Somehow I think that the our leaders right now do see beyond it. I've
understood
what bin Laden has been after for some time. (There is a lot of
information on the
Internet just do a search on his name). What would you suggest as a response
to the murder of well the current count is 5000+ of innocent people for a
political
purpose.
At 08:15 AM 9/15/2001 +0800, you wrote:
>Excellent Chris. I hope people read this and I hope they can see past their
>anger enough to understand it...
>
>Regards
>Nenad
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Chris Brogden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 7:35 AM
>Subject: Afghanistan thoughts
>
>
> > I'm passing this along just as I received it...
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Folks,
> >
> > This came across on another mailing list I am on. Very interesting,
> > plausible response to "What did they hope to gain by this massive
> > terrorist attack" and a and bleak picture of Afghanistan today.
> >
> > ***************************************************************
> > Subject: A view from Afghanistan
> >
> >
> > Dear Friends,
> > The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim
> > Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is
> > also one of the most brilliant people I know in this
> > life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I
> > listen. Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole
> > mess we are in.
> >
> > -Gary T.
> >
> >
> > Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
> >
> > I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing
> > Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO
> > Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing
> > innocent people, people who had nothing to do with
> > this
> > atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept
> > colateral damage. What else can we do?" Minutes later
> > I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have the
> > belly to do what must be done."
> >
> > And I thought about the issues being raised especially
> > hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though
> > I've lived here (the US) for 35 years I've
> > never lost track of what's going on there. So I want
> > to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from
> > where I'm standing.
> >
> > I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin
> > Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people
> > were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree
> > that something must be done about those monsters.
> >
> > But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan.
> > They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The
> > Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took
> > over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political
> > criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think
> > Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And
> > when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the
> > Jews in the concentration camps." It's not
> > only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with
> > this atrocity. They were the first victims of the
> > perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come
> > in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats
> > nest of international thugs holed up in their country.
> >
> > Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow
> > the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved,
> > exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years
> > ago, the United Nations estimated that there are
> > 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country
> > with no economy, no food. There are millions of
> > widows. And the Taliban has been burying these
> > widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered
> > with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the
> > Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the
> > Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.
> >
> > We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan
> > back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done.
> > The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans
> > suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses?
> > Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done.
> > Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their
> > infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health
> > care? Too late. Someone already did all that. New
> > bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs.
> > Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In
> > today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they
> > have the means to move around. They'd slip away and
> > hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled
> > orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even
> > have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping
> > bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the
> > criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it
> > would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by
> > raping once again the people they've been raping all
> > this time.
> >
> > So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me
> > now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way
> > to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops.
> > When people speak of "having the belly to do what
> > needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having
> > the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly
> > to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent
> > people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's
> > actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just
> > because some Americans would die fighting their way
> > through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much
> > bigger than that folks. Because to get any
> > troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through
> > Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest
> > of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim
> > nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're
> > flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.
> >
> > And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's
> > exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read
> > his speeches and statements. It's all right there. He
> > really believes Islam would beat the west. It might
> > seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the
> > world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion
> > soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those
> > lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to
> > lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of
> > view. He's probably wrong, in the end the west would
> > win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last
> > for years and millions would die, not just theirs but
> > ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does.
> > Anyone else?
> >
> > Tamim Ansary
>-
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