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Oh where to start... Afghanistan is hardly in the middle east and there are hardly any Arabs in Afghanistan. You may or may not be right about peace in the midd

by jvrossb 14y ago

Oh where to start... Afghanistan is hardly in the middle east and there are hardly any Arabs in Afghanistan. You may or may not be right about peace in the middle east being a cruel joke, but if you happen to be right it'll be for all the wrong reasons...

rdl 14y ago
Actually there are/were a lot of very bad Arabs (and other non-indigenous people) in Afghanistan, at least as the backbone of AQ and some of the other forces. A small number vs. the overall population, but a high percentage of the hardcore bad guys. Less true of Taliban or local gangs (who are who we fight now, for no particularly good reason -- the Taliban is "bad" from a liberal Western perspective, but not bad enough, IMO, to justify invading/occupying. We're in Afghanistan now because we were in Afghanistan yesterday; it's the sunk costs fallacy in blood.).
- jvrossb 14y ago
  No doubt, I was (perhaps incorrectly) assuming that the parent him/herself was assuming that afghanistan was an arab country in the middle east. The finer details (that Afghanistan has no majority ethnicity, that many arabs came to fight the soviets during the soviet-afghan war, that by some definitions afghanistan is a middle-eastern nation) are not lost on me, but given the seemingly sweepingly ignorant nature of the post I was replying to I was going for a more high level rebuttal.
hnthrow_65321 14y ago
If you're concerned about semantics... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East And I said, 'Arabs and Muslims'. I am aware that Afghans and Pakistanis are not Arab.
- vacri 14y ago
  What about the 350M muslims in Bangladesh and Indonesia? Do these fit into your 'and Muslims' as well? Please stop characterising multiple demographics with such simple terms. It's as meaningless as saying Americans are fat and loud, the French are smelly and arrogant, so on and so forth.
  - hnthrow_65321 14y ago
    The recent riots urging the death penalty for atheist bloggers certainly doesn't reflect well on those populations. "Protesters in Bangladesh rally against atheist bloggers" http://www.arabnews.com/news/447251 http://www.arabnews.com/news/447251

by jvrossb 14y ago

rdl 14y ago

Actually there are/were a lot of very bad Arabs (and other non-indigenous people) in Afghanistan, at least as the backbone of AQ and some of the other forces. A small number vs. the overall population, but a high percentage of the hardcore bad guys. Less true of Taliban or local gangs (who are who we fight now, for no particularly good reason -- the Taliban is "bad" from a liberal Western perspective, but not bad enough, IMO, to justify invading/occupying. We're in Afghanistan now because we were in Afghanistan yesterday; it's the sunk costs fallacy in blood.).

jvrossb 14y ago
No doubt, I was (perhaps incorrectly) assuming that the parent him/herself was assuming that afghanistan was an arab country in the middle east. The finer details (that Afghanistan has no majority ethnicity, that many arabs came to fight the soviets during the soviet-afghan war, that by some definitions afghanistan is a middle-eastern nation) are not lost on me, but given the seemingly sweepingly ignorant nature of the post I was replying to I was going for a more high level rebuttal.

hnthrow_65321 14y ago

If you're concerned about semantics... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East And I said, 'Arabs and Muslims'. I am aware that Afghans and Pakistanis are not Arab.

vacri 14y ago
What about the 350M muslims in Bangladesh and Indonesia? Do these fit into your 'and Muslims' as well? Please stop characterising multiple demographics with such simple terms. It's as meaningless as saying Americans are fat and loud, the French are smelly and arrogant, so on and so forth.
- hnthrow_65321 14y ago
  The recent riots urging the death penalty for atheist bloggers certainly doesn't reflect well on those populations. "Protesters in Bangladesh rally against atheist bloggers" http://www.arabnews.com/news/447251 http://www.arabnews.com/news/447251