U.S. diplomat died 'doing what she loved' in Afghanistan

[Nirvikalpa]

Holy jumpin jehosephats, all we're saying is trying to do this while we are dropping bombs on them probably isnt the best timing. But yes if someone feels that strongly, and they know the risks, best of luck to ya I say. But tear jerking propaganda pieces are not needed in these cases, as the people know full well what they are getting themselves into.

Really? 'Cause you know... dropping bombs usually means people are getting hurt and losing appendages, which seems a wonderful time to have healthcare workers around... just sayin'

 

[belian78]

You need to get out more. Iraq was peaceful.??? Ask the kurds. Ask the sunnis. Ask the Iranians.

double post.

 

[belian78]

Really? 'Cause you know... dropping bombs usually means people are getting hurt and losing appendages, which seems a wonderful time to have healthcare workers around... just sayin'

Yes, medical care is needed in warzones, to deny that would be assinine but you're being obtuse here.

 

[jay_dub]

No. It is the generalization that "they" hate us. It is as bad as saying "they hate us for our freedoms" And yes some of them do hate us for that and would kill immoral Americans whether or not we had an occuping force there. It is the generalizations get people into a lot of trouble. East Indians love to rape and kill women....

Well, 'they' do hate us, or at least enough of the 'theys' to make a generalization and state the obvious that it's a dangerous place.

I think that, after all this time, we have enough casualties to say that 'they' hate us, especially if you happen to be employed by the occupying force.

This bunch of 'theys' do hate us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In late 2009, the intelligence community adopted an estimate of 20,000 to 30,000 full-time insurgents, as reported by McClatchy newspapers in November and confirmed in a press briefing by Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), on Dec. 3, 2009.

But in 2010, the Taliban and their allies increased the total number of attacks to 34,000, compared with 22,000 in 2009, according to official ISAF data – a whopping 54 percent rise.

That major step-up in operations suggested that the Taliban had grown substantially between 2009 and 2010. Yet no revised intelligence estimate of Taliban strength appeared in late 2010, even though the National Intelligence Council produced a National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan in December.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/021511a.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also (more current):

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162...not-drop-in-2012-after-all-u.s-military-says/

 

[juleswin]

Really? 'Cause you know... dropping bombs usually means people are getting hurt and losing appendages, which seems a wonderful time to have healthcare workers around... just sayin'

I know if someone was dropping bombs on me and then providing healthcare for the injuries caused by those bombs, I sure would prefer they stop droping the bombs 1st before doing anything else. You just have to stop hurting people. I cant remember who it was that said, govt breaks your leg and then buys you crutches. This is just a good example of that saying happening to the Afghans, the army bombs and then the state dept comes with bandages and books.

Stop the bombs first and they will be 1000x more receptive to your humanitarian aide.

 

[Zippyjuan]

What did she love doing? Being part of an occupying force in a foreign country?

Are these people crazy? Young, idealistic Hillary Clintonites who work for the State Dept. and think they're changing the world.

Well, the reality is you're part of an occupying force committing crimes against the population on a daily basis.

They're not wanted there so the message to all State Dept staff is get out while you can or face being targeted and killed.

It doesn't matter how secure you think the compound is or how tall the walls they build. They will find a way to kill you because they're a resistance and all American personnel are deemed legitimate targets.

I'm sorry for the loss of life and thoughts to the family but if you go there to be part of the this braindead adventure then this is what happens.

-
(CNN) -- Anne Smedinghoff lived inside a heavily secured compound.

But the public diplomacy officer for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was always pushing to get out.

"We thought she was relatively safe in the embassy compound, but as it turned out, Anne really wanted to do a lot more," her father, Tom Smedinghoff, told CNN.

This past weekend, the 25-year-old was trying to do just that -- delivering books to a school in southern Afghanistan -- when a suicide bomber smashed into her convoy Saturday, killing Smedinghoff and four others. She is believed to be the first U.S. diplomat killed since the September attack in Benghazi, Libya.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/07/us/diplomat-killed-profile/index.html

Trying to share books and education is somehow evil? This is committing a crime (in Afghanistan, if you are a girl who wants an education and try to go to school, you are considered committing a crime)? She was trying to make things better- not killing people.

 

[itshappening]

Trying to share books and education is somehow evil? This is committing a crime (in Afghanistan, if you are a girl who wants an education and try to go to school, you are considered committing a crime)? She was trying to make things better- not killing people.

Dear lord... I never said it was 'evil' to do what she did. Stop putting words in my mouth.

I think it was stupid she was there in the first place. No westerner should be in Afghanistan or Iraq.

 

[thoughtomator]

"doing what she loved" = probable CIA

One reason people can't stand the US gov is that anything it touches is soon crawling with spies. Some of our diplomatic missions are basically nothing but, and we'll infect anything with them - businesses, embassies, "humanitarian" aid, and so on. How do you think our guests receive the fact that we collect their DNA?

 

[Zippyjuan]

Dear lord... I never said it was 'evil' to do what she did. Stop putting words in my mouth.

I think it was stupid she was there in the first place. No westerner should be in Afghanistan or Iraq.

You did say:

Well, the reality is you're part of an occupying force committing crimes against the population on a daily basis.

I took that to mean that she was one of the criminals. Sorry if I mistook what you were saying.

 

[juleswin]

You did say:


I took that to mean that she was one of the criminals. Sorry if I mistook what you were saying.

Would it be fair to say that she was in league with the criminals? Especially see as she was being paid by them and was riding as part of their convoy when she was attacked.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Daniel McAdams @ LRC: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/135210.html

'Carrying the Future' in Afghanistan

How sad and tragic that young US foreign service officer, Anne Smedinghoff, just 25 years old, was killed yesterday in Afghanistan. Sad and tragic not because, as the media tells us, she was a brave American hero sacrificing herself for our values, but rather because she no doubt was a victim of our own propagandistic mythology that US occupation of foreign lands is welcomed as a "global force for good."

"She was doing what she loved," her grieving parents said of their daughter, who was killed while delivering school textbooks to Afghanistan's southern Zabul province. It is a safe bet that those textbooks were printed either by or under the close supervision of the US government and included all of the politically correct shibboleths that bright-eyed State Department, USAID, and NGOers are convinced the rest of the world is ravenous to ingest in their never-ending goal to be "just like us." Is it any wonder that may not be so welcomed? Reality bites hard, in this case it takes the form of a car bomb; last week it was a knife.

Secretary of State John Kerry was purely Soviet in his dialectical reaction to the murder of Miss Smedinghoff. Said Kerry: "It's a grim reminder to all of us, though we didn't need any reminders, of how important and also how risky carrying the future is with people who want to resist."

Dare not resist our "carrying the future"!

But the rest of the world does resist. It does not want our propagandistic textbooks, it does not want our drones, it does not want our support of radical Islamists, it does not want our soldiers, and it does not want our diplomats or NGOs engaging in all manner of manipulation of domestic affairs overseas. Sadly, until young Americans like this foreign service officer start to question the mythologies spouted by politicians and duly amplified by the corporate media about the indispensability of the US "carrying the future," there will be many more unnecessary deaths -- on all sides.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Would it be fair to say that she was in league with the criminals? Especially see as she was being paid by them and was riding as part of their convoy when she was attacked.

It is my understanding that the attack was not on the convoy but on a local government official- the convoy simply happened to be there. No- I would not say that she was the same as a soldier- in league with criminals. You are a US citizen (I assume). This would imply that you too are a criminal if what you say is true- guilt by association.

 

[CaseyJones]

ah more of the usual at good ol' bitcoinfuckthecopsandmilitaryforums

 

[enhanced_deficit]

This. She was delivering books to schoolchildren for fuck's sake...

That is probably as safe in current war occupation as delivering polio vaccination to children in tribal areas there after it was leaked that polio vaccinatoin doctor was working for CIA. Now there is no more polio vaccination there even by legit medical teams for fear of attacks.

There is little point in "delivering books" in a violent occupation zone where bombs are being sprayed/people are being droned left and right. Right to life and liberty is far greater and primary objective of any legit diplomat should be ensuring peaceful resolution of conflicts. On the same day books delivery was being made probably for Obama PR, bombs were delivered to another set of children:

VOA News
April 07, 2013

Afghan officials say a coalition air strike has killed 11 civilians, including 10 children, in the eastern part of the country during a joint Afghan-NATO operation against Taliban militants.

http://www.voanews.com/content/afgha...n/1636483.html




Obama's bungling policies haven't made life for legit diplomats safe either.


CIA’s Raymond Davis — “our diplomat,” Obama calls him—beats murder rap in Pakistan

Raymond Davis a CIA Contractor, US Confirms

US Still Insists He Has 'Diplomatic Immunity'

by Jason Ditz, February 21, 2011

Despite referring to him since his arrest as a “technical advisor” and despite President Obama referring to him as “our diplomat,” Davis is confirmed as a contractor to the CIA, and is responsible for providing security to CIA spies who travel in Pakistan. Incredibly, the US is still demanding that Davis be released without charges and insists that he is entitled to “diplomatic immunity” because, even though he was actually a spy, he is still officially (though apparently fraudulently) listed as a member of the embassy’s technical staff.

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/02/21/raymond-davis-a-cia-contractor-us-confirms/

 

[alucard13mmfmj]

All Department of State employees, enjoy the following benefits:

Annual Leave
Credit Union and Fitness Facility
Employee Consultation Service
Employee Recreation Association
Family Medical Leave
Health Benefits Plans
Life Insurance
Long-Term Care Insurance
Sick Leave
Thrift Savings Plan (equivalent to 401(k) with Government Matching)
10 Paid Holidays
-

All you need to join is a worthless degree and you too can join the occupation in Afhganistan and hand out textbooks to kids.

It doesn't say if the Department will cover funeral expenses.

o really???? i can join?

 

[TheTexan]

She was delivering books to schoolchildren for fuck's sake...

Was she though? It just seems too convenient, for a nice propaganda story.

 

[Zippyjuan]

o really???? i can join?

I have taken the State Department exam many times- it is very difficult. You must score 80% or better in five of seven catetories including economics, business, history, arts ("culture"), geography, "consular relations", English grammar (going off the top of my head- can't remember all of them). Got close a couple of times but never good enough. One time I took the exam in the US Embassay in London (the old one on Grovsner Square- they since built a new one).

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/governmentjobs1/a/foreignservice.htm

 

[ninepointfive]

That was the book she was delivering. Those people need some hope and a plan to change.