functioning DEMOCRACY (as opposed to the distraction it's meant to be in a corporate-fascist state).

The Taliban offered the US to hand over bin Laden into a third and neutral country for a trial, Bush refused.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5

Furthermore, the invasion of Afghanistan was planned for months before 9/11, and most of the logistics had already been moved to the region. The real reason was twofold - the building of a pipeline from the Caspian Sea Basin through Afghanistan and down to Karachi, and the Taliban were told that either they accepted that pipeline and would get a carpet of gold, or if they refused, they would get a carpet of bombs.

http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/ck20Ag01.html

They refused because they realized that the compensation they would get for allowing for that pipeline to be built was mere crumbs, that they would be totally gypped. The second reason for this invasion is the fact that the US had for a long time known that Afghanistan has trillions of dollars' worth of largely untapped natural resources - rare earths, rare metals, rare minerals, gold, silver, gems, and a huge reserve of natural gas, all of which the US wants to take and control - which explains the continued occupation.

The subjugation of the Afghan population is not the US' business, anyway, neither was it the purpose of the attack and invasion. Also, one needs to remember the fact that the Taliban are a Saudi/US creation, trained and financed by both countries.

Had the US not lured the USSR into invading Afghanistan, it would be a pretty good country today, probably even better than how it was when I lived there, and it wasn't all that bad then at all.

If you don't remember all of the above, either you are very young and were but a child when all that happened, or your memory is sorely lacking.

As for your big question - "what do we do now?" - We pay compensation for all the damage done (trillions of dollars), we clean up all the DU we rained on that poor country, we pay compensation to all Afghans who lost family members (trillions of dollars), and we get the hell out.

Thanks for the info, I'll look at it more indepth when I get a chance.

The only qualm I have is the idea of handing him over to a neutral country. He admitted he perpetrated the crime ergo, there was no reason to negotiate after such an infamous attack. I hate Bush as much as the next person but I don't think I would have taken the bait either. Give him up or yes, we will bomb you until you do. Difference is; I would have dropped timed -out mines in the Khyber pass so he couldn't have gotten away. (timed mines are those that deactivate after a specified period).

We do need to keep in mind the mind-set of that time period. The American people wanted blood. It was the leadership's responsibility to use the good-will we had rightfully earned properly. Unfortunately, Bush and his cronies had a golden opportunity to rally the world and it was squandered.

That we can all agree with.

Nope, he never admitted any such thing. A fake bin Laden on poorly made videos did, videos made by the CIA.

That's what they became following R. Reagan's so-called de-regulation of the media. What resulted was a consolidated media in which a handful of huge corporations wound up owning the every broadcast outlet and network. I recall a better time --before Reagan --when there were numerous 'independently' owned radio and TV stations. The Reagan-heads knew what they were doing. They were enriching the elite and giving them license to propagandize the American people.

I recall the video to which you refer. It was an OBVIOUS fake. The CIA should go back to school.

I remember it too , i was too young to understand fully , my parents were reagan supporters , but i remember the structure of the culture , of education , the arts , all flourished before him . Then we all became afraid of nuclear war .... budgets were cut , mentally ill were left on the streets as a police problem and my world became harder ....

SO true ... Many fine Americans DID protest it ... it was called unpatriotic and not covered at all by general media .

I agree.

Exactly right

It would not have been this way if there had been a military draft.

That would change things yes, but not as much as it should as you know the 1% would still get theirs out from harms way and thus they still wouldn't care about the real costs in blood and suffering that these endless mad-wars are responsible for. Though yes it would get and hold the masses attention!

Thanks

I totally agree, artemis. Sad thing is, our media would never report this. We no longer have any Walter Cronkites. There is no excuse to be killing innocent civilians. I've heard that these drone strikes kill more civilians than the actual "targets" they are supposed to be hitting. This country claims to be broke but it sure has money for the MIC, the 1% and Wall Street.

Agreed , a purely professional military is BAD news !

I remember .