On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, James A. Donald wrote: > The Taliban were illegitimate, not on legal grounds, but > because they were evil.
Using this line of "reasoning", Shrub is ripe for that overdue case of high velocity lead poisoning. > If someone was in the Taliban, then those threatened by the > Taliban have a strong case for locking him up, just as we > locked up nazis. Thirdly a government that systematically > depopulates large areas of the territory it supposedly rules is > not as legitimate as warlords with genuine local roots and > traditional authority, who for the most part came to power > through religious or military leadership in a spontaneous > revolution against tyranny. And if the local warlords are also participating in a vast depopulation, then what? > No one in the Northern alliance > ever controlled territory though ethnic cleansing. > > I can easily imagine circumstances where ethnic cleansing is a > legitimate response to an intransigent enemy with strong roots > in the local population - but the fact that the Taliban used > such measures shows they did not have strong roots in the local > population. You don't see a circular problem here? -- Yours, J.A. Terranson [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0xBD4A95BF "An ill wind is stalking while evil stars whir and all the gold apples go bad to the core" S. Plath, Temper of Time