I havent just seen Iraq Ive been to Iraq and it is a sh**hole, FACT. Sewage in the streets no electricity, housing is very poor. They maybe ok in the cities but you go to the outskirts or villages and it is horrific and there is no way you can tell me otherwise. Iraq has so much potention to be a strong rich country, shame religion has got in the way. As for afghan, who is growing the drugs, the muslim farmers. Just because they can grow the poppies doesnt meant they have to. As for the taliban treating hostages right, try telling that to all those they beheaded, some of them old men just trying to help rebuild Iraq. So you believe that the taliban are good peaceful muslims, try telling that to the victims of the london bombings. Or is that just another thing that the media made up.

Originally Posted by Robert.Lane@Ora

I havent just seen Iraq Ive been to Iraq and it is a sh**hole, FACT. Sewage in the streets no electricity, housing is very poor.

same could be said to parts of Britain HAVE u seen NEWTOWN in Birmingham?

Originally Posted by Robert.Lane@Ora

Iraq has so much potention to be a strong rich country, shame religion has got in the way.

Not religion BUT Dictators and NOW America!

Originally Posted by Robert.Lane@Ora

As for afghan, who is growing the drugs, the muslim farmers.

Under the Taliban this was stopped ONLY now can they so this!

Originally Posted by Robert.Lane@Ora

As for the taliban treating hostages right, try telling that to all those they beheaded, some of them old men just trying to help rebuild Iraq.

Thats not the taliban!

Originally Posted by Robert.Lane@Ora

So you believe that the taliban are good peaceful muslims, try telling that to the victims of the london bombings. Or is that just another thing that the media made up.

Whats HAS THE TALIBAN got to do with London Bombings??????

Once in power, the Taliban instituted a form of Shari'ah (Islamic law). The Taliban's reform of government was in part directed by scholars of Islamic law. Among the laws applied were criminal punishments, administered by a religious police force, including amputation of one or both hands for theft and stoning for adultery.

The Taliban banned all forms of television, imagery, music and sports. In response to this ban the IOC suspended Afghanistan from participation in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Wearing white shoes - the color of the Taliban flag - was illegal and men were required to keep their beards at a specified length.

[edit]
Opium trade
Although the Taliban reportedly banned opium poppy cultivation in late 1997, opium production in Afghanistan may have increased through the year 2000, accounting for 72% of the world's illicit opium supply, according to U.S. government sources. Most Afghan opium is sold in Europe and not the United States.
On July 27, 2000, the Taliban again issued a decree banning opium poppy cultivation. The announcement of the ban caused prices to rise from $30 per kilogram to $500 per kilogram.

There was comment from the international human rights community on the brutality of the Taliban's anti-drug interdictions, including violent punishment of offenders.

The U.S. State Department noted in 2001 that "Neither the Taliban nor the Northern Alliance has taken any significant action to seize stored opium, precursor chemicals or arrest and prosecute narcotics traffickers. On the contrary, authorities were said to continue to tax the opium poppy crop at about ten percent, and allow it to be sold in open bazaars, traded and transported."

However, the Taliban had succeeded in cutting annual poppy production from a CIA-estimated 4,042 tons per year to only 81.3 tons per year. In 2001 The United States provided $43 million worth of supplies (primarily wheat) to humanitarian relief organizations for distribution to the people of Afghanistan, while continuing to criticise the Taliban's activities. This was widely reported by critics of U. S. policy (such as Robert Scheer) to be a $43 million reward to the Taliban for reducing poppy production. The Taliban subsequently raided the shipments, but no evidence has been offered to indicate that this was the United States' intention.

Poppy production increased with the fall of the Taliban government.

[edit]
Women
Main article: Taliban treatment of women

A member of the Taliban's religious police beating a woman in Kabul on September 26, 2001. Photograph taken from footage here filmed by the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan (RAWA). [1]The Taliban were widely criticized by Western countries for their suppression of women. Women were strictly limited in their ability to work in public places. However, they were allowed to set up their own businesses from their houses; they were also permitted to work in certain medical positions so they could treat female patients. Women could not work if they had a baby, in which case they had to stay home and care for their children. The Taliban believed women should stay home in order that their children did not have to grow up in the care of another, and also believed that work is the duty of the male in the house and to reject this duty was haraam.

The Taliban religion minister, Al-Haj Maulwi Qalamuddin, told the New York Times that "To a country on fire, the world wants to give a match. Why is there such concern about women? Bread costs too much. There is no work. Even boys are not going to school. And yet all I hear about are women. Where was the world when men here were violating any woman they wanted?"

Although the Taliban claimed that the education of girls in rural Afghanistan was increasing, a UNESCO report said that there was "a whopping 65 per cent drop in their enrollment. In schools run by the Directorate of Education, only 1 per cent of the pupils are girls. The percentage of female teachers, too, has slid from 59.2 per cent in 1990 to 13.5 per cent in 1999."

A Taliban spokesperson claimed that "Health facilities for women have increased 200% during Taliban administration. Prior to the Taliban Islamic Movement's taking control of Kabul, there were 350 beds in all hospitals in Kabul. Currently, there are more than 950 beds for women in exclusive women's hospitals." [citation needed]

Supporters of the Taliban suggested that the depression and the other problems plaguing Afghani women were the result of dire poverty, years of war, the bad economy, and the fact that many were left war widows, and could no longer provide food for their families without some sort of international aid.

Women were also obliged to wear the burqa when appearing in public, and failure to do so could attract a public beating [2] (video). The Taliban stated that women were obliged to wear the burqa due to Islamic teachings which state that women must cover up her body in front of non-mahram men, and that both men and women should dress modestly.

[edit]
Shia under the Taliban
Minority Shia were brutally persecuted and oppressed by the Taliban. More than 15,000 Shia were killed in Hazara Province, and Shia women were enslaved and later sold to tribal leaders in Pakistan. [3]

[edit]
Buddhas of Bamiyan
Main article: Buddhas of Bamiyan
In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddha carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres tall and about 1800 years old, the other 53 metres tall and about 1500 years old. The act was condemned by UNESCO and many countries around the world, including Iran.

The intentions of the destruction remain unclear. Mullah Omar initially supported the preservation of Afghanistan's heritage, and Japan offered to pay for the preservation of the statues. However, after a few years, a decree was issued claiming all idols must be destroyed as per Islamic law that prohibits any form of idol worship as shirk (i.e., a sin). Locals claim that Pakistani engineers were onsite to help with the statues' destruction, and that Afghanistan's treasures were ferried across the border to be plundered by private collectors. The Pakistani government's ministry of religious affairs issued a statement saying that the destruction of the Buddhas was in accordance with Islamic law. Nevertheless, the destruction of these priceless historical monuments made the Taliban look barbarous in the eyes of many in both the West and the East.

[edit]
Relationship with Osama bin Laden
In 1996, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan upon the invitation of the Northern Alliance leader Abdur Rabb ur Rasool Sayyaf. When the Taliban came to power, bin Laden was able to forge an alliance between the Taliban and his Al-Qaeda organization. It is understood that al-Qaeda-trained fighters known as the 055 Brigade were integrated with the Taliban army between 1997 and 2001. The Taliban and bin Laden had very close connections, which were formalized by a marriage of one of bin Laden's sons to Omar's daughter.

[edit]
U.S. invasion
Main article: U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
On September 22, 2001, as the U.S. blamed Osama bin Laden and his hosts, the Taliban, for the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition of the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan, leaving neighboring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. When threatened with retributive attack by the U.S. for harboring al-Qaeda, the Taliban government offered to judge Osama bin Laden in an Islamic court, and later, to hand him over to a neutral country for a war crimes trial. These offers were rejected by the United States, which instead offered an ultimatum[4] demanding, among other things, the handover of all al-Qaeda leaders and the closure and inspection of all "terrorist training camp[s]".

Shortly afterward, the United States, aided by the United Kingdom and supported by a coalition of other countries including the NATO alliance, initiated military action against the Taliban. The stated intent was to remove the Taliban from power because of the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden for his involvement in the September 11 attacks, and in retaliation for the Taliban's aid to him. The ground war was mainly fought by the Northern Alliance, the remaining elements of the anti-Taliban forces which the Taliban had routed over the previous years.

Mazar-i-Sharif fell to U.S.-Northern Alliance forces on November 9, leading to a cascade of provinces falling with minimal resistance, and many local forces switching loyalties from the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. On the night of November 12, the Taliban retreated south in an orderly fashion from Kabul. On November 15, they released eight Western aid workers after three months in captivity (see Attacks on humanitarian workers).

The UN Security Council, on January 16, 2002, unanimously established an arms embargo and the freezing of identifiable assets belonging to bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining Taliban.

The Taliban later retreated from Kandahar, and regrouped in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, drawn again from that region's madrassahs (madrassah means "school" in Arabic). The more traditional Qur'anic schools are claimed by the U.S. to be the primary source of the new fighters.

Salam. To this poster who says he or she been to iraq. Shame on you for leaving then. All the situation in iraq is due to the terrorist sanctions put forward by the terrorist nation america. they were scared of the rise of an islamic state n afghanistan, which is why the desatroyed them. shame to other muslim nation for letting it happen. bottom line is that this is a crusade againtrs muslims, and the good thging is now muslims are starting to realise. shame on the western ideas of democacy. bush said 3 years ago the war in iraq was over. like !!!! is it. the war has just started.

And your telling me the way their women were treated was the reason why the terrorist nation invaded afghanisatn?????? If thats the case why not go into zimbabwae where white farmers are constantly beaten and killed, why not go before sep 11. your media is as corrupt as the government running it.

Agree with the Brother. There are more unhumane acts taking place in Palestine, In Zimbabwe in other parts of the world WHY INVADE IRAQ OF ALL. Amercians Used Saddam they sodl weapons to him to assist him killing thousands in Iran and when America saw that NOW Saddam had oil and they had already taken over Afghan EASY MOVE lets go to Iraq!!!!

If they cared about the people of Iraq Why Why would they allow the torture to take place in the Prisons as it is and the Ill and Evil treatment of the Iraqi People WHY???

Salam. To this poster who says he or she been to iraq. Shame on you for leaving then. All the situation in iraq is due to the terrorist sanctions put forward by the terrorist nation america. they were scared of the rise of an islamic state n afghanistan, which is why the desatroyed them. shame to other muslim nation for letting it happen. bottom line is that this is a crusade againtrs muslims, and the good thging is now muslims are starting to realise. shame on the western ideas of democacy. bush said 3 years ago the war in iraq was over. like !!!! is it. the war has just started.

This is a joke right? Someone has got to be pulling a prank on me. Ok where's the cameras? The US didn't impose sanctions, the UN did. Why did they impose sanctions? They invaded their neighbor Kuwait. Rise of Afghanistan? LMAO, most of the country didn't even have indoor plumbing. They went down awful fast for a rising country. If all the Muslim countries combined to take on the US those countries wouldn't last longer than a reunion episode of Friends. We are trying to keep down civilian casualties but our patience is wearing thin.

Knuckles, knuckles, knucles. Forget muslim countries the individuals from these countries are giving the usa a run for their money. Juts look at the bravest mujahideens, who fight with limted resources. Its unbelieably how they have outsretched the resources of the usa the co called superpower of today. When russi was defeated at the hands of the mujahideens the word superpower wasd no longer to be used.. The day when these muslim countries get together to fight the terrorits nations will be the day i smile. until then just see how the iraqi resistance who use ak 47s and rpg tackjle the might and sophistication of the usa. And jus imagine every single muslim capable of fighting going and taking up arms.?????????????????

Originally Posted by Isaac

Knuckles, knuckles, knucles. Forget muslim countries the individuals from these countries are giving the usa a run for their money. Juts look at the bravest mujahideens, who fight with limted resources. Its unbelieably how they have outsretched the resources of the usa the co called superpower of today. When russi was defeated at the hands of the mujahideens the word superpower wasd no longer to be used.. The day when these muslim countries get together to fight the terrorits nations will be the day i smile. until then just see how the iraqi resistance who use ak 47s and rpg tackjle the might and sophistication of the usa. And jus imagine every single muslim capable of fighting going and taking up arms.?????????????????

Is this why they have stopped trying to ambush US troops? Is this why they have to use IED to inflict casualties? Is this why in almost 3 years they've been only been able to cause 2,000 US deaths(less deaths than we suffer in training exercises and accidents in one year)? The only reason mujahideen is still around is because we are trying to NOT inflict civilian casualties. See the mujahedeen don't care who they kill but we do. The mujahadeen didn't beat the soviets the US did. They couldn't keep up with our production and suffocated under communism. Read a book sometime. Oh and I've seen footage of your great warriors. They couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. They just spray and pray. My favorite is when one tried to step from behind a building to fire a RPG. Three shots and he was dead before he hit the ground.

Knuckles. i like the video, where as soon as one of the mujahideen shouts God is great and then 3 coward marines run. And did you say 2000. Gosh, 2000 is what they would like to tell you. I ve got plenty of vdeos which i could put up here showing the destruction of the us army, it would be too explicit and oh yeh could be incitement to terrorism. Its alright to show dead iraqi men beeing sat on and kicked but its not alright to show a us marine blow up.run. Remember that one. NOw if you wana have debates about military power ect ect, i suggest you go soomehwhere else. if your here just to look for arguments it shows how some people are.

can you post the one that has the call for prayer and the marines hide?

i have heard alot about this, I havent seen it.

but if it has graphical scenes then forget it, im faint hearted.

salam walekum