An Afghan-American speaks (from salon.com)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Wild Wild West : One Thread

[Category: Politics/Government]

(Fair use: for educational and research purposes only.)

From salon.com (Sept. 14, 2001), An Afghan-American speaks

You can't bomb us back into the Stone Age. We're already there. But you can start a new world war, and that's exactly what Osama bin Laden wants.

By Tamim Ansary

I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on San Francisco's KGO Talk Radio, conceded today 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 in the United States 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 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. 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 healthcare? 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?

(About the writer: Tamim Ansary is a writer in San Francisco, and the son of a former Afghani politician.)

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), September 24, 2001

Answers

Yup. Which is why I'm prayin' like the dickens for wisdom to flood into our current administration, each and every person involved in decision-making on our side and those who sit between rock and a hard place throughout the Middle East and Asia.

If we do nothing or next to it in response to 9/11 then we face a certain future of terrorist attacks on our nation until we can't swallow any more death and destruction and take up the sword in our own defense. We must quench the fire of fanatical terrorist groups ASAP while balancing precariously on the precipice of igniting world war.

I can't control any of this, so I don't worry all that much about what might occur. But DAMMIT I can see quite clearly some of the possible courses of action and consequent outcomes and many are quite dreadful to ponder. Hence the prayin' thing. 'Bout all I can do.

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), September 24, 2001.


''WISDOM'' what a word--for so long man has been into his so- called intellect[lol] WISDOM comes from GOD.

the most powerful-position,a man can have>is on bended knee's. HUMBLE before GOD Almighty!!

will man[corporatly] do it??I,m afraid not. at least not according too prophecy!!! if you can truly[from your heart] PRAY>THY KINGDOM COME--THY WILL BE DONE''then you are---safe. in spite of circumstances......

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), September 24, 2001.


Thanks David L. What a great story. To see it from another side, that is sad. I've seen the documentations on tv and how correct that we cant bomb them back to the stone age, they are there, almost. Rich, I feel you. Al, go easy. It is very possible to change things and we know how.

-- sumer (I@aint.sayin), September 24, 2001.

>>>Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else?

Bik Laden has shown that? I haven't seem him leading an infantry charge in NY, just sending him minions to cut throats of unarmed women.

-- IfWeCantUsePlanesCanWeUseTanks? (Oh.Sorry@to.offend), September 24, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ