The Taliban's Rape of Afghanistan

e-mail from a friend | September 18, 2001 | Tamim Ansary

[TKEman]

While all of this is certainly true, we here must pursue our interests, even if that means heavy bombings. Afghanistan is suffuring, and has done so for 20 years. With luck, pushing the Taliban out of power will go some way towards ending the suffuring of the Afghan people.

[concerned about politics]

Thousands of innocent Americans have died. Let's read their story first. It's twice as sad. They had no warning.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Every time I read this article, I feel less sympathetic for them. Of course, I've read it here so many times, that it has long since lost whatever emotional impact it may have once had.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I feel less sympathetic for them.

Lest there be any doubt, by "them" I meant the Afghanistans who let the Taliban take over their country.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Even if that means heavy bombings."

Did you hear a word this man said? This is not the first I have heard that Afghanistan is pretty much already in rubble, I have read book-length accounts of people who have been through Afghanistan since the Soviet war, and the country's infrastructure is already destroyed. We will have to go after the Taliban on the ground, and if we are smart, we will help rebuild this country after the terrorists are eliminated. We need a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan to show those people who is their friend and who is their enemy. If we just go in with a "bombs away" attitude and turn the existing rubble into smaller pieces of rubble, we will have accomplished nothing.

[goodnesswins]

Somehow, I don't think Afghanistan is the only country facing the wrath of the US....don't ya think our military and other leaders have figured out that hiding out in a "broken" country is part of their strategy - bin Laden wouldn't hide in the middle of Iraq, that's for sure.....

[Alterego]

Look back at your US history for 1986. Reagan helped to train and arm these people.

[r9etb]

Let's read their story first. It's twice as sad. They had no warning.

While I understand the point you're trying to make, what happened a week ago is not "twice as sad" as what has happened to Afghanistan over several decades. It's not even close. Yours is precisely the sort of knee-jerk reaction bin Laden is trying to provoke.

Perhaps you need to read once again what this fellow said, and recognize that it contains the seeds of a strategy. Most of the people over there are not fanatics -- they just want to be left alone. We can follow your apparent preference and bomb them, but then they'd flock to bin Laden and the Taliban. Ooops.

The proper approach is to find a way to separate the normal Afghanis from the Taliban, and from bin Laden. The Taliban have done a pretty good job of alienating the hearts and minds of most Afghans, so if we play our cards right, we've got a good starting point. This would probably require warfare, and there's already a viable opposition to the Taliban operating in-country.

Pakistan presents another opportunity. The author is probably wrong in assuming that we'd have to invade Pakistan: their government has a vested interest in opposing "Islam," just as do most normal people in that region. An ascendent bin Laden is a far more immediate danger to them than to us.

I suspect that a "Radio Free Islam," geared toward publicizing and promoting the "mainstream" muslim message would also help matters, as it would help to paint the wild-eyed fundamentalists as the rabid dogs they are. But of course, that message must also be backed up with force.

[r9etb]

Look back at your US history for 1986. Reagan helped to train and arm these people.

Yes and no. There was a multi-sided civil war in Afghanistan after the Russians left, and the Taliban seem to have bubbled to the top for a while. There are numerous other opposition groups, all of whom would (and did) leap at the opportunity to take advantage of anarchy.

[betty boop]

While all of this is certainly true, we here must pursue our interests, even if that means heavy bombings.

Hi TKEman. In the pursuit of our interests, it seems quite clear to me that we cannot derive an advantage by giving Osama bin Laden what he wants. He wants the Great Satan to ACT like, well, the Great Satan. He wants to galvanize all of Islam into an implacable opponent of the West. The last thing we want to do, it seems to me, is to go around creating a whole lot of martyrs for his cause. The "Great Man" doesn't give a fig for the "little people" -- ours or even his own. American or Muslim, the deaths of innocents are merely the tools he uses to get what he wants. The United States must not allow him to manipulate us into a no-win situation by drawing us into a rash conflict principally involving civilians. IMHO.

Also IMHO: This war must be about justice. If we let it be about revenge, America as we know and love it surely will die. This is a time for wisdom, prudence, and restraint --even as we go after the bad guys with guns blazing. For whatever my opinion is worth. best wishes, bb.

[concerned about politics]

Most of the people over there are not fanatics -- they just want to be left alone.

Most of the people HERE are not fanatics -- WE just want to be left alone.

Those in the WTC did not ask for this either.

I do not feel that we should tip-toe in, be really nice, and ask for Bin Laden, "please".

It's knee-jerk reactions like yours that Bin Laden is PRAYING for!

[TKEman]

Who said anything about going on a jihad in pursuit of our interests? I agree with all that you wrote. Our interests don't include revenge. That would be counterproductive. However, they do include justice. The enemy started this war. We must finish it. That doesn't include wiping out the Afghan people. This isn't thier fault. However, it does include taking down the government that harbors our enemies. That's in our interests.

Please don't misunderstand my post. I've noticed that people of all political colorations are extremely jumpy these days.

[r9etb]

I do not feel that we should tip-toe in, be really nice, and ask for Bin Laden, "please".

It's knee-jerk reactions like yours that Bin Laden is PRAYING for!

I see now that you're just blowing off steam, and not paying any attention whatsoever to what anybody else has to say. Perhaps you should take 100 deep breaths and start the day again.

[neutrino]

Ah, yes. Can't do anything. Mustn't do anything. The thousands of American dead are old news anyway. Oh, well. Let it pass.

No! This act of terrorism must not stand. The taliban (hereinafter referred to as talies) live within the overall society, and to some degree with the connivance of that society. If the society cannot or will not remove the cancer, then we must. When a tumor is excised, healthy cells are often killed as well. But this is as it must be. The terrorists, and their source the talies, must be eradicated. And if that means killing civilians, bring it on.

[concerned about politics]

No thank you. I'll stick with America first.

[concerned about politics]

Read this and take 100 breaths and start the day over.

[motexva]

The author is essentially calling for ground troops to be sent in. He issues the appropriate cautions and warnings, but that is the message of this piece - if you do something, REALLY do something, don't drop a few bombs and say you've conquered terrorism. To conquer terrorism, we must go into Afghanistan and other countries and demolish the institutions of Islamic Totalitarianism and rebuild these nations from the ground up - essentially what we did in Japan after WWII.

Does anyone find it unusaul the virulence of this email? I bet I received 7 copies of it yesterday and twice again today. This was written on a computer in Foggy Bottom or Langley.

[Alterego]

Yes and no. There was a multi-sided civil war in Afghanistan after the Russians left, and the Taliban seem to have bubbled to the top for a while. There are numerous other opposition groups, all of whom would (and did) leap at the opportunity to take advantage of anarchy.

...and most of them presumably using either US or Russian weapons left over from the earlier war-by-proxy..?

[concerned about politics]

Does anyone find it unusaul the virulence of this email? I bet I received 7 copies of it yesterday and twice again today. This was written on a computer in Foggy Bottom or Langley.

Liberal propaganda ?? After all, defending America is "not good for the whole."