Amazing picture

[Renew Deal]

U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/12/2010_in_photos_part_1_of_3.html#photo29

[thereismore]

1. This picture makes it clear on who'se side we are. I wish it were always so clear. nt

[roguevalley]

19. poor family. how can a child grow up to be normal in a life like that

that could be your child or you. breaks the heart.

[SoCalDem]

20. They don't grow up "normal"..

After puberty, the boys get introduced to madrassas that teach them twisted koran, and little else.. they have no jobs to aspire to...the girls get covered up and sold off into "marriages" where they will slave & give birth...not a pretty picture.

[DirkGently]

2. Important to understand that our guys are trying to good, in a situation that makes that difficult.

[Alameda]

6. These are the good ones, unfortunatly, there are bad ones too

who undermine the good works of guys like these.

[WinkyDink]

8. And the drones; don't forget the drones.

[DirkGently]

12. A drone never shielded a child with its body, eh?

[Octafish]

15. Our guys are TOPS. Our civilian leadership leaves a lot to be desired. Integrity, for one thing.

Failure to tell the Truth is another. And the obstruction of Justice is another biggie.

Bush lied America into two illegal, immoral, unnecessary and disastrous wars that greatly profited his personal and political cronies.

And we're cracking down on whistle-blowers? If we'd listened to them in 2002, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in today.

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. wow

:cry:

[Nordmadr]

4. For Christmas, I want for a child never to be in this situation

again. I'll ask for it again next year.

[Lefta Dissenter]

5. you're

a lot more articulate than I was. :cry:

Thanks

[WinkyDink]

7. So we are there to defeat the Taliban, who didn't attack us? Just trying for some

perspective, although the little boy there is poignant.

WE ARE FIGHTING AND DYING TO PROTECT CHENEY'S GAS PIPELINE.

[divine_truine]

16. where the F#CK is osama bin laden? oh, he's dead, i forgot!

these gov'ts in hot pursuit of wikileaks founder julian assange...did these same gov'ts (who were part of the coalition of the willing) hunt down OBL with the same seething fervor? the same psychotic vengence? No they did not! That's because OBL at one time worked for u.s. govt (CIA) & karzai worked for exxonmobile.

[jtuck004]

18. We sent weapons and support to the Afghani's to defeat the Russians

when they invaded.

When the Russians pulled out, the country, which started with mud huts and virtually no schools, was in worse shape than
when they started.

Instead of helping them build themselves up, we left.

The result was bands of roving gangs, whole towns terrorized. (Let a kid grow up in a violent neighborhood here we often get the
same thing, so that's not something new).

In the vacuum we created, the Taliban started gathering on the borders, then went to the towns and promised them
law and order in return for their support.

There were some terrorist training camps there, much like we had terrorists training here to fly airplanes. Unlike there, however,
we did not attack Florida or New Jersey. We did invade Afghanistan in pursuit of the, uh, the - well, the bad guys. And a few good guys. And women and children. And reporters.

Many of the Afghanistan people, along with people from other countries, the Taliban, and likely some who fought alongside Al Quaida took serious exception to our invasion and started shooting, and we shot back.

You will note that after the Russians left we (we as Americans, not as Democrats) could have turned on the taps and built schools for the children who were using sticks to scratch numbers and letters in the mud, under a sheet staked over cardboard, just to learn their lessons, where they could afford a teacher. Helped them learn to help themselves. Instead we brought more guns and showed them that nothing had changed in all those years.

There are other parallels in recent history. The year prior to the Democratic win of the presidency in the U.S. we lost 3.6 million jobs. The first year of that administration we lost an additional 4.7 million jobs. Instead of making this the number one priority we went in other directions. Now we have 14 million homes in foreclosure, a record 40 million plus people on food stamps, 15 million additional people without health care, 30 million unemployed or underemployed people, 11 million manufacturing jobs that no longer exist in this country. We should be at war with that, yet we are arguing over tax donations to very, very wealthy people.

(Note - this is an additive issue, across 40 years and several administrations. Not just this one).

Because we no longer seem to be proactive, blinded to the really big problems by the little shiny thing that attracts our attention in the short run, problems that were not insurmountable begin to grow to truly world-changing proportions, challenges that grow ever larger while we run around posturing about the little stuff, ignoring who the real opponenet is.

We are demonstrably poorer for it. Along with everyone else.

(I did leave out a few details, but you asked for some perspective. There's some).

[Ezlivin]

9. Yet that child will probably grow up to hate us

Especially since only 8% of Afghans even know why the U.S. is there.

What are the odds that the child will receive a quality education, sufficient nutrition and won't be influenced by the pervasive Taliban?

[Alameda]

21. Yes, wonderful education like we get in the USA, right?

Wonderful nutritious food, like we get here, right? Talking to Fox people shows how educated and enlightened we are here.

[Ezlivin]

24. We do build the finest weapons mankind has ever seen

And sold more hamburgers than any civilization.

Did Rome have Fox News? Hah!

We're Number One! We're Number One! Hoo-ah!

[ceile]

10. ah geez

:cry:

[LuckyLib]

11. And it's all so senseless. Enough to make a person cry.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. Country-lific.

[lpbk2713]

14. The child doesn't look terribly frightened to me.

And that's the tragic part of the picture IMO.

He (?) might be thinking it is a common everyday experience for every
child in the world to be caught in gunfire from automatic weapons.


Damn shame.

[Captain Cave Man]

17. Hammer meet nail...

I remember seeing a video from Afghanistan prior to October 2001. The video was of a young boy, perhaps 10, sitting on a horse. There was gunfire nearby and the camera man flinched, while the boy stared at the camera since that was clearly the odd thing to him, not the gunfire.

[Alameda]

23. Sad, but true....

BTW love your avatar...I miss him so much! We lost some really big ones this year. Teddy and Robert Byrd, may they rest in peace. It would have been great to hear their voices at this time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Children that young do not realize the danger

don't matter where... they simply do not even have the concept of death figured out yet.

[thereismore]

28. A child feels safe in the father's arms even when bullets fly. nt

[MoonRiver]

22. Horrific.

We MUST get out of these insane unwinable wars. :mad:

[HughBeaumont]

25. Not to mention costly.

[lonestarnot]

27. Yes and meanwhile we deal with their (pigliCONS') death panels and prisons back home.

[moodforaday]

29. More war propaganda

just in time for Christmas. Hook, line, sinker, people!