<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4616.200" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Hi Roger,</DIV> <DIV>TRhanks for the insightful post from = Tamin Amsary.</DIV> <DIV>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?</DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV>Joe Goss <A href="mailto:imatunr@srvinet.com">imatunr@srvinet.com</A> <A href="http://www.mothergoosetools.com">www.mothergoosetools.com</A></FO= NT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; = BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: = black">From: <A title=baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca = href="mailto:baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca">jolly roger</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">To: <A = title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Sent: Monday, September 17, = 2001 11:45 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">Subject: Fwd: Fw: An Afghan = American's point of view</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE cite type="cite"></BLOCKQUOTE> Some food for thought guy's. Roger <BLOCKQUOTE cite type="cite"> Seems like an impossible situation, or at least a very bloody = one.!!! Bob Ann-Marie   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 ----------------------------------------------------------------= -------------- ================== ========================== ========================== =========== </BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQ= UOTE></BODY></HTML>