Like Stepping Into a Parallel Universe

[D'kian]

Yesterday I had a brief argument with a liberal about Guantanamo. He astonished me by making the following claims:

1) There is no war in Afghanistan now, nor was there ever a war in that country during this century

2) America did not invade Afghanistan. Rather that country's government asked the UN to send troops to help it get rid of the Taliban

3) Throwing a Koran in the toilet, or placing a dog near a muslim, constitutes worse torture than beatings or electric shocks.

I can understand the third claim as multicultural subjectivism, but how the hell did he come up with the first two?

I'm not looking for pointers on how to argue with him. The man is utterly impervious to facts and evidence. I'm just astonished that an educated man who does read newspapers every day could be so ignorant about very recent history.

[Zip]

On point #1 he is right out to lunch. The Taliban and the Northern Alliance were locked in a civil war in the northern part of the country since 1996.

I think on the second point the liberal is confused on time lines.

His assertion is false at the time of 9/11 when the US did in fact invade Afghanistan, with the tacit approval of the Northern Alliance who were already fighting the Taliban for control of the country.

Once the Taliban had been "defeated" as a government and the interim government was appointed the interim government did in fact ask the UN to provide troops and the UN being the weak kneed mamma's boys of international action asked the one organization that could and would do the job to do it for them.

[Maximus]

He convieniently forgot about the Mujahadeen (which morphed into the Taliban) fighting the Soviets during the '80s.