Ever since September 11, it appears that America's image in the eyes of has become increasingly negative.

September 11 was a huge tragedy for America, and for humanity. I don't want to take away from that fact at all. I merely want to discuss the important issues related to America's foreign policy, and paticularly, America's "War on Terror".

It is extremely important to look at the causes of the tragedy. Why did this happen? What were the factors that led to it? It appears that George W. Bush et al have neglected to learn from 9/11 in a number of ways:

It appears that America's long history of violence will continue, so long as they refuse to have a major rethink of foreign policy. The 20th century contains many instances of the US engaging in conflict and war - WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Chile, Iraq,Iran, Afghanistan - the list goes on.

Admittedly, America believed that they were 'doing the right thing' in these countries. But what were the REAL objectives? The US has only entered confilcts when they were to gain a benefit. The current conflict in Iraq is a fine example of this. America's decisive 'victory' in Iraq has turned into a drawn-out bloody conflict that does not look like ending any time soon. Could somebody please tell me where the logic and reason lies in bombing the shit out of an entire country to remove Saddam Hussein, and then awarding lucrative billion-dollar contracts to American companies (friends of Rumsfeld) to rebuild the country again. Is that the idea? Flatten the place, then start fresh?

America's motives for entering Iraq were said to be to remove Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, find his "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and bring safety, freedom and democracy to the people of Iraq. How clear it is that these goals have not been realised. No Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found after nearly a year of inspection. The UN weapons inspectors could have told them that. Freedom? The Iraqis are hardly free at this point. Safety? It could be argued that the situation was better under Saddam. It is clear that the Iraqis are fed up with the US occupying their country - almost daily bomb attacks reinforce this.


Europe, the UN and much of the free world realise that war is not the answer. Violence begets violence, as the saying goes. Why is it that George Bush continues an agressive military policy that not eliminate terroists, but instead breed thousands more.

We're talking about a completly different world here. The cold war world was a very unique time in history. The US was forcd to train the Taliban back then, knowing they were extreemists, in order to stop the spread of communisim, which was starting to surround the middle east. The consequences of soviet spillage into the middle east could have impacted the future far more than 9/11 did.

I think the US was forced to make rash decisions back then precisely because of the unique and dangerous nature of the situation.

The current people in afghanestan are nothing compared to the Taliban. Besides if history was to repeat itself this time these people would not have as furtile a soil to grow in as they did a few years ago.

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Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent; that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

To answer your question, there is a pretty big difference between the current forces backed by the US and those from the cold war era. The talibans were supported by the US as the only force at the time that could fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. They were not the allies of America, infact they hated the US as well. Still, they were in desperate need of arms and supplies, so they did accept the american help. After the USSR fell, there was no more soviet influence in Afghanistan, so the talibans became the strongest power there. When they took control of their country, the only country that still had the power to meddle in their affairs was the US, so they directed their attacks against them. Now, since the new objective in Afghanistan was not anymore to chase away the opposing superpower, but to make it a stable country that will support the US, a new and pro-democratic government was installed, one that will not go against the americans. So in this case, no, history will not repeat itself.

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1+1=10

Yeah, thnx 4 the replies, good points there, never took them in2 consideration......but anyway, i mean it may be different but who knows? could happen, and we are not talkin bout the near future (5 years or so) but like maybe 10-20 years...we shall c....thnx 4 sharing your points of views tho...