An open letter to Terrorists

Fellow 'files-
I received this email today (friend of a friend, etc.). No idea about the original source, but it bears reading and thinking about.

Dear Friends,
The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one of 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

As I said, just think about this a little. And remember that revenge is dish best served cold.

piezo has the only comments that make complete sense, imo. anyone clamoring for war should remember what einstein said: i dunno about www-lll, but ww-iv will be fought w/sticks.

and, i'm also really sick of palestinians in israel suiciding themselves, being compared to the terrible act visited upon the usa last week. the palestinians are at war, fighting for a homeland, w/the only means awailable to them. if the usa really wants to put a stop to terrorism - and this is yust the beginning, not the end - it wood do well to "urge" israel to make a real land-for-peace offer - one that yasser arafat can accept w/o fear of assassination. jews, of all people, should be able to understand the importance of a people having their own homeland - i should know - i, too, am a jew.

the palestinians and israelis making peace, w/the palestinians having a homeland of their own, wood go a long way towards helping take the wind out of the sails of those who support the kinds of terrorist acts that took place in the usa on 11 sept 2001. this is the reality, folks...

dug seed in

ps - personally, i tink a good way to solve the israel/palestine land-for-peace sticking point - that of the old city of jerusalem - wood be to not let either palestine *or* israel have it. instead, kick the u.n. outta nyc - the usa doesn't deserve to have it here anyway - and let the u.n. set-up & take over east jerusalem - make it an open city for the entire world...

Some very interesting and valid points in the above posts. I'm a bit of a pessimist, so this should be considered in light of my following comments.

First, let me state that in no way do I support or tolerate any act of harassment or violence against Americans who follow the teachings of Islam. It disgusts me to see ignorant, stupid Americans acting out against others simply because of their appearance or religious beliefs. If I saw or had knowledge of such acts and their perpetrators, I would inform the police and demand prosecution.

America, through some less than sterling foreign policy decisions over the last 50 years combined with being the nation at the top of the heap so to speak, has become the primary target of the Muslim fundamentalist extremists. Regrettably, it is the moderate Muslims which have no desire to wage terrorist activities that must stand up and start taking responsibility for policing their extremist groups.

I know this may raise some eyebrows. However, for there to be any hope of avoiding a future "holy war" of Muslim vs. the West, the Muslim faith as a whole must be willing to act against these violent extremist cells to protect their faith, and improve and preserve the world opinion of their religion.

The Muslim faith is the fastest growing religion in the world. Their faith is based on peace, just as Judeo-Christian beliefs. However, their extremist's embrace of suicide attacks has tainted their entire religion. They are increasingly distrusted and feared because of the propensity for violence from the extremist elements.

Nearly all religions have extremists and some of them tend to violence against non-believers, other ethnic groups or governments. Even America's own Neo-Nazi and KKK use religion to help justify their twisted beliefs and violence. Violence from religious extremists isn't new. The early Christians were horribly violent as displayed during the Crusades. However, in general, the Christian faiths have grown beyond their narrow fanaticism and understood the need to include and not exclude, as well as tolerate to some degree, those of differing opinions.

It is time that the Muslim faith speak as one concerning denouncing all violent extremists within their belief structure, and ACT against these groups. If they wish to be perceived by the world as a truly great religion, worthy of respect rather than fear and distrust, then they must change how they tolerate and even condone the violent acts of their fanatics.

America hasn't faced an enemy which we couldn't "understand" since the time of the French-Indian Wars. It took the frontier settlers to become more violent and horrific than their enemy in order to survive.

Unfortunately, I believe we are in a similar situation. We must not think that our enemy is motivated by reason or rational considerations. Nor should we be misguided to think that we should "occupy" any targetted area. We don't want another Vietnam, or from the Soviet's perspective, another Afghanistan. We are quite simply on a search and destroy mission.

Though Afghanistan is the primary focus currently, it is Pakistan which put the Taliban in power and supplies them with intelligence, arms and cooperation. It is the extreme religious schools in Pakistan that warped the minds of the young soldiers of the Taliban and continue to create human timebombs.

This may be the beginnning of what could lead to the next world war. Attempting to hit "hot spots" throughout a dozen countries could provide the catalyst for a Muslim "jihad" unless the moderate Muslim world acts in cooperation with the West, or more preferrably, acts in their own best interests to weed out these groups.

America won't disappear and we certainly won't go down without a fight. Unfortunately, we are dealing with countries that have been in war or conflict for generations. There is no fear of conventional weapons. Ask the Soviets how effective their conventional weapons were to the Afghanistan campaign. From a world history perspective, only Japan has experienced the total annihilation and devastation of atomic weapons. Regrettably, if that is what is necessary to provide the incentive to the many countries involved with producing, training, supplying and harboring terrorists that this will no longer be tolerated, then use them now before more lives, including American lives, are lost.

There are no easy answers in war. Make no mistake, we are at war for our very way of life. The fundamentalist extremists will not stop. They will continue to target America until they fear the retribution of their own people. What will produce the necessary change in the Muslim dominated countries other than the demonstrated resolve of total annihilation? Can we survive as a nation for the next 100 or 200 years under continued terrorist assault until the Muslim countries as a whole have "matured" to the point where they are willing to police their own fanatics? At present, I hear words of condolence, but see no substantive action to support any other course of action.

As always, just one man's opinion.

Jcbtubes, the Muslim faith is based on peace. God bless every peace loving Muslim, such as Muhammed Ali (nee Cassius Clay) speaking today in NYC. History is replete with examples of evil doers invoking one of the names of God to justify their inhuman acts. Don't judge Islam by the acts of maniacs who invoke that faith any more than you would judge Christianity by the acts of the Ku Klux Klan, Falwell or any of a number of recent Republican ideologs. There is a simple commandment: don't use the name of the Lord for your own purpose, to curry favor or win votes, or justify killing people (God is not offended by dirty words).

Doug: what a great idea. Jerusalem as the seat of the United Nations.

Lots of emotion expressed. And justly so. I, for one, can identify with Doug's words. Maybe because I know where he's coming from.

What if the West sent "terrorist vulnerable" muslim countries the fleet carrying $10 bill. of food & medical supplies and $10 bill. in active military equip. What do you think say, Afghans (they, too, are humans), whould choose? Where would gung-ho extremists get popular support from then (assuming they actually do get support now)?