Re: Fw: (no subject)

["Beth Gunn" <happyhoofprints@hotmail.com>]

Dawn,
Thank you for your post.  I, for one, am trying so hard to educate myself
somewhat on this conflict.  This letter really makes me feel for those of
Arabian, Moslem, Afghanistan, Isreal, Pakistan sp?, etc. hope I didn't leave
anyone out:)  Blame it on "elementary student:) who are trying to hack it
out in their own country or who migrate to US in an honest attempt to get
past this hatred and build a life here.
The terrorists have zero love of or for life.   No sympathy there.
Beth Gunn

----- Original Message -----
From: Robyn Levash <questarabians@inreach.com>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 12:47 AM
Subject: RC: Fw: (no subject)


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Horsenana@aol.com>
> To: <gmashley@bigfoot.com>; <BAllen4819@aol.com>; <NOTTARANCH@aol.com>;
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> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 4:42 PM
> Subject: (no subject)
>
>
> >
> > My daughter, Elizabeth, sent me this.  Well worth reading.  Kathy
> >
> > The following comes from Tamim, a writer and columnist in San Francisco.
> > Incidentally, Tamin is originally from Afghanistan. It is a very well
> thought
> > out, rational and thought provoking commentary. In  light of Tuesdays
> tragedy
> > and the unthinkable idea of what is yet to come I thought I should share
> this
> > with as many people as possible.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Dawn
> >
> >
> > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> > * * * * * * *
> >
> >
> > 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 deeply hates the Taliban and Osama
> > Bin Laden. My
> > hatred
> >
> > comes from first hand experience. 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 would not 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?
> >
> > Unfortunately, Bin Laden does. Anyone else?
> >
> >
> > In Peace,
> >
> >
> > Tamim Ansary
> >
>
>
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