Re: [unrev-II] Offensive Against Terrorism

From: Eric Armstrong (eric.armstrong@sun.com)
Date: Wed Sep 19 2001 - 11:21:05 PDT

  • Next message: Eric Armstrong: "Re: [unrev-II] Eugene's work Organizing the Record"

    Excellent muse, Rod. Dead on, in my opinion.

    Rod Welch wrote:

    > Henry,
    >
    > The piece you submitted prepared by Aamim Ansary (see below) offers
    > thoughtful
    > analysis, but does not propose a strategy, except for US ground troops
    > to enter
    > Afghanistan and round up Ben Laden. He indicates this requires
    > neutralizing
    > Pakistan, and suggests such an effort could generalize and spread
    > conflict,
    > pitting all of Islam against Western cultures. Nobody wants that, yet
    > we want
    > to take effective action, and certainly must avoid being frozen into
    > inaction by
    > scary scenarios noted in your subject title.
    >
    > Amim's argument against indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets is
    > persuasive. It is conceivable that a threat could arise that
    > justifies such
    > action, but that is not the situation at hand. Others have observed
    > that
    > Clinton's cruise missile attacks did little more than rearrange some
    > rubble.
    > So, we can eliminate mass bombings and lobbing cruise missiles as the
    > sole
    > response this time around.
    >
    > A more refined strategy may be taking shape. World leaders across
    > cultures have
    > condemned terrorism, and opinion is coalescing in a way that may
    > isolate Ben
    > Laden and others involved in the recent conflagration, including
    > particular
    > governments and ex-officio rulers, as seems to be the case in
    > Afghanistan.
    > Perhaps a mixed allied force that includes US troops, along with those
    > from
    > Islamic countries, including Pakistan, can enter Afghanistan to
    > liberate it from
    > terrorists.
    >
    > Cutting off funding, supplies and escape to friendly soil may be
    > possible. We
    > are already in Turkey. Pakistan is reported to have closed it
    > borders. The
    > Russians have pledge support to the West. Iran, also, has voiced
    > support for
    > the West. If Ben Laden flees to Iraq, that would signal the world its
    > time to
    > finish the prior expedition.
    >
    > The Russians fared poorly in Afghanistan because the US and others
    > supplied the
    > opposition. At this time, it appears the Russians are siding with the
    > US. As
    > the Bush/Powell diplomacy gathers steam, induced in part by promises
    > of aid and
    > other things we don't want to know about at this time, the ability for
    >
    > terrorists would be critically reduced to maneuver and offer
    > sustainable
    > opposition to a new government that could be put in place by the
    > alliance,
    > similar to what was done for Japan following WWII.
    >
    > One reason Islamic leadership, along with a good share of Islamic
    > followers
    > could be persuaded to accept a composite force to "aid" Afghanistan,
    > is that
    > many of them have been the target of terrorism. As in the West, Islam
    > is not
    > entirely a monolith, i.e., of one mind, blindly following Ben Laden.
    > The events
    > of the past week offer an opportunity to galvanize widespread fear and
    > disgust
    > into a condominium of diplomacy and resolve that could make military
    > action
    > successful for everyone.
    >
    > My feeling is we really want Ben Laden alive, or at least his top
    > people, in
    > order to debrief them. It seems most likely that some state
    > sponsorship is
    > involved, and, if so, that very much needs to be addressed. This is
    > the time to
    > do it while popular opinion in the US in particular is open to being
    > proactive.
    > This lust for revenge will not last. Very soon we will begin hearing
    > about
    > prescription drug benefits, lock boxes, the environment, and fairness,
    > et
    > al.
    > Just musing.
    >
    > Rod
    >
    >
    >
    > Henry K van Eyken wrote:
    > >
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    > >
    > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    >
    > >
    > > Subject: Very thought provoking (and damned scary!)
    > > Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 21:05:53 -0400
    > > From: "Douglas Burns" <dfburns@colba.net>
    > > To: "Andrew & Pierrette Balfour" <andrew_balfour@hotmail.com>,
    > > "Monty Berger" <monjean@webtv.net>,
    > > "Stephen Burns" <steve.burns@sympatico.ca>,
    > > "Angela Burns" <angelaian@sympatico.ca>,
    > > "Craig Chaplin" <cccl@videotron.ca>,
    > > "Donald J. Davignon" <dondavig@aol.com>,
    > > "Michael & Lynn Hallows" <perryhallows@aol.com>,
    > > "Stuart Lucas" <nslucas@classicfm.net>,
    > > "Guy Mitchell" <jeanguymitchell@aol.com>,
    > > "Gerry O'Connor" <oconnorg@westelcom.com>,
    > > "Dave & Elaine Owen" <dlo1@cyberus.ca>,
    > > "Ross Smyth" <rsmyth@videotron.ca>,
    > > "Howard&Rosemary(Pope) Thomas"
    > <howard.thomas@hasluck.freeserve.co.uk>,
    > > "Gordon & Elizabeth Tulloch" <macrae13@home.com>,
    > > "Henry & Elizabeth Van Eyken" <vaneyken@sympatico.ca>,
    > > "Elizabeth & Peter Wildman" <wildthings@tiscalinet.it>,
    > > "Heinz Zierl" <heinz.zierl@weyerhaeuser.com>,
    > > "Albert Zierl" <azierl@accglobal.net>,
    > > "Michael & Patricia Andersson" <micpat@net2000.com.au>,
    > > "Paul & Ann Andersson" <paul@pandersson.freeserve.co.uk>
    > >
    > > Forwarded by a friend of mine.. This is very thought provoking.
    > >
    > > Dear Friends,
    > >
    > > 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
    > >
    > > >PEACE,
    >
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