A political page
I am collecting links about the war in Afghanistan. An inveterate Web surfer, this is where I surf these days...I hope I can stop- SOON.
This is the archive for 2001.
"When people decry civilian deaths caused by the U.S government, they're aiding propaganda efforts. In sharp contrast, when civilian deaths are caused by bombers who hate America, the perpetrators are evil and those deaths are tragedies. When they put bombs in cars and kill people, they're uncivilized killers. When we put bombs on missiles and kill people, we're upholding civilized values. When they kill, they're terrorists. When we kill, we're striking against terror."
It is a condition of Truth to allow suffering to speak. ... Applying this notion of Truth to the war on terrorism requires that we listen carefully and compassionately to those who have suffered the most in its wake - the survivors and family members of the victims
Yup, Phil's daughter.
On the basis of secret evidence, the government accuses a non-citizen of connections to terrorism, and holds him in prison for three years. Then a judge conducts a full trial and rejects the terrorism charges. He releases the prisoner. A year later government agents rearrest the man, hold him in solitary confinement and state as facts the terrorism charges that the judge found untrue.Could that happen in America? In John Ashcroft's America it has happened.
Under Bush, the U.S. doesn't just ignore issues of women's equality around the world, it gets in the way. Which leads me to think that the administration's campaign for justice for Afghan women is more propaganda than commitment and, in the long run, won't amount to a hill of beans.
Ten days after victory was declared in the Afghan war, real life continues to make a mockery of such triumphalism in the cruellest way. As American B-52 bombers pound Taliban diehards around Kandahar and Kunduz, tens of thousands of refugees are streaming towards the Pakistani border and chaotic insecurity across the country is hampering attempts to tackle a fast-deteriorating humanitarian crisis.
Thanksgiving can be a time for heartwork. Let us speak from the heart before we eat, after we eat. When we go back to work let us work from the heart. Let us be a country that acts from our heart, lives from our heart year-round. Then maybe more people outside America can give thanks for us.
Calls for an early end to the bombing campaign and for all parties to collaborate with the international community to discern non-violent means that may be available by which to bring to justice those who terrorize the nations of the world.
Urges the United States to play a constructive role within the framework of the UN in establishing institutions of a post-war Afghan government that are broadly based, respectful of their traditions and acceptable to the people of Afghanistan.
"Strike against terror" is a misleading expression. What we are striking against is not the real cause or the root of terror. The object of our strike is still human life. We are sowing seeds of violence as we strike. Striking in this way we will only bring about more hatred and violence into the world. This is exactly what we do not want to do.
Freedom and liberty have assumed different meanings in the US and the Third World. The bombing of Afghanistan is justified by the US in the name of these high principles. Yet when the Taliban attempted to portray the plight of suffering Afghans through their single media outlet, Al Jazeera TV, the US urged Qatar to suppress the TV station. This was despite the fact that, less than a year ago, the same Al Jazeera was lauded by the US as a beacon of democracy and free speech in the Middle East.
In short, it makes little sense to continue the current bombing campaign or to send American ground forces into Afghanistan. The best available strategy for the United States is to use the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November, as an excuse to halt the bombing campaign and pursue a different strategy.
Take all American women who are within five years of menopause - train us for a few weeks, outfit us with automatic weapons, grenades, gas masks, moisturizer with SPF15, Prozac, hormones, chocolate, and canned tuna - drop us (parachuted, preferably) across the landscape of Afghanistan, and let us do what comes naturally.
President Bush's 'you are either with us or against us' edict, issued after the tragic events of September 11, has quickly cross-pollinated from the battlefield against terrorism to a much broader global arena. If this is the beginning of a massive new global push to eradicate poverty and the causes of poverty, then Christian Aid welcomes it with a passion. But if it becomes a new way to impose the economic will of rich countries on poor countries, which are weakening even further as the global economy falters, it must be resisted.
Opinions expressed here are personal and do not reflect the views of Planetcad.
Copyright © Pierre Malraison All rights reserved.
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