Mike Lorrey wrote:
> THis is the force initiation principle at work. We never hurt the afghan
> people, in fact, we supported them in their fight against an oppressor
> for ten years with hundreds of millions of dollars. They turn around and
> allow a government like the Taliban to decide that we, their allies, are
> the enemy. So, this is not a case of us just killing a people we have
> never met, never had any beef with. We helped them, they turn around and
> betray us and host a group on their soil that attacks us. In the muslim
> world, if your house guest commits a crime against your neighbor, you
> are responsible for that crime.
>
I'm not very well informed on Afghanistan, but based on the thoughtful
and well-researched pieces we've seen on this list I believe that
your characterization of the situation is incorrect. In essence, the
US and Pakistan supported a genuine pan-islamic movement to help the
Afghans free themselves from the Soviets. We weren't very picky about
who these people were. The net effect is that we bankrolled the creation
of a pan-islamic organization of in excess of 100,000 fighters. After
they had succeeded in their original goal, many of them went home.
Others, influenced by a variety of political and religious forces,
are now doing a bunch of other stuff. Some of them are now anti-US
fanatics. Very few of these people are the original Afghans.
The Afghans are not by inclination or history islamic fundamentalists.
Those Buddhist statues had stood for more than 500 years before the
Taliban destroyed them. The Taliban was one of several fundamentalist
groups whose influence grew as a direct result of outsiders who were
part of the pan-islamic fight against the Soviets. It is not too far
wrong to say that the Taliban are a puppet government imposed on
Afghanistan by Pakistan.
Basically, is it completely morally wrong to make war on the Afghans.
There are already a lot of Afghans who are fighting a civil war
against the Taliban. It may be acceptable to declare war on the
Taliban if they refuse to disavow bin Laden, but not on the Afghan
people.
Our true enemy is that part of the pan-islamic organization that
switched from fighting the Soviets to fighting the US. The problem
is identifying them. They are now dispersed across the Islamic world,
and they are causing more problems for Islamic governments than they
do for us, even including the horrible events of 911.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:48 MDT