On Thu, 06 Dec 2001 21:21:33  
 A. wrote:
I'm not sure this is all "wartime propaganda".  After all the
Afghan woman themselves, while decrying the American bombing,
still tell horror stories about what the Taliban does.  Just
because the Americans are assholes doesn't mean the Taliban
aren's as well!
.

Let us be logical.

The purpose of the report was to enlighten the American reader of
the worst of the Taliban excesses.  If these were only mid-level
excesses in torture, murder, and oppression, the reporters should
have stayed home and let others tell the story.

I have invited you to examine the logic of the report, and
consider it against the background of your own kowledge of human
events.

According to the story, women risked torture and death by stoning
for violating Taliban laws.  That part is believable -- many
countries practice the death penalty, including the United
States.  And a number even practice torture, including the United
States, Israel, various Latin American countries, and the Soviet
Union.  So why not Afghanistan?

Now let us consider the crimes these women committed, and why they
risked these harsh penalties.  Were they taking addictive drugs?
Gambling for high-stake riches in crime?  Plotting seditious
revolution?

No, none of those things.

Were they advocating liberty?  Reading banned literature that
promoted liberty?  Were they teaching a banned religion?  Were
they practicing forbidden medical practice?

No, they were not doing that either.

What were these women willing to risk torture and death for?
"Lipstick, bracelets, compact cases, perfume, nail polish,
hair-clips, even shiny black handbags," wrote the reporters.

In all of human history, was there ever a group of humans more
brave over a purpose more foolish?  Is this even marginally
believable?

What must the lives of these women have been like?  I wonder if
they had indoor plumbing, basic sanitation, sufficient balanced
food, pharmaceuticals, medical care, and a low infant mortality
rate.  I wonder if their streets were free of crime, if they were
able to get justice for grievances.  The pictorials of Afghani
cities consistently describe ruined cities from prolonged war,
fields full of land mines, and families marred by wartime deaths.

The pictorials also show young children laboring to provide a
pitiful family income and produce the necessities of life.

But what do the women risk torture and death for?  Why,
"Lipstick, bracelets, compact cases, perfume, nail polish,
hair-clips, even shiny black handbags," wrote the reporters.

And: "For six years, women from the neighbouring flats secretly
visited [a Moscow-trained beautician]".  A speak-easy beauty
parlor?  Please!  This story is tailor-made for daytime TeeVee
watchers to whom shiny black shoes and handbags are the bread of
life.  If indeed those were the only deprivations suffered by
these people, they were in the top 10% of the world's wealthy.

You must ask yourself, Why are these clumsy liars sent to
Afghanistan to invent fantastic "atrocities"?  Have they no real
atrocities to report?

That is a question I leave to your excellent powers of reason.

But there is one other point in your words I must take issue with:

The United States is in Afghanistan supposedly to handle a
terrorism problem, not a shiny black handbag problem.  The US
went into Afghanistan because the Taliban asked for evidence of
bin Ladin's crimes abroad so they could hold an extradition
hearing.  The US demanded extradition without evidence.  That is
the historical basis of the US invasion of Afghanistan.

To retaliate for the Afghani effrontery (now termed a "war
crime"), the US has killed thousands of Afghanis with cluster
bombs, fuel-air bombs, and other aerial deliveries.  They have
further ruined what little was left of the cities, villages, and
the essential things that sustain life.

The bombing will eventually cause the death of tens of thousands
people, possibly hundreds of thousands.  We will never know the
number because the only people allowed to return reports are
telling fantastic tails to justify NATO atrocities, and they
obviously have little interest in the truth.

When the Taliban soldiers and government officials surrender,
they are mass-murdered with machine guns in front of US soldiers, 
or while in prison, bombed by US planes.

With those facts at your disposal, I think your statement that
"Americans are assholes" is worse than weak.  It is ultimately
non-factual.  The simple fact is that Americans are war
criminals.

>From today's newspaper, we learn that the Afghanis are smiling
and dancing in the streets because they are allowed to buy pinup
pictures of nude women, again.  Soon they will have bikinis, sex
toys, and all the prizes of Ultimate Liberty from Hollywood
Boulevard..

We also read the poppy fields are already coming back into
production, now that the evil Taliban is gone.

Meanwhile, I would lose my job if I posted a nude pinup on the
wall of my office, and I would go to prison if caught in
possession of a single poppy flower.

If someone were looking for the Great Satin but could find
only the US government -- surely they would not be disappointed.

J