Pakistani Taliban factions and their allies have set up a council of elders in hopes of coordinating efforts against NATO troops in Afghanistan, a spokesman said Monday.

I see the problem here, we have troops in Afghanistan.

Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Well that's a damn shame.

Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

But they'd just hate themselves for their own freedoms.

Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Because of several millennia of tribal warrior mentality. Politics is for pussies.

So who is the current #1 right now?



*BOOM*

Yeah, we're gonna need more Taliban guys.

Thank goodness. I first read Vogon. I'm not sure the world is ready for that poetry.

I'm thinking maybe we should just leave that country now. Not like we can't just send the troops back if we actually need them there later

remember, not our enemies though.

Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Well, there are infidels on their land.

In addition to the whole tribal thing, one of the big reasons that the Taliban have been able to maintain their support isn't because Afghans are a bunch of militant Islamofascists or whatever the Fox term du jour is, but because they're seen as (and are) less corrupt than Karzai and his lackeys. "Local law enforcement" (for lack of a better term) with Taliban officials is seen as faster and more just. You don't win hearts and minds by coming in and playing Santa Claus, you do it by instituting a basic, no-frills government which serves its basic purpose effectively and relatiely honestly. Then you move on to bigger and better things.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!One!

skullkrusher: remember, not our enemies though.

This sounds like an honest interpretation of something someone said.

I always perfered Voltes V



/just sayin
//got nutin

Mildot: I always perfered Voltes V

do you like gobots too?

The problem here is that when talivoltron is formed it will waste several critical minutes getting beaten up and nearly being destroyed instead of immediately going for the jugular and pulling out its shining sword or whatever it was. Anything getting hit by the shining sword dies instantly so really it should be used first.

The Wars of Afghanistan by Peter Tomsen.
Great book. Read it.

Explains how the Taliban was a creation of Pakistan's ISI. Also explains how they would rather fight each other than the U.S.; but they'll fight us for a while until we leave and then they'll get back to fighting each other again.

LasersHurt: skullkrusher: remember, not our enemies though.

This sounds like an honest interpretation of something someone said.

sorry, not our enemies per se ;)

/lighten up, Frankie

How dare those fundie savages band together in an attempt to destroy our beautiful democracy...

LasersHurt: skullkrusher: remember, not our enemies though.

This sounds like an honest interpretation of something someone said.

Considering our likely best way out of that country is a negotiated 'peace with honor' with the Taliban it does make sense to lay the psychological groundwork for that eventuality. Enjoy your modestly improved freedoms while they last ladies of Kabul. Hopefully Karzai at least ends up eating a bullet.

Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Yeah, Hamas tried that...

Wow, I totally read that last word of subby's headline wrong...

Yeah, but it's not the awesome Lion Voltron, it's the crappy one with cars that your Nana got you because she didn't know any better and the kid at Kay Bee didn't set her straight and then your parents say you have to play with it because it was a gift and they wouldn't get you the one you really wanted and it ruins your whole Christmas, which when you're seven can stay with you for a long time and before you know it you have thousands of dollars in therapy bills.

I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Go-go-Gofotron, Champion of the Cosmos! (start at the color strip at the bottom of this page, then continue in weekly mode)

/Yeah, it's over a decade old now, but still one of the funniest extended storylines in the strip.

whidbey: Yeah, Hamas tried that...

Just goes to show the limits of American Democracy. Freedom to elect whoever you choose, just as long as they meet certain predetermined criteria. Sounds almost Iranian...

BTW, a GIS for Princess Allura is a tiny bit NSFW.

/Acronym

Shaggy_C: whidbey: Yeah, Hamas tried that...

Just goes to show the limits of American Democracy. Freedom to elect whoever you choose, just as long as they meet certain predetermined criteria. Sounds almost Iranian...

Also, nukes. You really want the Taliban getting ahold of Pakistan's armory?

You want to know how utterly farking pointless, retarded, cruel and wasteful it is to be there? Watch Bomb Patrol Afghanistan. Bunch of rural slack jaws with millions upon millions of dollars of equipment blundering around a mud hut society, terrifying village after village while they "clear" these roads that would make a war torn African nation blush.

The utter and complete pointlessness is punched home in that show with a pneumatic hammer drill. It would make setting up a giant money furnace in Washington and shoveling pallet after pallet of cash into it, look efficient.

They don't want us there, in future, don't drop airliners on us.
/kay
//thnx
///bye

Kurmudgeon: They don't want us there, in future, don't drop airliners on us.
/kay
//thnx
///bye

You're the guy a cliche looks at and shakes its head.

If Bin Laden's camps had been someplace else on the planet, Afghanistan would be on the minds of friggin' NOBODY today.

That other place would occupy ... the space.

Sven inconsolable.

// remember him?
// he's working in the mines

Dr Dreidel: Sven inconsolable.

// remember him?
// he's working in the mines

I do indeed. Why he was the sacrificial character lamb and not Pidge is beyond me.

It's a pretty good analogy. After all, there was that episode right after Princess Allura piloted a lion for the first time and wanted to pilot one of the lions again, and the rest of the team told her she couldn't because she was a girl. And she got all indignant and said she could do anything a man could, at which point her big burly nanny came in, bent her over her leg, and spanked her repeatedly for having such foolish ideas while the guys pointed at her and laughed.

If you replaced the spanking with a dozen strokes of a bamboo cane, that would be a fairly accurate depiction. Either of the Taliban or a sample from my porn collection.

/Not making up that episode
//Seriously, YouTube it

tnpir: Dr Dreidel: Sven inconsolable.

// remember him?
// he's working in the mines

I do indeed. Why he was the sacrificial character lamb and not Pidge is beyond me.

I think it was his accent. Even in the new series he sounds screwy. Nobody likes that accent.

Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Does Afghanistan have military contractors/industry and lax campaign finance laws?

That's why WE perpetuate unwinnable wars...

Pauly Math: BTW, a GIS for Princess Allura is a tiny bit NSFW.

/Acronym

None of those are acronyms. No one says "jis", they say Gee Eye Es. The others aren't even vaguely pronounceable. NASA, SCUBA, RADAR, and LASER are acronyms, abbreviations that are spoken as words.

Emposter: Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Does Afghanistan have military contractors/industry and lax campaign finance laws?

That's why WE perpetuate unwinnable wars...

Go be be a partisan sheep on some other planet. i suggest Mars.

whidbey: Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Yeah, Hamas tried that...

When?

apeiron242: Emposter: Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Does Afghanistan have military contractors/industry and lax campaign finance laws?

That's why WE perpetuate unwinnable wars...

Go be be a partisan sheep on some other planet. i suggest Mars.

I wonder what it says about you (or perhaps whichever party which you feel the need to defend despite my not attacking it) that you see partisanship within a post sarcastically criticizing the MIC without even a hint of mentioning a political party.

Fark keyboard psychologists?

apeiron242: Pauly Math: BTW, a GIS for Princess Allura is a tiny bit NSFW.

/Acronym

None of those are acronyms. No one says "jis", they say Gee Eye Es. The others aren't even vaguely pronounceable. NASA, SCUBA, RADAR, and LASER are acronyms, abbreviations that are spoken as words.

Emposter: Shaggy_C: Sigh. These guys would be much better served just laying down their arms and taking over Afghanistan via the ballot box. There's no doubt in my mind that the Taliban would easily win popular election there. Why they want to perpetuate an unwinnable war seems counterproductive.

Does Afghanistan have military contractors/industry and lax campaign finance laws?

That's why WE perpetuate unwinnable wars...

Go be be a partisan sheep on some other planet. i suggest Mars.

Okay, fine. Initalism, them. Who pissed in your cheerios?

/sheesh

Phil Moskowitz: You're the guy a cliche looks at and shakes its head.

Cliches generally don't have body counts. Reality shakes it's head at you.

I think the thing that bothered me the most about Lion Voltron was that the jumpsuits the characters were wearing didn't match their lions. (Except Pidges'.) It just seems that if you've sunk gajillions of space credits into a Giant Robot Launching Program, that you could at least take the effort to make sure your pilots and vehicles are color-coordinated.

Just sayin...