Status check-- the Middle East

[El Blanco]

The Taliban? You mean the guys we funded and built up from almost nothing to keep the soviets occupied during the cold war?

The Taliban didn't exist until the 1990s.

Our mistake was not getting more ivolved in Afghanistan.

1,500 American lives and counting.

How many casualties does the military suffer during an average year?

Uncounted thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis dead, amounting to a US sponsored recruitkment drive for terrorists.

Ya, because they were in short supply prior.

A plunge from a huge surplus to a record defficit

Surplus which is probably exaggerated. And there was a significant event in our financial center that probably effected the economy.

The declaration, and worse yet, acceptance of a war on a concept,

What concept? Security? How exactly is that different from the national soveriegnty our forefathers spilled blood for?

Or the tons of concepts for the Civil War?

commiting us to a permanent state of war and permanent war powers to the executive branch.

Ya, that Cold War ruined us, didn't it?

Vital damage to the system of checks and balances.

You mean by having one party in control of all three branches?

The rejection of the geneva convention.

Show me one time the winner of an armed conflict was held accountable for war crimes by the international community.