Is that why 80% of the Nobel Prizes go to Americans, because we can't read ? 

I think that the Americans are not like the Russians very much. Russians are much more fatalistic, for example. 

Regarding Kabul, well, Jacek, if were let's say a woman, I would indeed feel safer in Kabul now, than under the taliban. It is sad that I have to explain that on a forum like this. 

How many books by authors form Middle East have you read?

As to Nobel Prizes, yes, I`m curious too.

I know Russians would agree with you on this. Which means ... ?

How do you know?

What is really sad on a forum like this, with over 160,000 registered users, is that people like you and I are the only source of insights about what is going on around the world. You realize how ludicrous this is, don't you?

Back to the topic about happy Afghan women and their life in a country burned to the ground:

Afghan women brave Kabul streets to protest against violence ...

This is a typical left-liberal way of viewing foreign policy. Unless America is perfect, it is wrong and bad. 

So because America has not - overnight - turned Afghanistan, one of the least developed nations, into "Denmark", America did wrong in Afghanistan ? 

I see that a bit differently. The goal in Afghanistan was in part to help people, but the main goal was to prevent the taliban and Al Queda from using Afghanistan as a base. And that mostly has been accomplished. 

My guess is that you are taking the same view as the left did in the 1970s when it criticized the USA in Vietnam (and America deserved a lot of that), but then abandoned the issue when the enemy won and the communist gulags and killing fields were set up. I have met people who fled the communists and who lost relatives in shark-infested waters to escape the socialist workers' paradise being set up. 

My guess is that when the enemy wins this time, and Obama pulls out the last US soldier, and then the taliban set up their own killing fields (including beheadings and stonings and mass graves and crucifixion even), we won't hear anything again on TC Forum, because the subject won't be interesting anymore. 

Wrong again: Not because "the subject won't be interesting anymore" but because it will be a rerun of the old discredited way of thinking and acting about the world of which everybody (no, not an imaginary left) has had enough!

Time to wake up and smell the coffee, John! 

Hello!

Why not help your own people first?

But yes... Champions of Democracy...

Zadornow says Should oilfields be discovered in France, the US would put in doubt the existence of democracy in France. Only Mishka neglects to mention that in that case Russians would hurry to help and save the French invaded and overpowered by Americans...

BTW! You ned not be afraid of me, John. I`m neither Russian nor Commie. I come from a country adoring America. Which, to my mind, is not a very good thing, if only because copying the American system of education has successfully made our young semiliterate, in just a couple of decades...

I know that Lithuania is not Russia. I realize that. 

Regarding helping one's own first, well, yes, we could do that, I guess. Lots of nations do that. I watched a TV program about Singapore last night. Everyone there drives fast expensive cars. At night, they party and drink champagne. No one has to die in a war. The same is true for most nations inside what I will just call the NATO orbit or sphere. You can enjoy a pretty good life, and your son does not have to die in some far off place you can't pronounce. You can even live inside that sphere, invest, and put on a Che Guevara shirt and talk about how terrible war is and NATO and America. It is not bad, if you are lucky enough to be able to do it. 

Before 911, America was on course for such a life. In fact, I recall French and European press articles about how America had pulled back, didn't care about the world anymore, was not willing to sacrifice for others (as it was under Clinton), etc. etc. America as materialistic nation, down at the mall, not caring if the world goes to hell. 

I know it well. 

Maybe we should just but out and quit sticking our noses into others business, right ? If the Chinese then decide to do an "Anschluss" of Taiwan with the motherland, then that will just happen. Not our business right ? Then the Japanese will do full rearmament (they have already begun that) and become a nuclear power. Maybe Iran takes the Straights of Hormuz, and then oil rockets up in price, so the "green" dream will become a reality: we all have to drive by bike in Europe. Then Russia regains its "sphere of influence", roughly equal to what the Mongols had in AD 1200. Maybe then Argentina fights the UK and Venezuela fights Columbia. 

Meanwhile, Americans will be down at the mall, watching the next 3D blockbuster. 

Well, conditions need to be created on every front for things not to get out of hand. Maybe all those unable to think out of the box and communicate with the Other should be kicked out? Except they obviously won't because for any bureacracy/diplomacy that would mean cutting the branch they sit on.

So we are back to square one where only reruns based on the old discredited blueprints are allowed. Meanwhile, as people scramble for shrinking resources, things will be getting more and more tense. You can already see that tension among freelancers vying for translations on impossible terms in the virtual world.

Happy continuation!

Why don`t you?

I suppose you could use your army to keep your own street gangs in check, as the police seems not to be able to cope with those. But fighting Arabs and whatnot is easier, no?

Not really, alas.

Would be nice of you...

It already has, only a different way. You live in Germany, so you should have noticed. Or should I say you would perhaps notice but for your attention being concentrated on Kabul?

Seems they do that anyway.

Repeating: I do not hate America! Lots of good and nice and beautiful things, you have there. Like music and talented writers and jeans and the Disney cartoons (some of those; I, for one, do not like Tom and Jerry at all), and animal rescuers and animal police, and many more. But it is you that chooses not to discuss those, not me. It is you that finds the military America the only America to be proud of. I do find that strange.

Another thing I find strange, kinda, is other countries borrowing the worst from America, instead of borrowing the best. Well, maybe not so very strange, this, to come to think of things in general...