a what?

So ... NPR has this interview with some aMErican General over in Afghanistan.

The interviewer asks about the status of our involvment in Afghanistan when considering that more US soldiers have died this year than the previous.

The General begins his response with a bit of exposition as to why we entered the war (doing a bit of framing, so to speak) ... he spoke of an "international terrorist state" that used Afghanistan as it's base.

International terrorist state?

Let's think about that for a moment. Just put those three words together in your mind, juggle them around, and try to decipher exactly what der Generalisimo meant by them...

If this was a state, where was its capitol? What were its national boundaries? Who were its peoples?

International?

Oh ~ so they were many nations joined into one ... for a political purpose? They were a state even though there was no unifying culture, geography, ethnicity?

... but they had a political purpose - therefore they were a state?

So then, is there a Republican Party state? Is there a Democratic Party state? Is there a Microsoft state - because I would wager a left nut (not MY left nut, mind you ... but certainly a general, or two's) that there are many more people allegiant to the political interests and power of Microsquish than this terrorist state that runs/ran free as naked jaybirds through the opium fields of Afghanistan.

But the General asks me to believe that this was a state, a nation, that we attacked. A state of international terrorists. A nation of international terrorists that joined together and ran ramshod over Afghanistan ~ creating an entity equal in legal status, apparently, to that of our own nation.

awesome.