> > > > > 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.

Ohh. Well, that will teach me to post at unholy hours in the night again.

> > 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.

I don't think that's entirely true. In other recent world news, the U.S. and Israel withdrew from the U.N. Racism conference because leaders of certain countries tried to say that Israelis were racist toward the Palestinians. (Note that nothing was said about the Palestinians being racist.) It's encouraging to see that Israel has not been left entirely on her own.

Ell"Aplogies for any protruding claws"myruh