Maddow in Afghanistan: Introduction - 'What Is It Like & Why Are We Here?'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 10:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cHPJJaFM20   Posted on YouTube: July 07, 2010 By YouTube Member: FixedNewsChannel Views on YouTube: 30   Posted on DU: July 07, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 835

 
PART 2: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x482405

PART 3: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x482407

PART 4: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x482410

PART 5: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x482420

RICHARD ENGEL OVERVIEW: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x482417

MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show - 6 July 2010: Rachel reports live from Afghanistan. "If we are going to fight two of the longest wars in American history, if we're going to fight those wars simultaneously and we're going to have such a tiny proportion of our population actually serving in the military - people doing three, four, five, six combat tours - then we owe it them to try to understand what their lives are like at war, what's being asked of them, and what's the strategic justification for why we are putting them through this.

So that's our little cable T.V. show mission on this trip. We are here to figure out as much as we can about these two questions about this American war - does this make sense and what's it like here?"

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[tomm2thumbs]

1. thanks for the post Hissyspit - good stuff by Rachel

sad to say the truth is so out in the open, it doesn't take much to dig it up - and she certainly gets right to the point. This all is being waged on a theory of success that defies any reasonable assessment of history that things will change. The second US troops leave, the bribery, the corruptive influences of warlords and the abuses of people by religious zealots will return.

Perhaps we should have tried just enriching everyone personally, so they can hire their own body guards, enclave their neighborhoods and become elite aristocrats who have 24 hour security, dog walkers and memberships to the Country Club. Perhaps then they would fight for what they have and be interested in keeping it at status quo.


Oh wait, but that would have cost billions less and not enriched corporate U.S. interests who have their hand in the govt coffers here.

[Divine Discontent]

2. Rachel!!! :)

[Aristophrenia]

3. I just don't get this -

Does anyone - clearly Rachel does - actually believe that the US is in Afhganistan to rid them of the Taliban ? Has she forgotten the name Al Qaeda that quickly ?

What is more terrifying as there is an assumption that there is something good being done that engaging in a peripheral society, archaic in every way, with entrenched barbaric practices from the dark ages which is the poorest and least developed nation on earth is simply going to turn into a beacon of civility at the end of a barrel - sorry - cross hairs from a TV screen in NEvada monitoring the live feed from an invisible drone. When countries which have shown such incredible forward-ness and are the happy recipients of huge US benefits such as Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are still the most barbaric and inhumane countries on earth ?

Please Rachel - you have completely lost me.

War is wrong - always - US wars are more wrong.

[SkyDaddy7]

4. I think you are trying to simplify the...

very complex reality of the US being in Afghanistan. Rachel is trying to show just how complex this story is without partisan rhetoric and one sided views like we get from most other media.

I think Rachel does excellent reporting on every topic even when I think I disagree she seems to do her job as a journalist very well!

Just my opinion.