PAGE 7
NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , OCTEMBER 2001
AFGHANI’S
/V£W
STONE AGE
BY TAMIN ANSARY
I have been hearing a lot of talk about “bombing
Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ron Owens, on KGO Talk
Radio, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people,
people who had nothing to do with the atrocity on September 11
against the United States, but “We’re at war. we have to accept
collateral damage. What else can we do?" I heard a 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 have lived
here for 35 years I have never lost track of what is going on
there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks
from where I am 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 and Washington, D C.
I agree that something must be done about those monsters.
But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They are 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 is not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do
with this, 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 Afghanis
tan — a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of
widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in
massjgraves. The soil is littered with landmines; 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. Somebody already did all that. New bombs would only stir
the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban?
Not likely.
BOB GALE
In today’s Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they
have the means to move around. They would 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 wheel
chairs. 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 have 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 with ground troops When people speak of
“having the belly to do what needs to be done,’’ they are 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 is much bigger than that folks. Because to get any
troops to Afghanistan, we would 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 am going? We are flirting with a world war between
Islam and the West. And guess what: that is Bin Laden’s
program. That is exactly what he wants. That is why he did this.
Read his speeches and statements. It is 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 is a billion people with nothing left to lose,
that’s even better from Bin Laden's point of view He is 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?
Tamin Ansary writes for Pacific News Service He was
once a writer for the famous now defunct Portland Scribe.
Columbian Cafe
LETTER TO MOM
1114 Marino Driva
Astoria. OR 97103
503-325-CAFE (2233)
Dear Mom
I am moved to respond to all these E-mails flying
around in response to the September 11 attack. So many
of those diatribes on nationalism, our flag, how tough we are
and how we’ll defeat terrorism and so on, are of ever less
relevance to my mind
It goes without saying that a serious attack and ongoing
threat to our security will not go unanswered But to dignify so
vile and despicable an enemy with so much rhetoric seems
somehow beneath humanity and wisdom I personally don’t need
the President or anyone else to try and froth things up so I'm
full of evil loathing for the evil enemy, those evil doers. And
spinning the whole business so I support bombing the hell out
of people and killing in the name of God, just seems like so
much crap and hot air, beneath human dignity.
Instead, I would say to any terrorist," I want to under
stand your mind, and if there is a shred of legitimate basis
to your bitch, your hatred, this shall be addressed humanely,
thoughtfully and responsibly But destroying people's lives
and their property or any uncivilized behavior cannot, and will
not be tolerated. Those responsible for such acts will be held
accountable, totally and completely. Whatever your concerns
may be, however valid some may even be, there is no room in
today’s world for uncivilized acts of terror, and for which there
will be zero tolerance.
Frankly, I’m just not sure much else really needs to be
said. In spite of greatness and great deeds our country is about,
a clear study of the facts, our history, all of it, often -- and some
would say too often --- betrays our kindness, our goodness;
however well meaning or intended, we are culpable.
Much has happened to instigate tremendous ill will,
hatred and disrespect for us from others, of which much
continues and precipitates more problems on top of the hatred
We must realize this for what it is, the symptoms and sources,
not just attempt to cut out the problem like a cancer for it will
grow back.
We are one with our world, like it or not. We should not
and cannot bully our way, behave irresponsibly independent, or
exercise unfair advantage over others We must be consistent
In our word and actions as we profess lofty ideals of liberty and
justice for all
We must understand others better, and know we are
one Nothing separates us Not self-righteous perceptions,
not distance or barriers, certainly not God, and not even our
indignation and disdain of others
We are one and we damn well better ourselves be a
shining example of all that we extol if we expect to be affective
with the rest of the world Anything less will be at our peril
-RICHARD JOHNSON
BIPOLAR DOGMATA
THE GENESIS OF TERROR
It all begins with the “traditional family’ unit,
the mother the father the child
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Not the ideal’ family, whatever percentage
of all families that might be, but the
not-ideal family, the dark side, non-family family
of the fucking, the fighting, the verbal acid
and the accidental child
This is the sacrifice child of the formerly
sacrifice child parents, who learned
fucking and fighting and verbal acid and the
corrosion of non-love of and for their own being
from the first breath
of their pre-poisoned world
These are Bipolar Dogmata terrorists
Being made.
Domestic terrorism is the first kind of all terrorism
And Bipolar Dogmata is the consequence
And cause
Of the Last Hungry Child
Q.E.D.
-VALERIE LINDHOUT
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