> > > > We could have them out of power at the drop of a hat.
> > >
> > > Great idea. One little word: Vietnam.
> >
> > Another little word: Israel.
> >
> > I'm thinking: At a time when the UK was pretty much in a position to "deal with any country in the world how we choose", it decided to create a country where none was previously. OK, it wasn't alone, which may be the largest cause for the failure.
>
> Wait a minute. Let me see if I get this straight. You're equating Israel with Vietnam and saying it's a failure of a country??


Oh no! No! No! I'm not equating Vietnam and Israel in any other sense than the one where a superpower decides to use military to force a change of government in a smaller country. And actually, I wanted more to equate the creation of Israel with the potential overthrowing of taliban rule. I wanted to do this because I thought it was a better example than Vietnam to use in this thread.
I'm terribly sorry if anything more was read into my post.


> So it's WRONG to try to make a home for a people who have been fighting for a homeland for thousands of years, but have been persecuted by the same groups of people for those same thousands of years?

I don't think it's wrong to try to make a home for a people, especially not persecuted ones. However, I think it is to complicate things unnecessarily to include the "thousands of years" aspect. But, done is done, and we have to deal with the present situation.

What I wanted to say was that the international community, lead by an empire, drew some lines on a map, told the jews "here you go", and since then haven't been able to decide whether or not to enforce the authority which one must have to be able to draw such lines.

> Pardon me, but I really don't think Israel has done so bad for itself since it became a country over half a century ago. Considering that Israel is up against a people who have been attempting to push them into the sea for thousands of years, I think they're doing remarkably well, in fact.
>

As I have tried to say above - but was probably unclear about in my original post - I was referring mostly to the actual creation of the country and the handling of this by the superpower in question. Not the subsequent handling by the israelis.


> Now tell me how Israel is like Vietnam, because I can't for the life of me understand what you're talking about.


With the hope of being understood this time: Israel and Vietnam only have one thing in common with regard to this thread. At some time during the last century, their government have been under drastic influence by superpower. My point is this: If this is the best we as an international community can do, I think the US Army should think twice before going to Afghanistan to kick taliban butt.
That is all I want to say.

>
> Ellmyruh

julian