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On Giving
I am not going to say anything about #KONY2012. Go here, here, or here for that. (Actually, I will say one thing: leave Carl Weathers out of this.)
But if you are looking to give to international charities that actually do something, try the HALO Trust, which has been active in Afghan de-mining efforts since 1988. It employs three expatriates in Afghanistan and thousands of actual Afghans. They do not have any fancy videos of which I am aware. They're too busy digging mines out of the dirt to make such videos.
That is all.
C'mon guys Kony's just an
C'mon guys Kony's just an African version of Peter Pan, he swoops in at night and collects all the children and takes them on an adventure.
Agreed, these guys have become millionaires because of these Invisible Children, it's a great business model, bye bye World Wildlife foundation hello facebook money making scams!
30,000 African children die
30,000 African children die from Malaria every 10 days. Neither of these charities does much of anything. In fact both are a huge waste of time, money and resources.
Those 100 troops have since relocated to Libya. Carl Weather's evil #2.... is going to get away...
Have you been reading Kipling "The White Man's Burden" ? Not the norm for you to comment on African Gorilla activities... or did you have a conversation this week with a Ugandan DC cabie, on your way to rugby practice?
Good to see you still think there is something worth saving in Afghanistan, because + 90% of America would prefer to withdraw our troops and never return to the dirt/rock pile ever again.
You better stick to reading your Kipling. You're not very good at that either.
Hope you never get a job as a political hack at the Pentagon or WH....God help us if you do.
winning hearts and minds
winning hearts and minds wherever we go.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17330205
If you are looking for
If you are looking for another charity that actually does something, try Stand Proud
http://www.standproud.org/index.htm
Stand Proud funds braces for children in the Congo who have deformed legs, deformed mostly as a result of polio. The money is spent in Congo by and for the Congolese. If you go to the website, you can see things look a little basic. They are. The money is spent on the braces and the treatment. There is not an gram of fat or waste in this operation. If you want to see a sight, visit their facility in Kinshasa and watch a group of adolescents and pre-teens playing soccer in a dusty courtyard, all of them with leg braces and crutches. This outfit is the real deal.
Amen to that brother. Not
Amen to that brother. Not that Kony is undeserving of revulsion and ideally a quick a legally expedited live trial but there are far more deserving operations worthy of this kind of attention.
Brave essay on Afghanistan
Brave essay on Afghanistan today at WPR.
But...we don't need the Afghans. Or their nonsense.
The domestic political pressure from now the Right as well in the US will drive the train.
It's time to go. And it's time to pull in the combat patrols.
At a 1999 Vietnam War
At a 1999 Vietnam War symposium held at the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University, I asked Lt. Gen. Nguyen Dinh Uoc, a former NVA division commander and then a professor at the Vietnam Military History Institute, if he had ever encountered or heard about Marines who lived in the villages, assisting the people and teaching the PFs to fight. Uoc replied that he had, and that in his opinion the hamlets where Marines lived were of little help to his troops when they needed food, men or intelligence. He also stated that the NVA and the VC would attack the Marine hamlets only if they were an objective of a larger operation, such as the Tet Offensive, or if the villages disrupted their plans in any other way.
http://www.historynet.com/marine-alternative-to-search-and-destroy.htm
General Uoc further commented that the Americans and local forces always fought bravely, and said the local VC had told him that in most of these hamlets the Marines 'had won the hearts of the people which is most important in a people's war. The larger American forces did not win the hearts of the people. Just the opposite, they destroyed their land. If the Americans and government of Vietnam had won the hearts of the people, the war would have been more difficult for us.'
Comment by MarinesvsArmy on
Comment by MarinesvsArmy on March 15, 2012 - 3:04am
What's that got to do with the price of rice in china ?
What about Rory Stewart's
What about Rory Stewart's Turquoise Mt Foundation? Is that still around?
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