BBC - Have Your Say: What should foreign powers be fighting for in Afghanistan?

BBC - Have Your Say: What should foreign powers be fighting for in Afghanistan?
I stand corrected: At 12:48pm on 23 May 2010, Paul J Weighell wrote:
For a just world.....Have you ever been to Israel or to an Islamic country? I have...and I'll tell you this,in most Islamic countries I spent much of my time looking over my shoulder for the "security" service personnel(militias),on the advice of Muslim locals whom we were there to help.As a charity worker I was viewed with huge suspicion,mostly I was seen as a "spy" for "the west",and have been arrested and had to gain my freedom by bribery.In contrast,when in Israel,I was treated with some suspicion but only by hard-line orthodoxy,and even then nothing bad or even remotely threatening was ever going to happen to me,my status as a charity worker allowed me to see things that tourists would never see,I was allowed to speak to soldiers without any problem and was even offered a tour of the defences of "the wall",so much for Zionist hate.Israel is actually a secular state,a democracy,with tolerance for all religions(I met some Christians and Muslims working together to help raise funds for a hospital)I was at no time in danger of arrest or ill treatment while in Israel,but unfortunately I cannot say the same for some Islamic states,even being in some of these countries and regions to help as a charity worker is dangerous as I could have been killed as a "spy",by militias,who were the danger that the people who we were helping to access aid programmes hid me from and told me when they were around,so that myself and the others I was working with could be moved to a safe location while the militias conducted house searches.The populations of many Islamic countries are severely repressed and propagandised against Jews and Christians,yet the Israeli's can hold massive,legal,demonstrations against their own governments policies if and when they disagree with them,and are free to associate with whom they please,when they please,how they please,and they do.This is a world of difference,between medieval religious feudalism,and modern,democratic,secular liberalism.
then At 12:21pm on 23 May 2010, trismus wrote:

The Taliban has repeatedly said they have no ambitions beyond the borders of Afghanistan.

In 2009 the Taliban offered to agree to legal guarantees that it would not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries.

This was turned down by the American administration on the ground that Omar had refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 so why should they believe him now.

The truth is the Taliban didn't refuse to hand him over, they asked for proof of his involvement before they would do so.
That proof couldn't be provided and evidence to date is that responsibility for the atrocity is to be found in Saudi Arabia and Europe rather than Afghanistan.

It is alleged that OBL was approached to finance the operation which he did to the tune of $500,000.

Considering his investment and his aim to attack American finances, with the chaos that continues to this day, this must be one of the best investments ever made by anybody.

I have always believed we didn't have to invade Afghanistan if our sole aim was to capture OBL.
The question must be asked, 'why was he allowed to escape through the back door'?

There are only two reasons for our incursions in the region:

1, Oil.

2, Israel.

Oil is essential to us, Israel isn't.

America was negotiating with the Taliban for pipelines from the 'stan countries through Afghanistan to Pakistan before 9/11.

9/11 gave America the opportunity it had been longing for to remove Saddam who just before the invasion of Iraq had refused to sell his oil in dollars and with the reserves of oil in Iraq the ability to bring chaos to the oil market.
Saddam's WMD was his oil.

While our soldiers blood is being spilt and our treasure disappearing down a bottomless well, China without firing a shot is doing mega deals with all and sundry.

The most efficient way to get the oil out of the 'stan countries is through Iran, this can't happen because Iran is seen as the enemy of Israel, and with the power of the American Jewish diaspora with it's ability to manipulate American public opinion, not likely to happen.

Al-Qaeda doesn't need a base or an office to operate.

The CIA put the number of al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan at 100, those 100 being low key fodder.
With the numbers of our troops being killed in Afghanistan, if our objective is to defeat al-Qaeda there, I might suggest, the numbers suggest, we are losing!!

On the theist front: married teacher has become the first woman priest to be ordained in Italy.

Maria Vittoria Longhitano, 35, who belongs to a breakaway faction of the Catholic Church, received the holy orders at an Anglican church in Rome.