From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Nov 12 2001 - 08:15:43 MST
>From: Amara Graps <amara@amara.com>
>Let them tell you. The Afghans are a fiercely independent, proud
>people, with a rich history going back centuries, with deep inner
>lives, with the last one or two hundred years tied strongly to
>their land. The binding of that culture is their language and a
>combination of the above. *They* know what is good for them, not
>outsiders. The proposal that I heard yesterday of going with
>troups to _their_ country and "rebuilding" (????) into a "new
>Afghanistan" made me turn white. I didn't sleep well last night
>and the last nights with what I'm hearing here and what I know
>regarding the war outside my home.
The people of Afghanistan are a whole series of tribes with a long
history of fighting with each other as tribes will do. The only
time they are known to unite is to fight outsiders.
Their country is currently a mess, and as soon as we are done
destroying the terrorists there and their Taliban supporters who
are in fact outsiders, we would like to leave. But we can't simply
leave because the people there need our help, or someones help, and
not many seem eager to grab the toilet brush.
So we are going to stick around and try to help.
>It's not unusual to have splits or huge philsophical/religious
>differences between a group of people who share the same language
>within the same country's borders. In Germany, there are so many
>variations (dialects) of the language, that the Northern Germans
>even have difficulty understanding the Southern Germans and vice
>versa. East and West are still communicating poorly, and with some
>bitterness. The differences exist and you work with it, finding
>the commonalities to communicate, and so that is what is done
>here, sometimes successfully, sometimes not successfully between
>all of the different ethnic groups, peoples, nations, religions.
The Afghans infrastructure is in ruins, without outside assistance
many will perish. I'm all for doing "the least we can do", and then
getting out.
>The Europeans could learn alot from the Americans about how to
>"work together", and the Americans could learn alot from the
>Europeans about how to respect and care about enormous
>differences.
There isn't any country in the world with more total differences
than America.
>Right now the Afghans are really hungry and really angry. They've
>had to fight two superpowers for 20 years who have devasted,
>manipulated, meddled to an unbelievable degree. Now the extremists
>of that culture are in power and I am not surprised about that.
The Taliban are not indigenous, they are invaders as well.
>P.S. I'm a lot closer to Afghanistan than you are, and I'm an
>American.
Are you trying to say because you are geographically closer you
have some special insight?
>"Drosam pieder pasaule." (The world belongs to the brave.)
> --a Latvian proverb
Damn straight.
Brian
Member:
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