CNN reports Russia supplying Taliban with sophisticated weapons

President Trump tried to fight the sanctions bill which just passed against Russia, and now he talks with Putin where no American is around and only a Russian translator. Trump supporters are filling an arena in Ohio as President Trump is pocketing more campaign money which he can give to one of his children who runs for office, and this bastard possibly won in part with Russian collusion where his campaign knowingly was trying to get documents from the Russians which would hurt his opponent, and they NEVER talked about sanctions. When some American kids die from Russian arms let him tell us about how warming up to Russia is good for America. Traitor. All the supporters who go to his rally. Idiots or traitors. Tar and feathers will never be good enough for this traitor.

I can almost feel your righteous indignation through my monitor.

Where were you when it was the U.S. shoveling money to the Taliban? What a phony!

The United States has made common cause with an assortment of dubious regimes around the world to wage the war on drugs. Perhaps the most shocking example was Washington’s decision in May 2001 to financially reward Afghanistan’s infamous Taliban government for its edict ordering a halt to the cultivation of opium poppies.

In mid-May, 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell announced a $43 million grant to Afghanistan in addition to the humanitarian aid the United States had long been providing to agencies assisting Afghan refugees.

That $43 million grant needs to be placed in context. Afghanistan’s estimated gross domestic product was a mere $2 billion. The equivalent financial impact on the U.S. economy would have required an infusion of $215 billion. In other words, $43 million was very serious money to Afghanistan’s theocratic masters.
https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-washington-funded-taliban

But wait, there's more:

To make matters worse, U.S. officials were naive to take the Taliban edict at face value. The much-touted crackdown on opium poppy cultivation appears to have been little more than an illusion. Despite U.S. and UN reports that the Taliban had virtually wiped out the poppy crop in 2000-2001, authorities in neighboring Tajikistan reported that the amounts coming across the border were actually increasing. In reality, the Taliban gave its order to halt cultivation merely to drive up the price of opium the regime had already stockpiled.

Put that in your "pipe" and smoke it!

I do not want one American in the damn country. I think we should have left ten years ago. However, when an American kid is there through no F'ng fault of their own(poverty and not having any skills) I sure as hell can tell you where you can stick your pipe as Russians kill children in hospitals, schools, and now our kids.

2seaoat wrote:I do not want one American in the damn country.  I think we should have left ten years ago.  However, when an American kid is there through no F'ng fault of their own(poverty and not having any skills) I sure as hell can tell you where you can stick your pipe as Russians kill children in hospitals, schools, and now our kids.

Once again, you entirely miss the point, but your concern has been noted.

Thanks for your input. Have a nice day.

Once again, you entirely miss the point, but your concern has been noted.

Thanks for your input. Have a nice day.


Miss the point.....like what time a show is scheduled or what law applies somewhere.......one might begin to think missing the point is the point.

2seaoat wrote:Miss the point.....like what time a show is scheduled or what law applies somewhere.......one might begin to think missing the point is the point.

Okay, I get it. You're losing touch with reality and having trouble communicating. Maybe you should get some help, eh?

People with dementia may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea how to continue or they may repeat themselves. They may struggle with vocabulary, have problems finding the right word or call things by the wrong name (e.g., calling a "watch" a "hand-clock").
http://www.alz.org/10-signs-symptoms-alzheimers-dementia.asp

may have trouble following or joining a conversation.

Yep, you got that one right. randomly talking about dementia....in a Taliban thread.

I'm just worried about you, Seaoat.

When you post something like:  "Miss the point.....like what time a show is scheduled or what law applies somewhere.......one might begin to think missing the point is the point"  in the middle of a reasonably coherent conversation--as far those words can be applied to your ranting--it  makes me think maybe you're losing it.

Perhaps you should have someone explain how the Preview button works and how to express yourself effectively in English. Or maybe get a check-up from a neurologist.

get a check-up from a neurologist.

Yes, you are right. The neurologist after a scan mentioned that my brain is too large and I should join a forum where mentally challenged individuals can help reduce brain cells by reading their posts.....who knows.....you may be the cure and never knew you had a purpose.

2seaoat wrote: get a check-up from a neurologist.

Yes, you are right.  The neurologist after a scan mentioned that my brain is too large and I should join a forum where mentally challenged individuals can help reduce brain cells by reading their posts.....who knows.....you may be the cure and never knew you had a purpose.

The premise of this thread is bogus like most of the originators commentary. "Sophisticated weapons"? Total BS....as evidenced by the very article 2SO references but failed to link. From that article: "Weapons experts from the Small Arms Survey studied the videos and said there was little in them to directly tie the guns to the Russian state. The weapons were not particularly modern or rare, and even some of the more elaborate additions, like a JGBG M7 scope on one machine gun, were Chinese made and readily available online, they said."

2SO must have been asleep the last 15 years to think this is earthshaking news. Russians will sell or or give arms to ANYONE over whom they might gain influence. The U.S. does the same to a lesser extent but the sad fact is once a country turns weapons over to a non-nation state group the weapons might as well be lost for all we know.

When people realize we can't trust anyone in the Mideast perhaps our foreign policy will start to reflect reality.

But I dislike the sensationalism of the thread title and also the additional reference to how our troops are ignorant, poverty stricken losers who have nowhere to go but the battlefield. Only a narrow-minded egotist would think that.

A thought comes to mind that I read somewhere along the way: There are no noble wars only noble warriors". So 2SO, unless you've actually served alongside our troops (you haven't and won't) why don't you refrain from the condescending attitude towards them?

The missing link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/asia/taliban-weapons-afghanistan/index.html

Seaoat easily forgets that our Congress funneled weapons to the Mujahideen during Russian occupation of Afghanistan 1979-1988. The most lethal was the Stinger missiles sent which made life for Russian aircrew hell and ended the lives of many Russian citizens. A great reference would be the movie Charlie Wilson's War.

Sorry Gator, but kids signing up for the military are looking for an economic out. They are mercenaries. When we stopped the draft, we stopped being a citizen's army. I can only speak to three of my son's classmates who joined. Two were low achieving not too bright kids and the other was simply lost as to what he was going to do with his life and joined later than the other two. One was discharged with full disability because he had a mental meltdown, the second and third had honorable discharges and are completely lost in the civilian world bouncing from one minimum wage job to another. This was the same story of my classmates. Sorry, I had friends who served and went to the Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy and they did well in the civilian world, but they went in as high achieving students. I have a friend whose son joined the air force to become an air traffic controller and knew he could get a full military retirement, and then become a civilian air traffic controller and would be given 8 years credit toward his civilian retirement which will allow him to retire from the civilian air traffic control at 62 with two pensions. Those high achieving folks are not and have never been cannon fodder. It is poor kids throughout the last fifty years who have provided the same to unnecessary wars of an Imperial America.

The Russians are doing to us what we did to them. There is nothing new except we have a president who has actively worked to aid our enemy. You do not have to have a declared war for American kids to die. I am sorry you have some idealized fantasy of who is going into the military. I think our founding fathers were correct. Standing armies are dangerous to democracy. In regard to the thread headline, that was the CNN headline which I reported seeing. I did not know what weapon system they were referencing nor did you. You do not have a clue what may be provided to the taliban in regard to electronics, but I like that you can just make up chit about buying stuff on the internet as if that is what CNN was talking about in their segment. I simply posted the obvious.....the Russians are actively the enemies of the United States.

2seaoat wrote:Sorry Gator, but kids signing up for the military are looking for an economic out.  They are mercenaries.  When we stopped the draft, we stopped being a citizen's army.  I can only speak to three of my son's classmates who joined.  Two were low achieving not too bright kids and the other was simply lost as to what he was going to do with his life and joined later than the other two.  One was discharged with full disability because he had a mental meltdown, the second and third had honorable discharges and are completely lost in the civilian world bouncing from one minimum wage job to another.   This was the same story of my classmates.  Sorry, I had friends who served and went to the Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy and they did well in the civilian world, but they went in as high achieving students.  I have a friend whose son joined the air force to become an air traffic controller and knew he could get a full military retirement, and then become a civilian air traffic controller and would be given 8 years credit toward his civilian retirement which will allow him to retire from the civilian air traffic control at 62 with two pensions.  Those high achieving folks are not and have never been cannon fodder.  It is poor kids throughout the last fifty years who have provided the same to unnecessary wars of an Imperial America.

The Russians are doing to us what we did to them.  There is nothing new except we have a president who has actively worked to aid our enemy.  You do not have to have a declared war for American kids to die.  I am sorry you have some idealized fantasy of who is going into the military.  I think our founding fathers were correct.  Standing armies are dangerous to democracy.  In regard to the thread headline, that was the CNN headline which I reported seeing.  I did not know what weapon system they were referencing nor did you.   You do not have a clue what may be provided to the taliban in regard to electronics, but I like that you can just make up chit about buying stuff on the internet as if that is what CNN was talking about in their segment.  I simply posted the obvious.....the Russians are actively the enemies of the United States.

Let me help you if that's possible. I didn't make up anything - unlike you I read the article. You obviously didn't as to do so would immediately prove your error.

Just because you "knew" several people who served in the military for their individual reasons does not make you an expert. I served over 20 years with thousands of people of varying socio-economic backgrounds and can tell you from DIRECT experience you are wrong (again) since we've had this conversation before but you insist on clinging to your fantasy.

Seaoat your logic on what a citizens army is and is not is baffling. Isn't a true citizens army one that is made up of volunteers? Yes, it is. The army of other generations, during a draft was a forced army. That's NOT an example of a citizens army. There have always been folks join for economic reasons and there is nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean they are dumb. It could also possibly mean there were no other opportunities be they economic, educational, or whatever the case. Seriously, Del made sense on his last post about your statement. It lacks coherence except only to you.

Let me help you if that's possible. I didn't make up anything - unlike you I read the article. You obviously didn't as to do so would immediately prove your error.


This thread started from a live tv feed. It did not start from an article. Please post the article you "think" I was referencing. Nowhere did I mention an article. For fifty years this country has not had a threat to this country which required a military response. Yet, we have spent close to 5 trillion dollars on imperial expeditions in the middle east which has squandered our power and influence around the world, and drained our coffers.

Of course there are extremely bright and good people who go into the military, but you completely run away from the fact that this is a mercenary army, and it is not a citizens army. That young kids who could be working on infrastructure and capital equipment which builds the American GDP are becoming government teat suckers for an oligarchy whose MIC cost over runs alone could fund medicare for all. No, war is neither honorable or necessary. It is a failure which brings immeasurable pain and suffering to innocents. When this country brings back the draft, and every socio economic class in America bears the burden of war instead of those without options, we will finally slow MIC from destroying this country. However, I can guarantee you if Eric or Jr. were drafted, daddy would moderate his views that somehow another forty billion needs to be put in our military.

2seaoat wrote:Let me help you if that's possible. I didn't make up anything - unlike you I read the article. You obviously didn't as to do so would immediately prove your error.


This thread started from a live tv feed.  It did not start from an article.  Please post the article you "think" I was referencing.      

Wow- here it is AGAIN (it was in my original response as if you would know):

The missing link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/asia/taliban-weapons-afghanistan/index.html


Instead of just listening to part of a "live video feed" and making great leaps of imagination why don't you do a little digging to verify you know what you're talking about? Because in this case you don't.

2seaoat wrote:Let me help you if that's possible. I didn't make up anything - unlike you I read the article. You obviously didn't as to do so would immediately prove your error.


This thread started from a live tv feed.  It did not start from an article.  Please post the article you "think" I was referencing.   Nowhere did I mention an article.   For fifty years this country has not had a threat to this country which required a military response.  Yet, we have spent close to 5 trillion dollars on imperial expeditions in the middle east which has squandered our power and influence around the world, and drained our coffers.

Of course there are extremely bright and good people who go into the military, but you completely run away from the fact that this is a mercenary army, and it is not a citizens army.  That young kids who could be working on infrastructure and capital equipment which builds the American GDP are becoming government teat suckers for an oligarchy whose MIC cost over runs alone could fund medicare for all.   No, war is neither honorable or necessary.  It is a failure which brings immeasurable pain and suffering to innocents.  When this country brings back the draft, and every socio economic class in America bears the burden of war instead of those without options, we will finally slow MIC from destroying this country.  However, I can guarantee you if Eric or Jr. were drafted, daddy would moderate his views that somehow another forty billion needs to be put in our military.    

Was the Vietnam War, the last war fought with a draft, a war where all socioeconomic classes were present? I think not. So much so, many African Americans refused to participate. One notable was Cassius Clay AKA Muhammed Ali. Many blacks refused to fight what was considered a white man's war. Many protested in a violent manner about it. See the 1968 Democratic convention in Detroit. Minorities fought in that war on a greater percentage than Caucasians. If you were white and could get a deferment, you did.

Isn't a true citizens army one that is made up of volunteers? Yes, it is.

No it is not. Volunteers who join to defend America at a time of threat is a citizens army. Volunteers who are mercenaries and who join for economic reasons because the wealth inequality and lack of economic opportunity has put half our population into poverty, while those oligarchs bear none of the burden to defend this nation. My nephew has just been given a half million dollars from my brother to start a business. He is thirty two years old and went to a christian high school, christian college, and worked for my brother's construction company. My brother and his wife were big trump supporters, but when the talk of a draft was discussed 15 years ago, my SIL went into a rage that her son could get drafted. Yet today they have no problem voting for a man who is expanding the military spending by another 40 billion while their son prospers from their wealth, while other kids go from minimum wage to minimum wage jobs after being discharged from this so called citizens army.

When every citizen faces military service by chance selection, and not just low income families providing their children for cannon fodder, or to wreak havoc on innocent civilians around the world, we will not have a citizen's army. We have a mercenary army plain and simple. It is just more obvious when we are paying other nationalities for the same. The vicious cycle repeats itself, and the MIC makes its obscene profits while we terrorize the world.

Viet Nam was an unnecessary war which began a string of MIC wars which IKE warned us about, but it was the political protest of middle class kids and their families which brought that war to an end because citizens had some skin in the game. I had a high draft number which was 305 and they only drafted to 75 the year I was eligible. I remained 1a and never had to take a deferment because I was lucky to be able to complete my hard working educational goals without having to be cannon fodder for MIC bottom lines. Yet, today do you think Eric or Junior ever were concerned about going off to war? Hell, no because middle class kids and the wealthy have opportunity in America with hard work and education, but a poor kid does not share the same and a mercenary army gives that kid an out.

I believe strongly that you cannot dismantle the horror of war and MIC profits without first piercing the necessary propaganda of the brave citizen soldier defending America. It has been a myth for over sixty years. Our military has done good things in that 60 years, but that is the exception rather than the rule. The veteran provides the cover for MIC who uses the sacrifices of some to hide the greater sacrifices of a nation which throw trillions down a rabbit hole called military spending. Until people call the mercenary army what it is and until we quit worshiping all things military, we can never find the freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness our founding fathers envisioned, and you are either fighting for justice or you are promoting war and the continued bottom line profits of MIC and the ruling oligarchy.

NPAatall wrote:Many blacks refused to fight what was considered a white man's war. Many protested in a violent manner about it. See the 1968 Democratic convention in Detroit.

Yikes! Your ignorance is, for lack of a better word, deplorable.

The 1968 Democratic Convention was in Chicago and the only violence was perpetrated by cops on peaceful protesters, most of whom were white kids--Yippies, to be precise. For the most part they were the same protesters who marched on and tried to levitate the Pentagon in '67, the same year there was a race riot in Detroit.

The Detroit riot had nothing to do with 'Nam but was a response to the horrible segregation and oppression of blacks in that city.

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Non Performing Asset, indeed. Read Proverbs 17:28, you dumb shit.

Wow- here it is AGAIN

Again that article and the video contained in it is NOT what this thread reported. It reported the headline on the live CNN news feed and they used the word sophisticated in the story. You can try to change the thread to meet your needs, or provide different articles and videos, but I stand by what I posted as what CNN reported and I did not see the video, or your link to the CNN web site. I simply reported that Mr. Trumps buddies as reported by CNN were helping the Taliban.

Sorry, but you are welcome to start a thread with your premise that the Taliban can order weapons off the internet, and as a sub thesis therefore the Russian aid to folks who are shooting at us is no big deal. Sorry, you are wrong. It is a big deal. Fighting sanctions like Russia is simply an arms dealer on ebay and not actively harming American interests and our troops is naive at best.

2seaoat wrote:Wow- here it is AGAIN

Again that article and the video contained in it is NOT what this thread reported.  It reported the headline on the live CNN news feed and they used the word sophisticated in the story.   You can try to change the thread to meet your needs, or provide different articles and videos, but I stand by what I posted as what CNN reported and I did not see the video, or your link to the CNN web site.   I simply reported that Mr. Trumps buddies as reported by CNN were helping the Taliban.

Sorry, but you are welcome to start a thread with your premise that the Taliban can order weapons off the internet, and as a sub thesis therefore the Russian aid to folks who are shooting at us is no big deal.   Sorry, you are wrong.  It is a big deal.  Fighting sanctions like Russia is simply an arms dealer on ebay and not actively harming American interests and our troops is naive at best.

166 words to say nothing. Waffle, wobble, deflect, and attempt to misdirect. Prove you wrong and it's amusing to watch you zing around like Ricochet Rabbit. How do you ignore facts so easily? Oh I see, facts get pushed out the equation by your hyper-inflated opinions. Too funny!

I gave the facts of what CNN was reporting. What was in the heading was their words which in your desire to show that my paradigm about the military is incorrect, you link a completely different CNN story which was not the same as the breaking news except the conclusion that the Russians were providing weapons to the Taliban. It is simple. The Russians are aiding the Taliban with weapons, and we have a mercenary force in that nation because MIC needs to keep the profits rolling, and you need to keep the fantasy alive that our military is anything but a huge rabbit hole which has seen trillions and trillions of dollars of utter waste while our imperial mercenary military kills innocent civilians all around the world. Oh, and the folks who join that mercenary army do so overwhelmingly for a paycheck and some promised vocational opportunity down the road while sucking the life out of our GDP and the private sector. Our founding fathers warned us. Ike warned us. You just want to keep fooling folks that our military is what it is not. This mix of all socio economic classes in America filled with patriots who joined to defend America.

I met a helicopter pilot being trained now who I had a conversation with last year. He said he joined to kill terrorists. The Orwellian doublethink which allows this idea that terrorist criminals are now going to be regulated by military responses, is an absurdity on the face of it, but even more frightening is how much of a scardy cat nation we have become as more people die each year from bee stings than all the terrorists attacks against Americans in America and around the world. It is the perfect MIC scheme which requires this warped sense that those folks serving our somehow defending America and not the tools of an imperialistic force creating profits for MIC. Sorry, your model is simple brainwashing.

As China builds this massive law breaking chain of defensive islands in the South China Sea, what is the basis for the same? As North Korea rushes to have ICBMs which can land in America, what is the basis for the same?

As we prop up monarchies and dictatorships in the middle east and lose political and military strength, is it a war on terrorism, or is America now more vulnerable to be wiped off the face of the earth because of fifty years of aggressive imperialistic goals which have weakened our nation?

The simple fact is that American imperial power is projected by our carrier groups who were developed to stop the aggression and expansion of the Japanese in WWII, but have been since that time the spearhead of Imperial America. The chinese, Iranians, Pakistanis, Russians, and soon to be more nations can take our carrier groups out with small tactical nukes, and the Chinese strategy of not letting our Imperial power get to close to mainland china is a clear defensive strategy which will render us a toothless tiger.

We pour money down the rabbit hole. Real alliances are now forming which can render us impotent in a war of attrition, and all those allies will be gone in less than two months with a war against china, Russia, North Korea, and Iran........in the guise of a strong military, we have created an illusion which like the illusion the french had perfected defenses against the Germans, our military with each day moves closer to impotency.