Afghanistan a Rogue State??? - Before 9/11

[MetalGus]

Was Afghanistan a Rogue State before september 11th???

Was it ever?

[BOZG]

I'm sure it was considered a rogue state pre 9/11 yet strangely George W Bush invited Taliban members to his Texan ranch for a barbecue in 1997.

[DaNatural]

Oddly enough The Taliban was not a rogue government. NOt until around 1999 did they begin to lose american approval. This was around the time clinton sent missiles into supposed al qaeda bases. Priorto this the government was chummy with the taliban agreeing to build a pipeline through afghanistan.

[Reuben]

America awas freindly with it. However te Taleban was a despicably sexist, theocratic dictatorship whose treatment of hindus reflected the treatment of jews in pre-war nazi germany.

[suffianr]

How do you define a "Rogue State"? What's the frame of reference here? Western industrialized nations? Third World banan republics? South American crack-funded dictatorships? Middle-Eastern 'fundamentalist' zealots?

When does a country become a "Rogue State" When it buys nukes, a dime a dozen, from Russian mafia? When it starts sending anthrax spores with little love notes to American embassies? When it discovers OIL in it's own backyard?

I think "Rogue State" means exactly the same things as "War on Terrorism" or "Eradication of Poverty" or "Zero Inflation" or "War in Indochina" or "Middle-East Talks" or whatever. It means nothing. It came out of nothing. And it was coined to achieve something, which is apparently above the intellectual capacity of normal people like us...it's only understood by congressmen or ministers in the House of Commons or any other politically ambitious redneck in any part of the world.

It's DoubleSpeak. It's bullshit. And you know it, sonny.

If anyone can define the term "Rogue State", right here, right now, please tell me...