Question: what does ANY of the past two comments have to do with Greg Palast and South America?

Interesting... these hash smokers have managed to defeat the U.S. military. What does that say about our troops?

It's typical. Instead of focusing on the mission, they want to get bogged down with their own personal hang ups about HASH SMOKING?!?!

Here's a tip to the marine: get over it. It's not your country. Trying to impose our own values on a group of people who have not asked for it is at the very core of the problem.

But again, our Constitution doesn't allow for the government to protect the rights of anyone other than United States citizens.

First it's WMDs, then it's "fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here", NOW it's "fight for women's rights"... When does it end? When that excuse finally plays out, what will be the NEXT excuse to keep us over there, killing people, and guarding oil pipelines?

The idea that Afghanistan is going to fall if we leave is just "Domino Theory 2.0".

It's reasonable to say that things might CHANGE in Afghanistan if we leave, but it does not automatically follow that things will change for the WORSE. That's trying to superimpose our value system on the culture of a foreign nation that never asked for our "help".

And for the moment, let's assume that our MILITARY forces could force a change in their culture, and wind the clock back to 1979... How many generations would it take for us to FORCE such a change? How many generations do you propose that we keep (and continue to escalate) military forces in that country?

I ask that because we presently live in a nation that is now 134 years past Reconstruction... and there are STILL KKK rallies in some parts of the South.

We are a nation that was founded on the high ideal of self determination. If we TRULY believed in it, we would be willing to allow other nations to find their own way.

Afghanistan poses no strategic threat to this nation, so our military should not be over there, "defending" our nation against phantoms. We do not have the right to play policeman to the world.

I listened to most of the interview, and then read the rest of it...

Am I imagining things, or has Code Pink toned down their rhetoric lately?

Go to youtube, and look up "Code Pink". There's a video from February of 2008, where they're standing on a street corner, calling marines war criminals! Well, are they STILL war criminals, now that a Democrat is in charge?

Ms. Benjamin is starting to sound like a bullshit artist. Instead of diving right in, and renouncing the war, she deflected NUMEROUS times, and tried to bring up women's rights, as if THAT'S the reason we are now in Afghanistan...

But the United States Constitution doesn't require our government to protect the rights of people who aren't citizens of the United States, so what's her point? Are we supposed to continue wrecking our economy, while we fumble around Afghanistan, trying to figure out the best way to leave?!?!

You leave... it's that simple. You get on the freaking airplane, and you go home!

And as for Afghanistan "collapsing"... just take a look at Afghanistan. It's not like it was one of the most advanced cultures in the world BEFORE we got there. And trying to characterize this alleged "collapse" as anything other than falling off a step stool is just being intentionally obtuse.

I have two chioces here. Either Ms. Benjamin's change in tone and rhetoric can be explained as her simply being a tool for the Democrats who didn't have the BALLS to stand up on the floor of the Congress, when it would have done some good, and renounce the war in the first place, OR she has suddenly (and coincidentally, since the Inauguration) gained a "more nuanced" appreciation for what our brave and intrepid troops are trying to do over in the Middle East.

Sorry guys, but I gotta call "bullshit". And from the tone of the interview, I got the impression that Scott Horton wanted to say it too.