errmm..I may have missed something but isn't that the point you are arguing ?

I wasn't aware NATO troops were stationed in Libya, thought it was just air support and lobbing America's surplus of cruise missiles at him

No your not.

It is bordered by Pakistan in the southeast,[note] Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. The territory that now forms Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration.

Its been fought over by Alexander the Great to several British invasions and thats without getting to the latest ones. Russians and the CIA.

Jim

No, it was still bloody stupid and arrogant of the yanks to go in thinking they could walk into Afghanistan. No-one has conquered Afghanistan. Not the Yanks, not the russians, not the British raj, and not even Alexander the great.

Who do you think holds the British Politicians hands and babysits them when they dispense their propaganda?

Jim

Special forces troops are in Libya but I'm talking about the entire region. Regardless of what the pc brigade say people are different. We're educated, we know the earth is round but goat herders in the back of beyond without internet, mobile phones & Sky television still believe that god creates day & night.

The average Afghan knows nothing about 9/11, all he knows is foreign troops have invaded & taken control of their land. As far as they're concerned they're fighting evil with god on their side so unless we destroy the whole country it is physically impossible to win and anyway, why should we build schools for them when we can't even afford new ones ourselves?

?

The Russians were doing fine until the CIA gave the Afghans their latest anti aircraft missiles.

Jim

Oh c'mon dude. Sure the yanks helped them out, but those afghans are mean mutha****ers. They worked out how to take out the armoured Russian helicopter gunships. They'd do it with machine guns too, which would have been laughable, had it not worked so well.

They'd bait the trap so the russians would send in the gunships, but the afghans would have men with machine guns hidden up on high rock points so that the russians would fly under those points and the afghans would fire down into the unarmoured tops.

The yanks are discovering to their cost that Afghanistan is a tough nut to get into, impossible to hold, and expensive to get out of.

The Hind is very well armoured so very few were shot down by small arms fire. The Mujahideen only enjoyed success against the gunships with US supplied Stingers.

Very few back of beyonds nowadays out of the reach of facebook, twitter, and Al Jazeera. Even goatherds in Leptis Magnae have an iphone.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

Just watched a clip on this mornings news of the thousands of Libyans queuing up to see Gadaffis body, every single man jack of them appeared to be carrying a mobile of some sort, ready to take a shot.

Strange considering the GSM coverage in libya don't you think

http://www.rangeroamer.com/coverage-maps/gsm-world.aspx

Not really all that strange. Just think for a moment how we all managed to see Gadaffi's death almost as it happened. By mobile phones/youtube rebroadcasts/internet etc.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

I thought we had gone back to the 12th century watching those clips. Not a great start to a new modern democracy is it

Was listening to an Arab on TV and he said it didn't bode well for the country as despite what the media says Gadaffi still had a lot of followers in the country if only for tribal reasons. Most people had free electric and free education. According to foreign news Gaddafi isn't the only one being subjected to this treatment! Savages. Next thing the various rebel factions will be tearing each other to pieces.

Maybe, maybe not. If we had been living under that madman, we might think differently. Had he killed anyone I cared about, I wouldn't seek to penalise the guy that shot him, I'd be looking to buy him a drink.