So far the most enlighting article since Tuesday.  Makes you think.
Zoltan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Alofs" <lalofs@ENTERACT.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 12:09 PM
Subject: FWD:Thoughts from an Afghan-American

> > > Subject: Thought's from an Afghan-American
> > > Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 09:51:18 -0700 (PDT)
> > >
> > > 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 collateral 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 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