This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hi Roger, TRhanks for the insightful post from Tamin Amsary. Does he have any insight into what would be helpful to cause the perole = to rise up instead of running for other countries like they are doing = now? Perhaps it is not the people we should be bombing but targeting a Mosque = a week giving warning in advance so that those wishing to be martyrs = could attend the special services. Hopefully all the Ben Loudens and = Tallyban would attend LOL. Misspell intended out of disrespect for these = persons. Joe Goss imatunr@srvinet.com www.mothergoosetools.com ----- Original Message -----=20 From: jolly roger=20 To: pianotech@ptg.org=20 Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 11:45 PM Subject: Fwd: Fw: An Afghan American's point of view Some food for thought guy's. Roger Seems like an impossible situation, or at least a very bloody = one.!!! Bob Ann-Marie Dear Friends,=20 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=20 in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen. = Here is=20 his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in.=20 -Gary T. Dear Gary, and whoever else is on this email thread:=20 I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to = the Stone=20 Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would = mean=20 killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this = atrocity,=20 but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else = can we=20 do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we = "have the=20 belly to do what must be done." And I thought about the issues being = raised especially hard because I am=20 from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've = never=20 lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who = will=20 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=20 in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in = New York.=20 I agree that something must be done about those monsters. But the = Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the=20 government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant = psychotics=20 who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal = with a=20 plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin = Laden, think=20 Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the = Jews in=20 the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had = nothing=20 to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the = perpetrators.=20 They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the = Taliban and=20 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=20 answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, = suffering. A=20 few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 = disabled=20 orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There = are=20 millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows = alive in=20 mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were = all=20 destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the = Afghan=20 people have not overthrown the Taliban. We come now to the question = of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.=20 Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. = Make the=20 Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. = Turn=20 their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their = hospitals? Done.=20 Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and = health care?=20 Too late. Someone already did all that. New bombs would only stir = the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least=20 get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the = Taliban eat,=20 only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. = Maybe=20 the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move = too=20 fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and = dropping=20 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=20 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=20 fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there = with=20 ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what = needs to be=20 done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many = as=20 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=20 the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans = would die=20 fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's = much=20 bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, = we'd have=20 to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest = of=20 Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just = stand by?=20 You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between = Islam and=20 the West. And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly = what he wants.=20 That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all = right=20 there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem=20 ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam = and the=20 West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust = in those=20 lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's = even better=20 from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the = west=20 would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for = years and=20 millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for = that?=20 Bin Laden does. Anyone else? Tamim Ansary=20 = -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ----- = =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/2e/ad/db/71/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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