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<DIV></DIV>From: Lesli Mones <LMONESaEFN.ORG>
<DIV></DIV>Reply-To: lmonesaefn.org
<DIV></DIV>To: avassiliouahol.gr
<DIV></DIV>CC: pw-localaigc.topica.com
<DIV></DIV>Subject: [pw-local] another perspective
<DIV></DIV>Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 12:36:06 -0700
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>This commentary comes from Tamim, a writer and columnist in San
<DIV></DIV>> >> Francisco who comes from
<DIV></DIV>> >> Afghanistan. This is very, very interesting and a little chilling....
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> * * * *
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the
<DIV></DIV>> >> Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would
<DIV></DIV>mean
<DIV></DIV>> >> killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this
<DIV></DIV>> >> atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What
<DIV></DIV>else can
<DIV></DIV>> >> we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have
<DIV></DIV>> >> the belly to do what must be done."
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I
<DIV></DIV>> >> am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've
<DIV></DIV>> >> never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who
<DIV></DIV>will
<DIV></DIV>> >> listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no
<DIV></DIV>> >> doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in
<DIV></DIV>New
<DIV></DIV>> >> York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even
<DIV></DIV>> >> the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant
<DIV></DIV>> >> psychotics
<DIV></DIV>> >> who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal
<DIV></DIV>> >> with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin
<DIV></DIV>> >> Laden,think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think
<DIV></DIV>"the
<DIV></DIV>> >> Jews in the concentration camps."
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this
<DIV></DIV>> >> atrocity.
<DIV></DIV>> >> They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if
<DIV></DIV>> >> someone
<DIV></DIV>> >> would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest
<DIV></DIV>> >> of
<DIV></DIV>> >> international thugs holed up in their country.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The
<DIV></DIV>> >> answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated,
<DIV></DIV>> >> suffering. A
<DIV></DIV>> >> few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000
<DIV></DIV>> >> disabled
<DIV></DIV>> >> orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are
<DIV></DIV>> >> millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows
<DIV></DIV>> >> alive in
<DIV></DIV>> >> mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all
<DIV></DIV>> >> destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the
<DIV></DIV>> >> Afghan
<DIV></DIV>> >> people have not overthrown the Taliban.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone
<DIV></DIV>> >> Age.Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it
<DIV></DIV>> >> already. Make
<DIV></DIV>> >> the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses?
<DIV></DIV>> >> Done.
<DIV></DIV>> >> Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their
<DIV></DIV>> >> hospitals?
<DIV></DIV>> >> Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and
<DIV></DIV>> >> health
<DIV></DIV>> >> care? Too late. Someone already did all that.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at
<DIV></DIV>> >> least
<DIV></DIV>> >> get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban
<DIV></DIV>> >> eat,
<DIV></DIV>> >> only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide.
<DIV></DIV>> >> Maybe
<DIV></DIV>> >> the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too
<DIV></DIV>> >> fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and
<DIV></DIV>> >> dropping
<DIV></DIV>> >> bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this
<DIV></DIV>> >> horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the
<DIV></DIV>> >> Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this
<DIV></DIV>> >> time
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with
<DIV></DIV>> >> true
<DIV></DIV>> >> fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there
<DIV></DIV>> >> with
<DIV></DIV>> >> ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs
<DIV></DIV>> >> to be
<DIV></DIV>> >> done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as
<DIV></DIV>> >> needed. Having the belly to overcome
<DIV></DIV>> >> any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads
<DIV></DIV>> >> out of
<DIV></DIV>> >> the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just
<DIV></DIV>> >> because some Americans would die fighting their way through
<DIV></DIV>> >> Afghanistan to
<DIV></DIV>> >> Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get
<DIV></DIV>> >> any
<DIV></DIV>> >> troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they
<DIV></DIV>> >> let us?
<DIV></DIV>> >> Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other
<DIV></DIV>> >> Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting
<DIV></DIV>> >> with a
<DIV></DIV>> >> world war between Islam and the West.
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he
<DIV></DIV>> >> wants.
<DIV></DIV>> >> That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all
<DIV></DIV>> >> right
<DIV></DIV>> >> there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem
<DIV></DIV>> >> ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and
<DIV></DIV>> >> the
<DIV></DIV>> >> West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in
<DIV></DIV>> >> those
<DIV></DIV>> >> lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even
<DIV></DIV>> >> better
<DIV></DIV>> >> from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the
<DIV></DIV>> >> West
<DIV></DIV>> >> would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years
<DIV></DIV>> >> and
<DIV></DIV>> >> millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for
<DIV></DIV>> >> that?
<DIV></DIV>> >> Bin Laden does. Anyone else?
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >> Tamim Ansary
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>> >>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Alexandra Vassiliou wrote:
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>> dear friends,
<DIV></DIV>> These are shocking days. I am writing as Europe is observing three minutes
<DIV></DIV>> of silence for the victims of the war that our democratically elected
<DIV></DIV>> governments (and our own ignorance / unconsciousness) have put us in. The
<DIV></DIV>> US government, with the support of NATO, is announcing the beginning of 'a
<DIV></DIV>> victorious war against terrorism, with Bush as a world leader'. This is not
<DIV></DIV>> a war AGAINST terrorism, this is the vicious circle of COMPLEMENTARY
<DIV></DIV>> terrorism. I urge you all, especially those of you living in the USA and
<DIV></DIV>> other countries of the main players in NATO (Britain, Germany, etc) to
<DIV></DIV>> remain alert in the next weeks. There is an ugly game played on our backs,
<DIV></DIV>> using sorrow and pain as a numbing agent to any reaction to another full
<DIV></DIV>> blown world conflict, that in the end will, once again, make the rich
<DIV></DIV>> richer, the poor poorer, and brainwash us with the 'clash of civilizations'
<DIV></DIV>> dogma. Huntington spelled it out very clearly a few years ago, and most
<DIV></DIV>> western foreign policy is based on it.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>> We all need to do our own psychological work on inner figures, roles, on
<DIV></DIV>> how these conflicts are present in every day life, not only in foreign
<DIV></DIV>> relations. But I think this is a time when we do not have the luxury of
<DIV></DIV>> being only psychological. We need to be political. We need to know the
<DIV></DIV>> larger picture. It is an overwhelming larger picture with sliding alliances
<DIV></DIV>> and covert operations. But the facts are out there, one only needs to
<DIV></DIV>> search some and you find them.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>> It hurts when you are bombed. It hurts a lot. And many of us come from
<DIV></DIV>> countries that know that all too well. I am praying that out of the pain
<DIV></DIV>> for the loss of so many innocent people, transformation will happen. It is
<DIV></DIV>> constant innerwork living in Greece these days. Just as one opens up to the
<DIV></DIV>> feelings of pain and despair at all the people lost on Tuesday, anger and
<DIV></DIV>> fury kick in around inflammatory statements of 'world leadership' and
<DIV></DIV>> threats 'whoever is not 100% with us will be bombed'. Within 24 hours
<DIV></DIV>> George W Bush, the most laughed at USA president in history, became the
<DIV></DIV>> 'world leader' that ALL governments (with the exception of Iraq) bowed
<DIV></DIV>> before. People here are going nuts. Feeling for the tragedy and then
<DIV></DIV>> catapulted into fury over the one-sidedness of the political world. Today
<DIV></DIV>> all greek flags in public buildings are half-mast in respect for the
<DIV></DIV>> victims in the US. I respect that. Wish we had done the same for the Iraqis
<DIV></DIV>> and the Yugoslavs and the Palestinians........
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>> I hope we never forget the victims of the Tuesday events. Along with that,
<DIV></DIV>> I hope that this will be the chance for some to learn about the victims of,
<DIV></DIV>> Cyprus, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Palestine, Lebanon... That after this we will
<DIV></DIV>> finally realize that revenge is a one way street with only blood ahead. No
<DIV></DIV>> one wins. Keep an eye on your governments, watch those polls and the % of
<DIV></DIV>> support. The are elected governments. In that sence, we do have a say. This
<DIV></DIV>> is not about west vs islam, this is about all of our's freedom and ability
<DIV></DIV>> to live together.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>> I am sending a separate e-mail with some articles. Many of you know of that
<DIV></DIV>> stuff already. But you might want to pass it on to those that do not
<DIV></DIV>> necessarily bother to know them, or just simply don't know them.......
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>> love to you all,
<DIV></DIV>> in a sombered mood
<DIV></DIV>> alexandra
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>
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