Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

"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." This is Tamim Ansary, an Afghan-American, speaking out on the terror of the Taliban on AlterNet.org.

Ansary reminds us that the "Taliban and Bin 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." He then goes on to discuss that plan, and what we, in the West, can do about it.

Afghanistan is a nation of about 22 million people, at least a quarter of whom are in danger of starvation. The only reason that number isn't higher is that relief organizations (mostly funded by and based in the U.S.) are working to prevent a greater tragedy. They did not choose the Taliban; they were the first victims. Air raids and missile strikes are more likely to hit that civilian population than to take out Osama bin Laden (remember, we've tried that before and missed).

The only way to put an end to the rule of the Taliban and capture Osama bin Laden, while minimizing "collateral damage," is to send in ground troops.

In the Alternet.org article, Ansary point out that "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."

Please read the full article at www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11518