Quote from Forum Archives on September 19, 2001, 9:18 pm

Posted by: amazinggraze <amazinggraze@...>

I received this same letter from someone with this at the beginning....

The author of the following perspective, Tamim Ansary, is a writer of
*marvelous* children's and educational books with whom I have been
corresponding. He is an American citizen who moved to this country from
Afghanistan in 1966--- and he is a strong opponent of Osama Bin Laden. I
thought his view was an important one for us to hear about.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike & Dana" <mestes@tnweb.com>
To: "AHomesteadersHeaven" <HomesteadHeaven@welovegod.org>; "angelfluff"
<afdc@angelfluff.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 6:59 PM
Subject: [HomeSteadHeaven] Re: original from an Afghani-American writer.

> The writer of this is a friend of my pastor, Mark Dillon. Mark went to
> Afghanistan on a missionary trip with this man a couple of years ago (I
> think). Anyway, I consider it a reliable source, so I'm sending it on to
> you.
>
> Dana
>
>
> > > FYI...another perspective....
> > >
> > > This is an interesting article from an Afghan writer. GC
> > > An interesting message by an ex-Afghani
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Dear Friends,
> > > The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim nsary.
> > > Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one f
> > > the most brilliant people I know in this life. When
> > > he writes, I read. When he talks,I listen. Here is his
> > > take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in.
> > > * Gary T.> Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
> > > 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 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. 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 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'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? Bin Laden does.
> > > Anyone else?
> > >
> > > Tamim Ansary
> > >
> > > ____________________________
> > > Karen Mason
> > > Director, Gender and Development
> > > PREM Anchor, MC4-431/MSN MC4-400
> > > The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW
> > > Washington, DC 20433
> > > Tel 202/473-4966 Fax 202/522-3237
> > > www.worldbank.org/gender
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > __________________________________________________
> > > Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help?
> > > Donate cash, emergency relief information
> > > dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>
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