Rivergang

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Posts by Rivergang

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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  Further to the post by Anony Mous, you have to wonder about the effectiveness of aerial bombardment. It would seem that it has seldom lived up to the expectations of the air commanders.

  Between the two world wars, there were those who thought that aerial bombardment was going to win wars all on its own, thus making all the world's navies and ground forces obsolete (e.g. Giulio Douhet's 1921 work The Command of the Air). In reality, though, carpet bombing of population centres (such as London in 1940) failed to collapse civilian morale - possibly even causing it to stiffen. Also, despite an intensive bombing campaign by the air forces of Britain and the USA, German production of armaments actually kept on increasing during the years 1942-1944.

  That aerial bombardment during the Vietnam War was largely ineffective was certainly not due to lack of quantity!

  Between 1964 and 1975, US and Allied air forces expended 7.5 million tons of high explosive ordinance on Indochina. This was more than twice the total amount (3.5 million tons) of bombs that the Allies dropped on the Axis countries (both in Europe and in Asia) in all of WWII. In Laos, this effort failed to cut the infamous "Ho Chi Minh Trail", and in Cambodia, it made what was already a difficult situation much worse. (In Vietnam, it would seem to have been very much a blunt instrument - most notable for inflicting horrendous casualties on civilians)

  Altogether, yet another case of unrealistic expectations being made of aerial bombardment.
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  While guerrilla warfare certainly played a role in Vietnam, the Viet Minh / Viet Cong / NVA had more at their disposal that just small arms. Where it counted, Communist forces had firepower aplenty, with which in the year 1954 they blasted the French army into surrender at a place called Dien Bien Phu.

  Dien Bien Phu French Defeat in Vietnam. - YouTube

  Some 15 years later, American forces met a similar situation at an outpost called Khe Sanh.

  Battlefield Vietnam - Siege At Khe Sanh - YouTube

  During that best-forgotten war in South East Asia, the United States and its allies were not defeated by just the AK-47 alone. (In fact, amongst the Australian forces deployed there, most of the casualties were inflicted by landmines and booby traps).
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  Just in monetary terms alone, the position of the United States and its allies always was untenable. The war cost some two trillion dollars, and Taliban lost between 51,000 and 84,000 fighters.

  i.e. it cost between $24 million and $39 million just to kill one Taliban fighter - each and every one of whom could quickly be replaced.

  As Kipling so aptly noted even back in his time "The odds are on the cheaper man".
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  42

  More lies from fake news.

  by mickbobcat in

  1. social
  2. current

  news is broadcasting that death valley is getting close to breaking a record.

  the highest air temp recorded is 134 but that was in 1913 way before the huge spike in co2.

  now its 130 and its the end of the world.

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  Rivergang

  New Zealand sits astride the junction of two of the earth’s major continental plates, and is geologically young. The effect of this, though, is the opposite of what has been suggested.

  Rather than slowly sinking into the South Pacific Ocean, the South Island at least is still being pushed upwards by the interaction of those two continental plates, along what is known as “The Alpine Fault” (which slices the island in half on an oblique line running north east-south west). Not exactly rocket science, I recall this from Grade 10 Geography.

  The Buller River is not the only issue, either. Similar problems are being experienced all along that section of coastline, well out of the way of the Buller or any other river.

  What may or may not be happening in Africa has little bearing on this one.
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  42

  More lies from fake news.

  by mickbobcat in

  1. social
  2. current

  news is broadcasting that death valley is getting close to breaking a record.

  the highest air temp recorded is 134 but that was in 1913 way before the huge spike in co2.

  now its 130 and its the end of the world.

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  Rivergang

  sea levels are in actual fact rising a millimeter or so per year in the northern hemisphere and not at all in the southern hemisphere.

  It might not be a good idea to suggest this to the residents of a New Zealand community called Carters Beach (on its South Island's West Coast).

  They might rather strongly disagree with you!

  https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/101149344/storm-accelerates-coastal-erosion-at-carters-beach
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  To quote the late Sir Winston Churchill:

  "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
• 
  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  The following link makes comment (amongst other things) of just how even the terrain of Afghanistan works against an invader. Alexander the Great is said to have lost more soldiers just crossing Afghanistan from south to north than he ever lost in any battle that he fought.

  His Afghanistan campaign also saw the beginning of the physical and moral degradation of the young king.

  https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2015/11/11/alexander-the-great-in-afghanistan/
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  For an insight into why Afghanistan has been described as "The Graveyard of Empires", this link is an informative one

  https://www.historynet.com/indomitable-afghanistan.htm
• 
  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  Religion plays its part, certainly, but there is also much more involved. These people also saw off the armies of Alexander the Great, over 500 years before there was ever such a thing as Islam.
• 
  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Rivergang

  This event was foretold almost 140 years ago by the English poet, Rudyard Kipling - not because he had any psychic power, but just by using straight out simple arithmetic!

  Even back in the year 1886, when Kipling penned the poem Arithmetic on the Frontier, it was fairly obvious that no occupying power could afford to remain in Afghanistan long enough to make much of a difference to things.

  Its final stanza pretty much sums things up:

  With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,

  The troopships bring us one by one,

  At great expense of time and steam,

  To slay Afridis where they run.

  The "captives of our bow and spear"

  Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.

  (See the below link for the full rendition of Kipling's "Arithmetic on the Frontier" -plus some background notes).

  http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_arith.htm

  No wonder that country has been described as "The Graveyard of Empires".