Laura Logan and the Middle East

[Quiddity]

From the Sun Times:
She [Laura Logan] made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.”

Our enemies are writing the story, she suggests, and there’s no happy ending for us.

Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle East - Chicago Sun-Times

I'm not always sure what to make of such things. A part of me feels had she interviewed the same regions and people years ago, she'd come to the same conclusion; only showing how little things have changed.

Thoughts?

 

[esmith]

Well, it appears that someone in the media, other than the somewhat unmentionable network denigrated on this site, finally has the courage to say what most really think is going on.
On another note, I don't see why we pay a countries that hate us, when they will do it without being paid.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

She is not wrong about Afghanistan, and what used to be called the north West frontier.
For the last two hundred years people have tried to subdue them and failed. When they are not fighting foreigners, they do not stop ... they continue to fight each other. it is like trying to fight a bucket of sand.

Britain have had two major goes, Russia one and now the USA/UN. No one has shown the least likelihood of winning more than a few skirmishes. When the sand has settled nothing has changed.
As long as the tribes exist they will fight. They do not care who or why.

 

[BSM1]

We learned a very important lesson in WW II that we forgot in Viet Nam. If you expect to subdue a country (enemy) you need to level said country. You can always rebuild a society. We did this to Japan and it worked. We refused to do this in Nam and we destroyed a generation of American soldiers. I feel we are making the same mistake in Afghanistan as we made in Viet Nam. Either level the country or stop sending our young men and women over there to be killed and maimed for no reason.

 

[Dingbat]

She is not wrong about Afghanistan, and what used to be called the north West frontier.
For the last two hundred years people have tried to subdue them and failed. When they are not fighting foreigners, they do not stop ... they continue to fight each other. it is like trying to fight a bucket of sand.

Britain have had two major goes, Russia one and now the USA/UN. No one has shown the least likelihood of winning more than a few skirmishes. When the sand has settled nothing has changed.
As long as the tribes exist they will fight. They do not care who or why.

Indeed, anyone even remotely familiar with the history of Afghanistan isn't surprised by this. Even before the British arrived they gave the Khans a run for their money in trying to keep control of the region.

 

[Lavender]

I think that many have hoped, in the Obama administration, and out for that matter that radical islam was fading away. That there was less to worry about when it came to Al Qaeda since Bin Laden was dead. The administration even went to the extend of ending the use of the phrase, War on Terror. We basically went largely to a military policy of using drones to target a few radical islamists.

I think though as we are seeing with the Libyan attack that killed our ambassador last month, and radical islamic attacks elsewhere in the world, that Al Qaeda and other similar radical islamic groups are very much alive and operating around the world. Whole countries in the middle east too are looking to come under these groups influence as in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. Mali, and Libya. It's a troubling development. We're not living in a safer world.

Enjoyed Investor Business Daily's article this morning about this ~

"In This Reporter's Opinion, Obama's Terror Victory Is A 'Major Lie'"

Lara Logan Brands Obama's War On Terror Claim 'Major Lie' - Investors.com

snippets:

...But in her speech and "60 Minutes" work, she's dealing in facts. Whatever one thinks of her policy advice, there's no disputing what she's seen and heard.
Veteran political reporter Jeff Greenfield, hardly a Republican mouthpiece, calls Logan's remarks "one of the more remarkable pronouncements I have seen in recent years from a prominent American journalist."...

&

...Debates aside, Logan's "major lie" accusation gives legs to the growing scandal surrounding the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. The State Department now admits the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others had nothing to do with demonstrations over some cheesy anti-Muslim video.
In fact, there were no demonstrations. The assault came out of the blue, on an otherwise quiet evening.
Left unexplained, for now, is why the administration had U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice make the rounds of TV news shows explaining that the attack was a demonstration that got out of control. As we know now, no one in the administration believed this fairy tale.
So why did they peddle it? The only sensible answer is that the administration was trapped in that big lie of which Logan speaks. It had to maintain the illusion that, for all his other failings, Obama had at least made Americans safer from terror. Now along comes a CBS war correspondent to argue that the Libya assault was only a harbinger of worse to come. (Logan compared it to the bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in 2000.)
We'll leave it to the American people to decide who's more believable at this point.

Read More At IBD: Lara Logan Brands Obama's War On Terror Claim 'Major Lie' - Investors.com

 

[Wirey]

We learned a very important lesson in WW II that we forgot in Viet Nam. If you expect to subdue a country (enemy) you need to level said country. You can always rebuild a society. We did this to Japan and it worked. We refused to do this in Nam and we destroyed a generation of American soldiers. I feel we are making the same mistake in Afghanistan as we made in Viet Nam. Either level the country or stop sending our young men and women over there to be killed and maimed for no reason.

Level what? Caves?