And it must be said: in spite of Fox News doing its damndest to manipulate things, Ron Paul is kickin' tail and takin' names!
He just nailed something that I haven't seen anyone touch: the fact that people like Saddam and Osama were at one time allies of the United States. We trained them, supplied them... and then they turned on us. And maybe, just maybe, if we did as Dr. Paul suggests and stop taking sides all over the world, this kind of thing wouldn't be coming back to haunt us as often as it does.
7 comments:
I had to TiVo the debate, and I'm catching up on it now.
Man, that Fox News guy was determined to make Ron Paul "divorce himself" from 9/11 conspiracy theorists who support him (two unrelated things). Good for Ron Paul to say that he can't tell people what to do, that people should think what they want and support who they want, and that he'd like to take place in the real debate at hand. People applauded him for his response, which thankfully, made that moderator look stupid. Why does Fox News hate him so bad? I like the channel otherwise, but they really have it out for him.
And what's up with Fred Thompson. When he attacked Huckabee, he wasn't even subtle about it. He called him out by name and used his entire time to bash Huckabee. I thought S.C. was Thompson's chance to make a comeback, but an attack *that* blatant stinks of desperation.
If you're just watching it, put on some popcorn. You ain't seen *nuthin'* yet 'til you see that RIDICULOUS question that Paul got asked about whether he was "electable".
Ron Paul won the Fox text-in poll with 35%. Huckabee in 2nd with 18%.
It absolutely boggles my mind. How can Fox News be so blatently direspectful to a candidate? The "electable" question and specifically how it was phrased was totally uncalled for. Despite that, I personally thought this was one of RP's best debates. And I really hope I missed it, but I didn't see RP in the post debate interview... Every other candidate was there... They better have asked the good doctor as well. But in regards to the poll results, I bet you it'll get buried on their shows and on their website. It's like a slap in the face to them.
"He just nailed something that I haven't seen anyone touch: the fact that people like Saddam and Osama were at one time allies of the United States."
Saddam we used when we needed him, but Osama was never an ally of the US.
Conservative officials who served in the Reagan administration are upset by the left-wing slant of the new movie about the covert action program that helped Afghan guerrillas defeat the Soviet army during the 1980s.
"Charlie Wilson's War," out Friday, is based on a book about former Rep. Charles Wilson, Texas Democrat, known widely on Capitol Hill during his tenure as "Good Time Charlie" and who helped fund the semi-secret war that ultimately helped fell the Soviet Union.
The Reagan-era officials said the movie promotes the left-wing myth that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and ultimately produced the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Bin Laden, the officials said, never got CIA funding or weapons, and was not directly involved in Islamist extremist activities until years after the Afghan operation ended after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989.
That anti-American aspect of the film, namely that the Afghan operation ultimately caused the September 11 attacks, reportedly was altered after protests from Mr. Wilson and his former fiancee, Joanne Herring.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071221/NATION/549681582/1008&template=printart
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1943433/posts
Whether Bin Ladin himself got CIA support is still debatable but America did train the Afghans who became the Taleban and Al Quaida.
"America did train the Afghans who became the Taleban and Al Quaida."
A folk myth. The Afghans who became Taliban/Al Qaeda were trained by the Pakistan ISI.
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A pervasive myth exists that the United States was complicit for allegedly training Usama bin Ladin and the Taliban. For example, Jeffrey Sommers, a professor in Georgia, has repeatedly claimed that the Taliban had turned on "their previous benefactor." David Gibbs, a political science professor at the University of Arizona, made similar claims. Robert Fisk, widely-read Middle East correspondent for The Independent, wrote of "CIA camps in which the Americans once trained Mr. bin Ladin’s fellow guerrillas."(1) Associated Press writer Mort Rosenblum declared that "Usama bin Ladin…was the type of Soviet-hating freedom fighter that U.S. officials applauded when the world looked a little different."(2)
In fact, neither bin Ladin nor Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Umar were direct products of the CIA. The roots of the Afghan civil war and the country’s subsequent transformation into a safe-haven for the world’s most destructive terror network is a far more complex story, one that begins in the decades prior to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue1/jv6n1a1.html
While it is true that many of these mujahedeen would later make up the Taliban, others would oppose it and help to drive it from power. In particular, many former mujahedeen joined the Northern Alliance, the Afghan coalition that fought alongside U.S. troops in October and November 2001 to overthrow the Taliban.
Today, some former members of the mujahedeen are part of the democratic movement trying to move Afghanistan back to the days of promise and modernization that preceded the Soviet ruination of the country. This explains how it is that Hamid Karzai, elected president in 2004, could say fondly, "The people of Afghanistan remember Mr. Ronald Reagan's assistance to Afghanistan during the years of 'jihad' against the Soviets." Karzai is attempting to steer his country toward democracy, a difficult undertaking that has had its bumps. The transition has been flawed, but it is going forward. Certainly, no one could liken Karzai to the Taliban chieftain, Mullah Omar.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/175wbqpz.asp
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