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Tom,

I think we lose sight of history.  Afghanistan was caught in the Cold 
war between the Soviet Union and the US. Eisenhower was the first US 
president to offer aid to Afghanistan as a wedge in the region against 
the Russians. Afghanistan provided a land wedge between our long time 
ally Pakistan to the South and the Soviet Republics of to the North.

With the fall of the pro US Government in Iran Afghanistan took on even 
greater strategic geo-political importance for the US.  When the Soviets 
invaded Afghanistan in '79 then President Jimmy Carter saw no option but 
to act. He withdrew the US from the Moscow Olympics and many of our 
European allies followed suit.  He also put into place a covert 
operation to provide military aid, military training to the Afghan 
"Mujahid" to fight the Russians.

Part of the strategy was to train the Afghan's to hate the Russians - 
actually not all that difficult. The US CIA tapped a young fellow named 
Osama BinLaden to aid them. The CIA provided all the educational 
material used in the schools to instill the desire on the part of the 
Afghans to throw out the Russian invaders. The CIA trained a young Bin 
Laden and his lieutenants how to train insurgents. Much of what you see 
used on us today in the insurgent warfare is right out to our playbook. 
What President Carter put into motion worked quite well as the Russians 
had to withdraw from Afghanistan in defeat. Maybe it worked too well :-( .

However, we had in the process built a huge network in Afghanistan that  
would come back to later haunt us when Al Qaeda spun off of the Mujadid. 
With the US invasion of Iraq in '92, Desert Storm, they turned their ire 
toward the US and as they say the rest is history, they turned the 
educational material we provided them to target the Soviets to target 
the US. the first World Trade Center bombing in '93, the SS Cole and 
finally the World Trade Center in 2001.

Of course the killing of innocent folks at the WTC is not justified, 
however, all incidents in history need to be put into a historical 
context. The history of human conflict is that peace is never attained 
until all parties are willing to step to the middle of the room, see the 
world from each others eyes and compromise.

I for one feel that no offering of an Olive Branch - no matter how small 
- should be ignored. To quote Jimmy Carter, "War may sometimes be a 
necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never 
a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each 
other's children."

Truman

Tom Sites wrote:
> There was a time when Russia was in Afghanistan and we supported Osama 
> because it was to our advantage, and he helped us "tear down that 
> wall".  I've seen diplomacy change over the years that our friends and 
> our enemies are interchangable.  Look at the Germans, the Japanese, 
> the Vietnamese and the Chinese....all our 'friends' now
>  
>  
> My son is now in training in the Va. National Guard for a tour in 
> Afghanistan.  If i can ride with the son of the Father of his enemy 
> and prevent his deployment i would do it.
>  
> Maybe this is a better ride for the Long Riders and CuChullaine 
> O'Reilly and not RC.  ts


--

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a 
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also 
into you.”  Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil


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