Suggested response: Finding, arresting and putting Bin Ladin on trial (using
ground forces if necessary).
What not to do: Carpet bomb Afghanistan.
Aside: When the IRA next bomb someone should the USA carpet bomb Ireland in
retaliation?
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 11:09 AM
Subject: Re: Afghanistan thoughts
> 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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