Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 14:55:01 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Re: Why Throw Americans Out of Middle East... by Taliban


while i agree with everything in this post
and find the taliban scary
i dont believe that u.s. bombings are quite the answer!



On Fri, 4 Sep 1998, pons wrote:

>
> I can't allow the rantings of the Taliban to pass without comment. While I
> intensely dislike the Israeli PM and his shocking, criminal policy towards
> Palestinians, I don't think the cause of justice is in any way advanced by
> the Taliban's hate-mongering.
> The article smacks of paranoia ('a deep, well-planned conspiracy against
> Islam and the Islamic world'), and is pervaded by an intolerant sense of
> superiority (cf. reference to Saudi Arabia's 'superiority over the rest of
> the countries of the world') which is quite naturally accompanied by
> strident racism (cf. references to 'the cunning and dirty Jews, the bigoted
> Christians' and 'the foul-smelling, dirty Kufar' - i.e. Americans).
> I don't find the article's moral very inspiring: 'the Jews and the
> Christians are your worst and eternal enemies, don't make friends of them=2E'
> All of this is a recipe for disaster - for the continuation of hatred and
> mindless violence. Is this what  the world really needs?
> I find what the Taliban are doing (especially to women) deeply repulsive.
> Nor does their complicity with terrorists endear them to me. What about all
> the innocent victims who were killed and maimed in Nairobi and
> Dar-es-Salaam? There can be no justification for the massacre of civilians,
> which is condoned by Bin Laden (and presumably by his Taliban friends).
> Faced with such acts of war, the US had no choice but to retaliate. Not
> very pretty, to be sure, but what else can be done when you're dealing with
> people who regard Westerners as 'eternal enemies' ? Grin and bear it?
> The Taliban's own fanaticism will be their undoing in the end - and,
> especially for the sake of Afghan women, I hope that end is not too far awayProf. Xavier Pons
> Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail (France)
> pons-AT-univ-tlse2.fr
>
>
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