Where did Al Qaeda and the Taliban come from?
the origins of Al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. the U.S. viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahedeen on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression. the U.S. channelled funds to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation. when the Soviets withdrew in 1989, some mujahedeen wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world. a number of overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations. one of these was called al-Qaeda, formed by Osama Bin Laden with the first meeting held on August 11, 1988. the first major military activity of the Taliban was in October-November 1994 when they marched from Maiwand in southern Afghanistan to capture Kandahar city and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men. in the next three months, they took control of twelve of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, with Mujahideen warlords often surrendering to them without a fight. by September 1996, they had captured Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
Is the United States at war?
If you are an American citizen, the fact that you can ask that question is an indicator of a national problem.The United States is, in fact, at war. It is conducting an undeclared war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.But unless you or someone close to you belongs to the military, or you live in a heavily militarily-impacted community, as I do, you would not know it from what is going on around you. Your local media almost never covers anything involving the military in your community. You almost never see people in uniform. You seldom see young men and women with prosthetic limbs. The only contact with the war would be through the national media, and it would seem far away. About the biggest national media story about the military at the present time is about a parade.Don’t blame the media; they report what their audience wants to learn about. If they don’t, the audience goes away. Our military situation in Afghanistan is complex, bloody, unpleasant, and not subject to quick fixes; no one wants to listen to a half-hour of a general trying to explain the different problems his units face in different parts of that country, or read the same information in a long article in their newspaper.There is a disconnect between the people of this nation and its military. We want to have the biggest and best military. We want the biggest ships, the fastest planes, and the coolest tanks, rifles, rockets, and other hardware for our army, and the coolest uniforms for our Marines. We don’t want to see these valuable and impressive things “wasted” by being put in harm’s way—or at least we don’t want to hear about that.The US is at war. Men and women are dying in the name of the American people. And basically, we know very little about it, and care even less.
What are the primary reasons you’re seeing so much seething, open hatred of all things related to President Donald J. Trump?
I am getting weary of the idea of unfair bias against Donald Trump.If a person mistreats and harms an animal and 90% of people and news outlets condemn the act and the actor, is this biased or is it a reprehensible act?If a person intentionally runs over a little old lady crossing the street and 95% of people and new outlets declare this act criminal, is this biased or is it accurate reporting of disgusting behavior?When an official does something reprehensible and against commonly held values and behaves like a vulgarian, is it okay to point it out? Are we supposed to get the other side of the story and “be fair”? If someone admits to possessing the right to pussy grab any pussy they want, is there another side of the story? You heard it with your own ears.The reason so many in the press and so many people are complaining about Trump is simply there is a lot to complain about. It's not bias, nobody is picking on him. He really is an ignorant, narcissistic, bloviating huckster who has installed a bunch of uncredentialed billionaires and his family dynasty to destroy our democracy.The real question is, how were so many people in the 99% persuaded to vote for the 1% candidate?Sub question: has something gotten into our drinking water that has erased logic? Is it a death wish? A crises of education? A TV monitor induced psychosis?