they're everywhere apparently but then we knew that.

As for Afghanistan.......... is this not why we invented nuclear weapons? Nuclear carpet bomb the border between AStan and Pstan and watch the drop in Talibs numbers.

Shame they arent such good bedfellows with the US of A anymore

The Taliban never were in bed with the US. The Mujahadeen were certainly were supplied and trained by US & UK forces but never the Talibs. Don't confuse the two, they are entirely different although some of the people are the same.

I havent, but the USA turned a blind eye to the Taliban pre 2001 and have spent far too long battering Iraq into pieces, rather then focusing on the problems in Afghanistan & the Pakistan borders

just been a good panorama on re troops on afghanistan

I think 9/11 might well have concentrated the mind.

With fact most of them were Saudi born and bred, why attack Iraq?

Whooaaa......... don't twist the point. I was making the point that the US/Uk never supported the Taliban. How that translates to asking me to defend the invasion of Iraq is beyond me.

You touch on my main point; The Taliban mullahs taught an extreme form of islam and this was imported from Saudi.

No I don't believe so.

Maybe not Mr Head- but it might be a mighty fine way to use them now that we have them.

Yeah let's kill 32 million people. Go get 'em boys!

They started it.

That dinnerjacket feller in Iran seems a bit risky.

You've visited such a place?

Here's a thought.

The Northern hill tribe warlords controlled all the opium poppy farmers in Afghanistan. Most of the processed heroin was exported through Pakistan. Along came the Taliban and made all the opium farmers grow food crops instead. Cue world heroin shortage.

In stepped Bush and Blair, routed the Taliban back to the mountains and made them into Guerilla fighters and gave the country back to..........................the Northern hill tribe warlords. Oh look, the west is awash with smack again........80% of Britains smack comes from Afghanistan., almost exclusively via Pakistan.

Nice shootin' Tex........

You can take the man out of the Daily Mail.......

(is that the right way around)

Anyway, the Americans rained ordnance down on that area for months after the Twin Towers thing and all they did was re-arrange rocks.

We, this country, first tried to tame Afghanistan in the 1800's and gave it up as a bad job then and never bothered again. Mind you, loads of others have tried and all failed.....and to be honest, why bother, if they wanna live in the Middle Ages, let them. There's absolutely nothing there, it's just a huge quarry with a national anthem. Get out and let them live their way...! Tyring to remodel the world in our PC image aint gonna work.

Carry on up the Khyber, greeeaaaaatttttt

Sir Sydney 'Rough' Diamond and Bungit In, two excellent comedy names

an indication of how disliked the Yanks are in the Middle East (using my visit to Egypt as a barometer) - there are flags of almost every western and European country in the tourist areas outside the hotels etc - except one.
Wherever there are lists of countries outside various premises, there is one exception.
I seen a shop with a procession of flags outside, it had the words "Uncle Sam" written by hand instead!!
There were Brits, Russians, Italians, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Poles, French, and countless other visitors but no Septic Tanks.
They probably feel it's just not worth it!!
Mind you, I'm surprised the Egyptians seem to like us so much there, given what happened in 1956!!!
Plus our co-involvement with Uncle Sam in the Middle East over the past 20 years!!!!

Are we still really in so much debt to the US of A over the Lend Lease from the last war, that we dance and sing at their behest?

We settled that debt a few years back, however when it comes to taking sides, it's sad but for me Amerikee would win everytime over our continental cousins

Yep.

Repayment
Large quantities of goods were in Britain or in transit when Washington suddenly and unexpectedly terminated Lend-Lease on 2 September 1945. These items were sold to Britain for about 10 cents on the dollar with payment to be stretched out over 50 years at 2% interest. [9] The loan originally was £1,075 million. The final payment of $83.3 million (£42.5 million) due on 31 December 2006 (repayment having been deferred on several occasions) was made on 29 December 2006, it being the last working day of the year. After this final payment Britain's Economic Secretary, Ed Balls, formally thanked the US for its wartime support.

It's much simpler than that I'm afraid, my gargantuan headed chum.

After the Germans were mown down in the desert ambush on the way to the Valley Of The Kings in 94 and the French were hit in Cairo, the American Foreign Department advised against visiting Egypt. Bit harsh as 85% of their economy is in tourism, like, but as you are aware, the current American enemy is the camel jockey.