Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:52 pm  

Dally wrote:

No and no. I have every faith in the Afghan people. They will see this as an act of a lone person and not of the US or coalition forces.

I hope you're right, but can't see it tbh.

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:53 pm  

Horatio Yed wrote:

I'm not saying i agree with invading countries based on jumped up motives, but to say that the cannon fodder that go over don't go over with honourable intentions is a bit dismissive, i have friends over there and they try their best even if they don't want to be there.

I don't want to be disrespectful to those people at all, but their best intentions don't count for squat. How they are perceived in that country, and the concrete results of their presence and actions are what count.

When some positive ones turn up I'd like to hear about them.

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:53 pm  

But will they, one guy accidently sticks a Koran in the rubbish that gets burned and there's mayhem, over a frickin book of fiction!

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:54 pm  

Chris28 wrote:

I hope you're right, but can't see it tbh.

Why - because you think they are savages?

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:56 pm  

Excellent point, Dally. This will be good.

Is it more racist to think they're incapable of being brought to heel in the required manner? Or is it more racist to think that the inherent nature of their society without a Western military presence means that they ought to be?

Fight it out.

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:58 pm  

Horatio Yed wrote:

I'm not saying i agree with invading countries based on jumped up motives, but to say that the cannon fodder that go over don't go over with honourable intentions is a bit dismissive, i have friends over there and they try their best even if they don't want to be there.

I haven't suggested that., HY.

Service personnel go out there because they're told to, but I'm sure that there's a wide range of personal feelings about doing that amongst them. And I wouldn't suggest others – and didn't.

But regardless of that, I would question how much has been achieved – and it's certainly not down to the ordinary soldiers to do the political/diplomatic stuff (what I touched on above).

Chris28 wrote:

I hope you're right, but can't see it tbh.

Me neither.

vbfg wrote:

I don't want to be disrespectful to those people at all, but their best intentions don't count for squat. How they are perceived in that country, and the concrete results of their presence and actions are what count...

Indeed.

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:02 pm  

Dally wrote:

Why - because you think they are savages?

No, because I've noted reports of reactions to other incidents there. This is a pretty horrific incident and in the light of reactions to less horrific ones, I don't expect there to be nothing happening this time.

Like I said, I hope you're right

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 1:41 pm  

Chris28 wrote:

No, because I've noted reports of reactions to other incidents there. This is a pretty horrific incident and in the light of reactions to less horrific ones, I don't expect there to be nothing happening this time.

Like I said, I hope you're right

Who are these apparent 'they' of which you speak? The majority? A few nutters? Who exactly?

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:11 pm  

I'm guessing it's the same "they" you were on about when you were ascribing to that entire population a single solitary opinion which you hope will be the ultimate outcome.

Dally wrote:

They will see this as an act of a lone person and not of the US or coalition forces.

In fact, since Chris never used the word even once in the entire thread, I can only imagine this is the source of your confusion.

Re: Afghanistan: Does this undo all the work done? : Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:14 pm  

I haven't mentioned "they" in either post

The follwoing stories

February 2012: Deadly protests after US troops inadvertently burn Koran
January 2012: Video shows US marines urinating on dead Afghans

from the BBC website have both had responses in the form of protest, some violent, some not, some large, some not so. So as I said, I expect a "reaction" to the news.