Afghanistan Hearings: Watch Video, Twitter Analysis

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Comments

[JackRusselTerrier]

10:26 AM on 12/02/2009

There is no guarantee that the forces we train will be loyal to the Afghan government or to us. The chances are great though that infiltrators will be receiving training and will use this training to their advantage. This has already happened. To think otherwise is being overly optimistic.

Heck, they are watching these hearings too and paying close attention so as to adjust their strategy as ours is announced and discussed.

[allalone]

10:22 AM on 12/02/2009

What exactly is our 'winning this war' supposed to look like? I don't believe that anyone can really define what 'win' means particularly in mathematical terms. Soldiers + Weapons + Bullets= ? Not a 'win' in my humble opinion. What has the human race become more of?

[PaticaDeGato]

10:10 AM on 12/02/2009

If Joe Lieberman (who, amongst his various neo-cvntish achievements, is against health-care reform), says its right, then we probably reexamine it.

[JackRusselTerrier]

09:48 AM on 12/02/2009

Flawed logic...

Money given to politicians from Pacs and lobbyist which influences votes - no problem.
Money to bail out banks and Wall St. - no problem.
Money for huge unwarranted bonuses on Wall Street. - no problem.
Money for two wars of choice - no problem.
Money for over 1,000 military bases - no problem.
Money for planes that can't fly in the rain - according to some politicians this is... no problem.
Money to give to Israel_ even though their economy is doing better than ours, have universal heath care, and they violate_ treaties - no problem.
Money to give to warlords_ - no problem
Money to give to Blackwater which has employees committing murder_ against Iraqis AND Americans - no problem.
Money to give to KBR which has been found negligent by hiring unqualified personnel (so they could maximize profits) to do electrical work resulting in the death_of American soldiers. - no problem.
Money to give to the corrupt government in Afghanistan. - no problem.
Money to fund universal health care for politicians - no problem.
Money to fund universal health care in Iraq - no problem.

Money to fund universal health care for citizens the United States - WAIT A MINUTE THAT"S SOCIALISM!!!
Stimulus money to help the people - WAIT A MINUTE THAT"S SOCIALISM!!!
Money from the rich to pay for the wars - WAIT A MINUTE we're supposed to PROFIT from the war NOT PAY for it.

[charon]

10:18 AM on 12/02/2009

Good points. For a progressive populist like myself, Obama's policies are anathema. I view the role of government to be the tool of the people to counterbalance and defend themselves against the power of the corporations. Obama is proving to be just another shil for the plutocrats and their military-industrial complex.

[rmreddicks]

09:18 AM on 12/02/2009

Enough with the twits and their feed. They have little to do with anything. Just proves there's really no "wit" in "twit".

[PeterVanKan]

07:28 AM on 12/02/2009

In a one man-one vote system, the opninion of people that study, try to understand, see the bigger picture, see the nuances and inherent paradoxes, weighs as much as the opinion of those that don't have a clue, react impusively, don't care, have no patience for history's lessons.

I see the same problem here. Some think, some don't and just shout out their lightweight opinion.

Without seeing him as a saviour, it seems to me that Obama is the world's best hope of avoiding complete collapse of civalisation as we know it. That civalisation is far from perfect, but let's hope we won't find out the hard way that it's way better than anarchy, mass violence and destruction.

Let's be constructive and do our best today.

[allalone]

10:03 AM on 12/02/2009

HEAR, HEAR AND AMEN, PeterVanKan. Particularly your last sentence. Thanks!

[teacheng]

11:58 AM on 12/02/2009

Second.

[carl99e]

07:06 AM on 12/02/2009

If the faces and smiles of the cadets is of any significance, the President past the litmus test. Since this is where the rubber meets the road, the speech was welcomed and appreciated. Let back our military and our President in the final throes of this tragic chapter in American history.

[bbrecht]

08:52 AM on 12/02/2009

They looked bored and disgusted until it was time to take pictures of the president.

[alaskanturkey]

09:35 AM on 12/02/2009

Were we watching the same video? That's like saying "I liked the part when godzilla walked into the room." What you said may sound nice in your head, but it didn't happen in reality. Most seemed scared, but respectful. And the vast majority of the cadets looked extremely attentive.

Was your favorite part of the speech in the middle when Miley Cyrus threw footballs into the audience?

[Texas4Obama]

05:18 PM on 12/02/2009

The cadets get up at 5am.
They were in their seats at 4pm.
The speech started at 8pm.
Their uniforms are made of wool which makes you hot and they made the cadets sleepy.
That's what was reported on the news today.

[TwineUK]

05:50 AM on 12/02/2009

There appears to be a number of armchair critics around who offer little or no solutions. None of them have access to the daily intelligence briefings the President has yet they act like they are best informed on matters or war and peace.

If you are ideologically opposed to this war then that is your right. Trying to undermine your President at every term does not seem right to me.

[bbrecht]

08:52 AM on 12/02/2009

I assume you mean turn, not term.

[allalone]

10:06 AM on 12/02/2009

I agree with you TwineUK. I always wonder just 'what' is going on with those on the inside about everything going on in our America that affects us all. Either way, none of us have the power to change anything. Sigh!

[bbrecht]

10:41 AM on 12/02/2009

Imagine what would have happened if Dr. King had such an attitude, "none of us have the power to change anything. Sigh!"

[coinman101]

05:18 AM on 12/02/2009

I was deeply saddened by the thoroughly expected action of our Nobel Peace Prize winner. Why do they call Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires"? Alexander the Great had the good sense to avoid the place and head south. The Romans, the Parthians, and in our time, the Brits and the Russians, met disaster in Afghanistan. Some on CNN suggest we do the same here as we did in Iraq. Buy them off. But this is a different topography and a different culture: (ignorant of Islam, we think they are all the same- a little racism here)? Anyway, not the point. The point is that we don't have "Stanley the Great" leading out forces-(check out this guy's history- there's nothing great about him). Obama is getting really poor advice. We have so much that needs to be done in America. Our nation is a mess. I fear that we are in a new Vietnam, and America's needs will become forgotten. I warch international TV, and I saw an Afghan interviewed. He was not Taliban, just a citizen. He spoke of his dedication to seeing foriegn troops (us) driven out: " If I can't do it, my son will. And if he can't, his son will." Why don't we let these people be? Do we not have enough to do in our own country?

[bbrecht]

08:54 AM on 12/02/2009

Agreed, thank you for the history lesson. I went to fan you and then realized I already am a fan.

[KKojei]

09:38 AM on 12/02/2009

Obama is trapped in the White House, just as I knew he would be. For all who voted for him, understand this fact. The President Of The United States Of America is a figurehead. He is not a ruler. Nor a dictator, King or other despot with total power. His mandate comes from a host of powerful interests that participate in true power, the power of money. Maybe he thought differently before he took it on, but I am certain he has seen that handwriting on the wall. Take comfort in the fact that this one decision will ultimately destroy the power of their money, making it useless and therefore the source of their power impotent. When every bomb we drop costs millions, when the entire military machine we employ costs billions per day,, when our country is already bankrupt and wallowing in it's death throes, take comfort in the fact that a day is coming soon when we will no longer be able to support imperial capitalist agendas at all. Then this miserable nightmare will end.

[bbrecht]

10:42 AM on 12/02/2009

And this sad truth was never the only option.

[naeldwyck]

02:51 AM on 12/02/2009

c'mon HP, we all h a t e the t w i t t e r feed even when it doesn't take 80% of the page!

[GUSTOV]

02:19 AM on 12/02/2009

it doesn't matter who gets elected does it.

[GUSTOV]

02:17 AM on 12/02/2009

Oh well
thirty thousand less people competing against me for my job at Target.

[peacechants]

01:02 AM on 12/02/2009

The justification for escalating and prolonging this war is still the attack on September 11, 2001. The President just said that in tonight's address. The government's "proof" that Al Qaeda sent hijackers here from Afghanistan, and that they succeeded in their suicide mission was provided to the public officially through the 911 Commission Report. That report drew its information from coerced confessions made under torture and from intelligence agencies that have since been demonstrably proven to have manufactured lies to justify the Iraq invasion, and to have covered up advance knowledge of the alleged hijackers movements prior to the attacks. 911 Commission co-chairmen Hamilton and Kean have both made public declarations that the White House and CIA obstructed their investigation. Senator Max Cleland resigned from the Commission saying its investigation was compromised, calling it "a national scandal".
Question: Given the diminished credibility of an obstructed and compromised 911 investigation, how can Obama now continue a war based upon those identical premises without a new investigation ? Since 2001, the amount of verifiable evidence contradicting the original official story has grown into a mountain of proof, all in the public domain, that continues to erode the very credibility of US foreign policy. This erosion may be ignored by the MSM and the political establishment, but it resonates loudly among the populace, just below the threshold where media gatekeepers have quashed open debate on the subject.

[stopgeorge]

01:54 AM on 12/02/2009

Because Obama is continuing the corporate fairy-tale that is now America.

[GUSTOV]

02:20 AM on 12/02/2009

its not a fairy tale

It's a nightmare.

[dzagama]

12:11 AM on 12/02/2009

Let's hope this war spending gets us out of our economic rut!

Lemons, meet lemonade!

[bbrecht]

08:57 AM on 12/02/2009

Sorry but we've already been spending on the military at record levels and these lemons haven't anything to offer but debt to China.

[bgladish]

10:16 AM on 12/02/2009

And all those dead soldiers will free up jobs for the unemployed! Krugman "economics."

[dzagama]

12:01 AM on 12/02/2009

http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2009/05/07/lets-rise-against-the-war-crimes-of-us-and-its-fundamentalist-lackeys.html