While I wish our side hasn't lost so many of our own, the Afghans should be happy that since the US & NATO invasion about 50,000 Afghans are alive today that otherwise would have been killed had the pre-invasion status quo remained.

there are other sources which quote the number is only 49,837

I think you're getting confused with the 2009 road deaths in China.

I think you're getting confused with the 2009 road deaths in China.

The number of road deaths in China is WAY about 50,000. There are over 40,000 each year in the USA and that's with 1/4 the population, better roads and safer vehicles. I lived in Guangzhou for 2 months and safe driving seems to be frowned upon.

And I just found this...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/12/content_322695.htm

Road accidents kill 300 a day in China

(Shanghai Star)

Updated: 2004-04-12 15:51

Latest research shows that every day in China at least 300 people are killed in traffic accidents, ranking the country top in the world for both the death toll and the death rate. And the figure is accelerating by 10 per cent every year.

According to research, conducted by the Medical School of Jinan University in Guangzhou, the figure for all traffic accidents in China in 1951 was around 6,000. Fifty years later, in 2001, it had leapt to 750,000. Last year the figure was more than 770,000, with 110,000 people losing their lives and 560,000 injured.

bump about Afghanistan

Karzai Delays Afghan Parliament as Vote Crisis Deepens

By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ROD NORDLAND

Published: January 19, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai decided on Wednesday to postpone the inauguration of a new parliament for another month on the recommendation of a special court he appointed (personally - LP) to study electoral fraud, deepening the nation's political crisis.

The move will leave Afghanistan without a Parliament five months after its September election, with the prospect of even further delays, and puts the president at odds with his international supporters, who have insisted the elections were valid.

From:

http://www.nytimes.c...0afghan.html?hp

LaoPo

International community trying to impose "Its view" of democracy on a feudal, tribal, society who have no concept of it and no interest unless to be seen to comply, equates to more hand-outs and Mercedes for the elite.

The "west" and its self proclaimed leading nation, never seems to learn that what's applicable to Boston, London or Canberra, cannot be imposed like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, on a culture barely out of the stone-age.

The "PC" brigade will harp on about the wonders of the tribal culture, but the reality is death, misery, feudal wars and women and children left in virtual slavery, are the order of the day.

Why can we never accept a lost course ? Look at the prison populations in the US. Growing by the day and filling up with drug dealers , gang bangers, violent criminals etc etc , etc. All the democracy in the world has not helped make bad people anything other than bad people. Afghans I am sure are not all "bad people". But their leaders certainly are. They have a self-interest in keeping war and strife alive and well in their country and their religious leaders enjoy the odd stoning or whipping rather than watching American Idol, this will not change.

Leave them to it. Don't try to blame them for drugs on your streets, because without the demand the scrub farmers would go back to what they do best, scrub farming. Remove the military and put PC, peace loving happy clappers in to bring peace and love ( at least the undertakers would still be happy ). Pay the farmers to grow something else. They would for money, and stop trying to make silk purses out of pig's ears. The leadership and the zealots, will never change. By trying to do the Impossible you just add to the death toll of some of your own brightest and best.

Their self interest is tribal, and has been time out of mind.

With minor aberrations like Islamic Jihad, the bottom line is "my tribe over all", "This is a tough country, there's not enough to go round, we (my tribe) want it all".

Well, the two bottom lines.

Losses at Afghan Bank Could Be $900 Million

Published Janaury 30, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan —

Fraud and mismanagement at Afghanistan's largest bank have resulted in potential losses of as much as $900 million — three times previous estimates — heightening concerns that the bank could collapse and trigger a broad financial panic in Afghanistan, according to American, European and Afghan officials.

The extent of these losses make it clear that keeping the bank afloat — something the government has said it is determined to do — would require large infusions of cash from an already strained budget.

Banking specialists, businessmen and government officials now fear that word of Kabul Bank's troubles could prompt a run on solvent banks, destroying the country's nascent banking system and shaking the confidence of Western donors already questioning the level of their commitment to Afghanistan.

The scandal has severe political and security implications. Investigators and Afghan businessmen believe that much of the money has gone into the pockets of a small group of privileged and politically connected Afghans, preventing earlier scrutiny of the bank's dealings.

The spotlight on how political and economic interests in Afghanistan are intertwined threatens to further undermine President Hamid Karzai's government. The bank is also the prime conduit for paying Afghan security forces, leaving the American military, which pays the majority of the salaries, looking for new banks to process the $1.5 billion payroll.

Continues here:

http://www.nytimes.c...dlines&emc=tha2

LaoPo

Their self interest is tribal, and has been time out of mind.

This truly is the bottom line.........

It is also why no western/eastern army will ever conquer them. Not unless they want to

do it totally & stay forever to keep it all in puppet sequence.

There the majority of the tribes have probably never even heard of 9-11. There is no Central power

to surrender so there will never be a surrender nor a policing action of their own that can be sustained.

All they see are invaders coming down streets looking for God knows what.

If there is a benefit in it for them they will be temporary allies...that is one tribe

When you leave they return to their own....On to the next tribe...rinse repeat.

Yankees go home....Your country needs you & the 700 million a day that is wasted there.

No more American sons & daughters need die there for any unsustainable reason.

Trump: Rebuild America, Not Afghanistan

Monday, 31 Jan 2011 07:27 PM

By Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter

Donald Trump tells Newsmax the United States should be spending taxpayers' money rebuilding the country instead of wasting fortunes in other countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We go to Afghanistan, we build a road. We build a highway. We build a school at the end of the highway. The school gets blown up, the road gets blown up, and we're starting all over again," he says in his exclusive Newsmax interview.

"Why aren't we building roads in Alabama?

"I would like to rebuild the United States. China is rebuilding itself. We are rebuilding China. Then you come into Kennedy International Airport and it's obsolete. It's a Third World airport. We have to rebuild ourself.

"We would have no lack of projects. You do airports, you do road work, you do mass transit, you do a lot of things.

"We've spent $1.2 trillion – now that's what they report — in Iraq and yet we can't fix New Orleans. We can't fix our own cities. It's insane."

http://www.newsmax.c...01/31/id/384563 WITH VIDEO - LP

LaoPo

"We've spent $1.2 trillion – now that's what they report — in Iraq and yet we can't fix New Orleans. We can't fix our own cities. It's insane."

Common Sense....sounds great....but as always there is money to be made supplying tools of the trade....for a select few that own the US

It would be naive to not know there are those that are profiting from these wars, policing actions, pre-emptive invasions <sic>

Vietnam is as capitalist as they come.

In small business ventures, yes. Especially in the South.

But the larger 'companies' are basically state-owned and responsible to MOIT (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Also there is central planning of the economy, which even the privately owned businesses (not talking about bars and restaurants, but small manufactories, construction companies and so on) have to follow.

It is Asian Socialism, as also practiced in China and Laos.

Vietnam is as capitalist as they come.

In small business ventures, yes. Especially in the South.

But the larger 'companies' are basically state-owned and responsible to MOIT (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Also there is central planning of the economy, which even the privately owned businesses (not talking about bars and restaurants, but small manufactories, construction companies and so on) have to follow.

It is Asian Socialism, as also practiced in China and Laos.

Is that a bad thing? Genuine question, and I don't mean "bad" for America or Britaim...I mean for the people.

My guess at the answer is: It depends on who sets policy.

So, in theory, if the right policies are set and followed, the "Asian Socialism" has the potential to be a good thing

I can't think of a single country claiming to be Socialist/Communist that fits the bill.

The USSR was to Communism what the Inquisition was to Christianity. 1% of the population owning/controlling everything isn't Communism.

I can't think of a single country claiming to be Socialist/Communist that fits the bill.

Correct and there never will be because mankind is selfish and greedy. That is the main problem with the ideology.

The best Afghanistan video I have seen yet:

55 Celsius !!

55 Celsius is OK there. I worked next door, in Iran, in the same sort of conditions. We were up at about 2000m and the air was very dry, so when you went out on site you felt your skin crisp a bit, but no more than that. Sweat evaporated instantaneously, so no nasty sticky/clingy clothes.

On the other hand, winter was around zero, so the extremes were wide apart. In the real deserts in Iran (the Great Salt Desert and the Great Sand Desert) the temperature varies from over 55 Celsius in summer to below minus 25 Celsius in winter - one of the widest spreads in the world. Very little lives in either desert.

No one except the Afghanis have ever won a war on their territory, nor lasted long as a 'friendly' supporter of the regime. All our stupid politicians should have studied history before they embarked on this enterprise - maybe they would have seen that it was doomed to fail, and was doomed to condemn many brave soldiers to death or injury for no realistic, tangible goal.