Reconciliation and COIN in Afghanistan

[jmm99]

is that I don't well tolerate people who attempt to twist my words[*] - as in this assertion:

So a constitution is a "mere piece of paper"? A Certificate for a million shares of Goggle is "mere paper" as well. President Obama's birth certificate is "mere paper."

Exactly what I said (specific to one and only one document) was:

The Astan Bonn Constitution is not the problem. It's a mere piece of paper which has no materiality to Astan governance.

Karzai does what Karzai does because he has power to do so enabled by the realities of the situation in Astan - he and his cronies can get away with and profit from corruption to the nth degree. I measure Karzai by his acts which are organic to him; and not by the process initiated in Bonn, Germany (the document itself was later enacted in Astan).

As to the Astan constitutions (plural), I've managed to look at them. In fact, I did a thread on them (+ Astan's diplomatic history, the status of the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, etc.), Defending Hamdan (a couple of dozen posts are material to this thread). As to "insurgency", Advanced Search (limited to JMM99) gives 166 hits; as to "civil + war", Advanced Search (limited to JMM99) gives 165 hits.

I'm not going to regurgitate that stuff. One can read it or not as one wishes, making up one's mind or non-mind in the process.

I'm not going to engage in a debate with you. Dayuhan can have that pleasure. You are, without a doubt, very articulate.

Regards

Mike

[*] In fact, I grew to despise and hate lawyers who were inveterate word twisters par excellance. Trials and appeals, where a third party renders the decision, were thus a great satisfaction because they usually gave me payback. But, retiring and getting away from the buzzards was the best of all.