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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Listen, we were expecting a bunch of backwards luddites with a hatred for western technology to not only be able to locate Al Qaeda in the difficult mountainous cave-ridden topography of northern Afghanistan and west Pakistan and turn them over to us, but we also just assumed they knew where Al Qaeda really was, because as we all know, every Muslim knows the location of every other Muslim at all times even when they're in hiding.

Seriously, man, Al Qaeda was just in Afghanistan, it's not like the Taliban was hosting banquets for them. They were also just in Pakistan, and Pakistan didn't really know where they were at the beginning - though when we started acting like assholes and they found out where Osama was, surprise surprise, they didn't tell us. Yet we never went to war with Pakistan, and Pakistan isn't exactly a progressive western democracy either.

We didn't go to war with Pakistan, because we'd installed our own preferred government officials in Pakistan. We went to war with the Taliban in Afghanistan because we hadn't.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
It's not even a leap. It's more like a small shuffle-step to the right.

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Well, wake me when that happens.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

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Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey...

http://now.msn.com/christopher-dorner-is-first-drone-target-on-us-soil

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It's official: The drone war has come home to America. Wanted fugitive Christopher Dorner, the homicidal former cop currently at war with the LAPD, has become the first known human target for airborne drones on U.S. soil. Their use was confirmed by Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio, who revealed the government's fear that Dorner will make a dash for the Mexican border. The fugitive has already killed three people, according to police, and has a $1 million bounty on his head. Dorner, who has military training, is believed to be hiding in the wilderness of California's San Bernardino Mountains, where locating him without air support may be all but impossible.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Listen, we were expecting a bunch of backwards luddites with a hatred for western technology to not only be able to locate Al Qaeda in the difficult mountainous cave-ridden topography of northern Afghanistan and west Pakistan and turn them over to us, but we also just assumed they knew where Al Qaeda really was, because as we all know, every Muslim knows the location of every other Muslim at all times even when they're in hiding.

Seriously, man, Al Qaeda was just in Afghanistan, it's not like the Taliban was hosting banquets for them. They were also just in Pakistan, and Pakistan didn't really know where they were at the beginning - though when we started acting like assholes and they found out where Osama was, surprise surprise, they didn't tell us. Yet we never went to war with Pakistan, and Pakistan isn't exactly a progressive western democracy either.

We didn't go to war with Pakistan, because we'd installed our own preferred government officials in Pakistan. We went to war with the Taliban in Afghanistan because we hadn't.

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The Taliban could have and should have offered to help in the hunt if they did not know where Al Qaeda was. However I think they knew where the camps were and knew where Bin Laden was before the fighting started.

Pakistan is fucked up but there are parts of that government willing to work with us and that do not like having extremists in their country. Again they are feeding us information on targets for drone strikes.

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The Taliban had initially emerged as a new force in the southern city of Kandahar conquering many southern and central provinces not under Islamic State control in the course of 1994. In early 1995, as they launched a major operation against the capital Kabul, they suffered a devastating defeat against the Islamic State forces of Massoud in what many analysts saw as the movement's end. By 1996, however, they had regrouped with massive military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia. In September 1996 they took power in Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The United Islamic Front (Northern Alliance) was created under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud as a military-political resistance force against the Taliban Emirate which was backed militarily by Pakistan's Army and enforced by several thousand Al Qaeda fighters from Arab countries and Central Asia.

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"In 2000, British Intelligence reported that the ISI was taking an active role in several Al Qaeda training camps. [85] The ISI helped with the construction of training camps for both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. [85] [86] [87] From 1996 to 2001 the Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state. [88] Bin Laden sent Arab and Central Asian Al-Qaeda militants to join the fight against the United Front among them his Brigade 055. [88] [89]"

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"After the Sudanese made it clear, in May 1996, that bin Laden would never be welcome to return, [clarification needed] Taliban-controlled Afghanistan—with previously established connections between the groups, administered with a shared militancy, [110] and largely isolated from American political influence and military power—provided a perfect location for al-Qaeda to relocate its headquarters. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense, although only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

While in Afghanistan, the Taliban government tasked al-Qaeda with the training of Brigade 055, an elite part of the Taliban's army from 1997–2001. The Brigade was made up of mostly foreign fighters, many veterans from the Soviet Invasion, and all under the same basic ideology of the mujahideen."

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Al Qaeda also supported the Taliban with regiments of imported fighters from Arab countries and Central Asia.[21][22][23]

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^ "Afghanistan resistance leader feared dead in blast". London: Ahmed Rashid in the Telegraph. 2001-09-11.
^ Marcela Grad. Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader (March 1, 2009 ed.). Webster University Press. p. 310.
^ US attack on Taliban kills 23 in Pakistan, The New York Times, 2008-09-09

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In 2001 alone, according to several international sources, 28,000-30,000 Pakistani nationals, 14,000-15,000 Afghan Taliban and 2,000-3,000 Al Qaeda militants were fighting against anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan as a roughly 45,000 strong military force.[21][22][76][77] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – then as Chief of Army Staff – was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud.[22][58][78]

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Taliban-Al-Qaeda connections were also strengthened by the reported marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter. While in Afghanistan, bin Laden may have helped finance the Taliban.[250][251]

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
In any case, I am not convinced by your argument or your sources.

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:And you still support predator drone attacks. :/ I'm not even sure how we got onto this particular argument, but the original argument was about your support of predator drones, and how the rest of the board except Jongstraw and AURaptor thinks your faith in predator drones is misplaced.

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