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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan Boy With US Dollars Hanged |
| 2007-10-01 |
| Taliban militants hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had U.S. money in his pocket, and they stuffed five $1 bills in his mouth as a warning to others not to use dollars, police said Monday. The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree on Sunday in Helmand, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region. "The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars," said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin. Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, although the U.S. currency is more commonly seen in larger cities where international organizations are found. Militants often justify their attacks and executions as a response to U.S. meddling in Afghan affairs. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #15 Karzai's clowns give up land captured by NATO, the second they control it. Nevermind our loss of life and huge expenses. Taliban is taking 15% of Opium profits from Helmund, where eradication is non-existent. Karzai has got to go, and Helmund savages need to wake up to the smell of napalm every morning. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-10-01 19:27 |
| #14 Yeah Mr. Karzi, these are the guys you want to negotiate with. Good for you, Mark Z. Keep the spotlight on the real problem: Namely, Karzai's treachery. The Taliban need killing, not negotiating with. I once proposed that the way to fight the Vietnamese was to load the bomb bay of a B-52 with pennies, and drop them over Hanoi from 42,000 feet. The terminal velocity of a penny is enough to kill someone. OP, the new zinc pennies don't have enough weight. In my personal collection of oddities, I have a few "yellow dog bombs". These were miniature (~1"-2" long, ½" dia.) non-explosive lead bomblets complete with tiny fins and all. During bombing runs over cities they would hack open crates and dump out thousands of these little suckers from high altitude. Sadly, I cannot locate an image of them to post. They were used as anti-civilian weapons during WWII and would suit your purposes admirably. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-10-01 18:58 |
| #13 Old Patriot: Wouldn't work. Pennies tumble and are lightweight. Probably wouldn't even break the skin if one hit you. The Empire State Building drop is a myth. Flechettes would be worse, but still nothing compared to flechettes propelled by high explosives in say a low air burst. But their solid object penetration would still be poor. As to the exact physics, the rule of thumb might be the same for penetrating munitions: only three times greater than the length of the munition is about the max. However, somebody who knows physics might know modifications to this rule. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-10-01 16:53 |
| #12 I once proposed that the way to fight the Vietnamese was to load the bomb bay of a B-52 with pennies, and drop them over Hanoi from 42,000 feet. The terminal velocity of a penny is enough to kill someone. They would bury about 15 inches in dirt, an inch in concrete. They would cut water mains, telephone and electric wires, and punch holes in other things. They would be too small to see until too late, and would do all kinds of secondary damage. Those Vietnamese not killed outright would be busy digging them out of wherever they fell, or trying to repair the damage. Send a second B-52 after the first, et cetera, ad nauseum. It wouldn't be very long before Hanoi would be unlivable, and a heck of a lot cheaper than iron bombs. Do the same thing over Afghanistan's poppy fields, only use iron slugs the same weight as pennies, dipped in herbicide. A poppy field after that would be unusable for a couple of years. You'd also gain the "bad ju-ju" effect from those on the receiving end of the bombing - "you plant poppies, and the heavens will rain destruction upon you". Thinking "outside the box" isn't honored in the military, however... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-10-01 14:24 |
| #11 ed- good idea... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-10-01 14:19 |
| #10 Ima thinking airdrop dollar bills around mosques. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-10-01 11:42 |
| #9 Read in one of the articles where AQ and the Taliban are switching to using General Giap's techniques as a battle bible.. I thought they'd been using Maoist techniques for a while now. (Which I thought was where Giap got a lot of it). |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2007-10-01 10:28 |
| #8 Read in one of the articles where AQ and the Taliban are switching to using General Giap's techniques as a battle bible.. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-10-01 10:25 |
| #7 SPIT |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-10-01 10:22 |
| #6 Reminiscent of the Red Khmer in Cambodia. They would kill you if you had money, used any machine, spoke more than one language, had been to school, wore glasses, or were older than a particular age. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-10-01 10:10 |
| #5 Stamp collecting, however is allowed. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-10-01 10:09 |
| #4 Most of what happens over there is about drug control now. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-10-01 10:03 |
| #3 They stole the kid's money in the name of allan. I'm guessing at least part of this message is that people should not sell opium but give it to the Taliban so they can sell it. |
| Posted by: treo 2007-10-01 10:00 |
| #2 "By their fruits ye shall know them." Matt 7:20 |
| Posted by: doc 2007-10-01 09:47 |
| #1 Wanna bet the Taliban kept any and all US currency over and above the five $1 bills they stuffed in the kid's mouth? Yeah Mr. Karzi, these are the guys you want to negotiate with. (spit) |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2007-10-01 09:36 |