OT: War Bill, write your congress......

[dmm]

Notice how the Pakistani leader doesn't say things like:
1) The bombing was wicked, a sin against Allah, and would still have been so even if only adult Americans had been killed.
2) We need to do all that we can to bring bin Laden to justice because it is the morally correct thing for us to do, as an Islamic country. No bribe from the US is necessary or wanted.
3) If the Taliban are trying to protect bin Laden, then we should have never befriended them. If they are unable to do the right thing because bin Laden is too powerful, then we should use Muslim troops to liberate them.

My question is:
When will we start hearing things like the above spoken loudly and forcefully from prominent Muslim leaders outside of the West?

[dogscoff]

QUOTE:
If the Afghan people do not force their government to hand over bin Laden's entire organization, then they are NOT innocent bystanders.
/QUOTE

Just ignorant ones. TV is Banned in Afghanistan. Radios are rare. I don't know about newspapers (or what the levels of literacy are) but I shouldn't think they're too liberal. Add to that the fact that most afghanistanis are too busy starving to death to worry about America or NATO or Bin Laden or getting bombed...

They've had about 30 years of war and 3 years of drought, can you blame them for being disinterested in international politics?

I don't know if it's true, but I heard that something like a quarter of aghanistanis are expected to die of starvation by Christmas.

Don't want to flame anyone with this post, but I really do feel the Afghanistani population are getting a rough deal here. We've had enough misery.

------------------
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Go to my meagre SEIV pages to generate your own code.

[Captin]

Agreed, as in most countries like this, there is a difference between the population in general and the nutzo ruling party.

[arthurtuxedo]

Which is why I think we should assassinate their leaders and topple their governments, but not wage a ground war or engage in large scale bombing.

[Phoenix-D]

What you've asked for basiclly requires a ground war. In war, of any sort, civilains get hurt. The only difference is in how many.. and this type of war is very, very messy.

Phoenix-D

[dmm]

Sorry for quoting myself, but you'll see why.

quote:

---

Originally posted by dmm:
Notice how the Pakistani leader doesn't say things like:
EDITED OUT TO SAVE SPACE. SEE MY ORIGINAL MESSAGE BELOW.

My question is:
When will we start hearing things like the above spoken loudly and forcefully from prominent Muslim leaders outside of the West?

---

Three cheers for the Saudis!!! They, at least, have finally had the guts to do the right thing, in public. See this NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/in...5CND-STAN.html

I was very encouraged by this, and I hope that many other Muslim countries (and clerics in those countries) will follow suit. In a situation like this, I would love to have to eat crow.

[Suicide Junkie]

That NYT site requires a login now.
Too much trouble to create a spam account for that kind of thing. Would you mind quoting the relevant text?

[dmm]

Here's the beginning of the article to which I was referring:

From the NYTimes, 25 September 2001

Saudi Arabia Cuts Ties With Taliban
By JOHN F. BURNS with CHRISTOPHER S. WREN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 25 � Saudi Arabia announced today that it had broken relations with Afghanistan because of the ruling Taliban's insistence on supporting "criminals and terrorists."

An official statement issued through the Saudi Press Agency said the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was severing diplomatic ties because "the Taliban have ignored all of the contacts and the attempts by the kingdom to persuade them to stop harboring criminals and terrorists and training them and inciting them and making its land a refuge and haven for them."

The Afghan people's fight for independence � an allusion to their violent resistance to Soviet occupation � had earned their country "a special status" in the hearts of those who championed the right of nations to be free and independent, the Saudi announcement said.

It charged that "the Taliban have used that special status for Afghanistan not for building the ties of brotherhood and for building and development and enforcing the lofty aims which Islam represents, but have made its land a center for attracting, training and recruiting a number of gullible men from different lands, especially citizens of the kingdom, in order to carry out criminal acts that violate all faiths and creeds."

The Taliban, it added, was "continuing to reject handing over those criminals to justice." Such behavior by the Taliban, it said, was "defaming Islam and defaming Muslims' reputation in the world."

The statement did not specifically mention Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born terrorist leader wanted in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Mr. bin Laden has lived in Afghanistan since 1996 under the protection of the Taliban, which refused to hand him over and now claims not to know where he is.

"In spite of what happened and what is happening," the Saudi statement said, "the Taliban government is still continuing to use its land to harbor, arm and encourage those criminals in carrying out terrorist attacks that horrify those who live in peace and the innocent and spread terror and destruction in the world." An English translation of the announcement was carried by the Associated Press.

.... the article continues with other stuff ....

[Baron Munchausen]

quote:

---

Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
That NYT site requires a login now.
Too much trouble to create a spam account for that kind of thing. Would you mind quoting the relevant text?

---

No, you can get around the login. They are just trying to track their readership with the login. You can access the information directly if you want to. Change "www.nytimes.com" to "ARCHIVE.nytimes.com" and you get direct access without the hassle. The archive seems to be updated as quickly as the main site.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 26 September 2001).]