Window on the world.

mellman01

I'm reading a really good book on the history of Afghanistan at the mo, the country (if you can call it that I tend to think of it as a multi tribal zone) has a deep and rich all be it violent history, and the more I get into the book the more fascinating the whole region becomes, I know were fighting there right now but it's just another phase for this war torn area of the world, the countryside is harsh as hell the people are tough as leather and fiercely independent, the tribal aspect of life their makes them tricky to deal with as their mindset is totally different to that of ours, loyalty can change from one valley to the next and at the drop of a hat and over a simple discretion.
This lends credence to the old saying that goers, you can't ever buy an Afghan, but you can rent him for a while.
Also many countries have messed about there and generally caused trouble simply because of it's geographical location, today this is now focusing more and more on Pakistan but then again both countries are linked by tribal bonds, Pakistan also being armed with nukes and is also the real spawning ground of the Taliban and the greater global Islamic Jihad were currently seeing and having to deal with. Where we go from here God only knows but the feeling I get is although I think we should not have got involved with this war in the first place now were there we just can't afford to walk away from Afghanistan and more critically Pakistan, in the long term the risk is far to great for us all.

mellman01

wow look at that tumble weed go!.

valval

sorry had to work. right what was it you said got to go back and read it to long to remember

valval

right have read it not sure i fully understood but we should never have gone in and it is going to be hard to leave that is right can we affored it no can we afford not to be there now no it a no win situation val

mellman01

Yeah I agree Len Pakistan is the key here and the biggest problem we face has been for a long time but we wnet for the cheap option hopping we could influence things there by decapitating the Afghan Taliban, bad idea as it only made more enemies.
Hey are Pakistan's nukes H bombs?, I'd guess if they are Plutonium implosion weapons and not Uranium 235 gun barrel Hiroshima style types.
Ironically it's the US who allowed Pakistan to get the bomb, this in turn was the reason North Korea and Iran now have them, a mister A Q Khan was the father of the Pakistani bomb and the US were warned about him but because they were more interested in getting weapons to the Mujhadadeen they turned a blind eye they also stoked the fire that now burns so bright in the Hindu Kush, typical of them they don't think past the next move they get fixated on winning the task under their noses at any cost and look no further, when they finally got their act into gear it was way to late the horse was well and truly out of the stable and in the next county so to speak.
Ill also look up that book Len, is it still in print?.

joanlawson

I can't pretend to understand very much about Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think that is half the problem when it comes to the public perception of the war in that region. It seems so remote from us in this country, so it's difficult to fathom what it's all about, and why so many of our brave soldiers are having to lose their lives there.
It's all very scary when you read about the nuclear weapons in Pakistan though. I don't think we've got any option but to stay in Afghanistan. Reading about the history of the region helps you to understand it better at least.

mellman01

Oh right poor man's nukes eh, typical go for the second hand Datsun type of nuke, still as you say a big bang all right, There was a good documentary on review and stated that when the CIA finally decided to do something about A Q Khan and his business they busted his offices and found there was a shipment still in an Italian port going to Libya so the bust it and found centrifuges and a blueprint for a Chinese H bomb more sophisticated than the type we use, it's why Libya gave up it's nuclear ambitions in a great big fan fair in the early years of 2000 they were read the riot act by the yanks so threw in the towel.
Oh as you say transportable, did you know that the Thames in London and all ports of entry here have very high sensitivity scintillation monitors so no such weapon can get in, it's partly why the Russians used Polonium 210 to poison Litvanyenko it's a pure Alpha emitter so is undetectable even with an Alpha probe as water blocks alpha particles, so does skin so it's only dangerous when it comes into contact with growing cells, the poor old Russian chap had a nasty lingering death, the dose they gave him should have killed him very quick but he hung on hence it was found out, he had billions of counts per second inside of him so much so it actually cooked his organs. Sends a message though, don't you ever feck with Putin