Norman Kember-honourable and brave or a bit of a pompous arse??

[moondog]

I'm plumping for the latter.....

He will have to calm down a bit with his use of cursing at his neighbours and fellow diplomats, otherwise he may be told "you are fired" !

but the Afghanis will be so grateful that someone can finally show them how to run their country.

I'm not sure what there is to explain about Afghanistan. It's people indulge in appalling brutality against each other, the notion of religious tolerance is not only absent but seen by many as evil, women are chattels, and they can't even manage to stop foreign terrorists from taking over areas and using them to attack civilised countries.

I am sceptical of our ability to civilise Afghanistan, and the nearest thing I have to optimism is that we lack the ability to make it much worse even if we tried.

Am I eligbible to run for office in Aghanistan ?
Normally one has to be a citizen.

well if you were a citizen i might have more faith in your summing up of their national characteristics.
I actually thought it was the Taliban who subscribe to the qualities you describe, helped to power by..hmm..let me see..who was it again? Don't know what that has to do with the ordinary Afghani. But maybe you know alot more about them than I do..

The Taliban was helped by the USA as were the IRA.
But we beat the IRA.

Interesting logic.

So let's get this right, first give them money, support and encouragement (i.e. Taliban and Saddam) then a few years down the line, once you have decided they have become sufficiently irritating, go and bomb them !

Dc spot on re last post

eh? But it was not just us that fighting the taliban -it was the USA -so odd logic indeed.

Er..how did we 'beat' the IRA exactly?
Quite a few of them are respected members of parliament-that strikes me as being quite an achievement.

Good point moondog.

For example I think that if in Algeria the Islamisist parties had been allowed to form a new govt. (which in fact they deserved as they won the elections fair and square in a democractic process) the long-running bloodshed in Algeria could have been avoided. What the ruling regime decided to do instead is declare the elections null and void and thereby allow the Islamisists the perfect excuse to create more mayhem.

It is impossible to teach or preach democracy and at the same time do everthing possible to undermine the democratic process.

The fact that former IRA members are now in positions of power is a credit to the process of democracy.

The IRAQ failed in their stated core objective of a united Ireland. If you take the time to read their political pronouncements that was a socialist state was well.

It was not a crushing victory, terrorist wars rarely end that way. But our side triumphed.

I'm not sure if (pedantically) we can say we have IRA MPs. They refuse to swear the oath of allegiance, and thus aren't allowed in.

But they are now in our process, not we in theirs.

Even the Americans have realised the folly of helping terrorists, was happening before 9/11 when they discovered that the IRA were training up Colombian terrorists in urban warfar.

Shame we never napalmed Boston.

Napalming Boston now !

Gosh you do have an extremely violent side DC, don't you, you take turns in either insulting or violently killing a different nationality in every post.

Well, I guess it's one way of getting rid of your opposition

You're just being silly now young Dom.
Sillier than me on one of my silliest days,and believe me,I can be bloody silly.

Moondog - yes a bit of the good old British "fair play" will do DC some good

[cue dambusters soundtrack.]

where did that n go?

ruty - lol

The good people of Boston suported a group that tried to have me burned to death at 5. Not my friends.

eh?

What, every one of the people in Boston?

DC, are you Peacedove heavily disguised and armed with a dictionary?/thesaurus?

DC - come on you will have to tell us what this movement in Boston is, who they supported and why they tried to kill you when you were 5.

The citizens of Boston gave copiously to the IRA. It elected politicians who helped it, and brought political pressure upon the police not to enforce the law when the IRA's helpers broke it.

but DC i thought you were an ex-catholic. How does that work then?

is htis thread still going on?
yawnsley

I think the operative word here is "ex".
Hard to exactly date the transition but guess I was about 9.