> Subject: a letter from an Afghani-American worth reading
>
>
> This is an interesting perspective.
>
>
> 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 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
>
> "Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind;
> And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind."
> A Midsummer Night's Dream (I.I.234-235), Wm. Shakespeare
>
> _____
>
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> Donate cash, emergency relief information in Yahoo! News.
>
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