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I've spent some time working in third world countries and trust me when I tell you that the 117 million dollars in aid given is unrelated to the former government that was overthrown by the current regime. The money we have given is for humanitarian efforts which is clearly laudible. However, that does not in any way change that once the soviets were thrown back we lost our interest in Afghanistan which allowed the current extremists to move in. I don't mean to imply that we in some way brought this on ourselves. I fear my point was missed so I'll state it explicitly: The Taleban does not consist of a bunch of men who fought valiantly to throw back the soviets. Durning the war their involvement was almost entirely limited to being money men.

 

I trust that you have a greater knowledge of the area than I do, but I don't quite understand.

The Taliban seem to number far and away more men than could possibly have been "money men" in a country like Afghanistan. Even if you're just referring to their leaders -- well, it seems that they drew a lot of the lower class people to them. Surely some of them were those who fought the Russians?

 

Our world has suddenly become a smaller place, and the freedom that we enjoy has been compromised. I don't know what to think these days. My rational side tells me that an all out attack by America might only make things worse. Terrorist attacks, the killing of innocents, political support of terrorist groups - it all has to be stopped, but how? and at what cost?
The enemy we deal with and the countries that harbour them have a totally different way of thinking, one that we can not possibly understand. How do you punish a group of people that would willingly die for their cause? Attacking them and killing them would only gain temporary peace of mind, but it would probably only strengthen the hatred felt towards Americans, fueling the fire for the next attack.

I also think of those innocent people who were killed and it makes me sick. I try to imagine how I would feel if that were my wife on one of the airplanes, or if it was my brother working at the World Trade Center. Politics and human rights be damned. You can try to justify or explain these attacks any way you like, it still doesn't change the shear evilness of the act. If only to ease the minds of people who lost loved ones, I think we have to hunt down and destroy the people who are responsible. After this has been accomplished, let the political jousting commence.

 

Sir Bel... we should stoop to their level? Use their own tactics against them? What does it matter if we defeat the enemy, if in the process we have become them?

 

This planet is strange. I have tried to take same stand as Arkados and put myself as an alien monitoring earth: this is what I see:

Religious war in North Ireland
Religious war in middle east
Religious war in Rwanda
Religious war in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Religious war in Sudan
Religious war in Côte d'Ivoire
Religious war in Cyprus
Religious war in India
Religious war in Indonesia, province of Ambon
Religious war in Indonesia, East Timor
Religious war in Kashmir
Religious war in Kurdistan
Religious war in Nigeria
Religious war in Sri Lanka
Religious war in Tibet

And I got lost in space. Religion in its present state doesn't seem to foster good deeds in the eyes of someone watching earth from space. I dont really think I am making a point other that humanity is in pain. And I hope something will be done to start curing it.

I hope that starts with US. I support any tactics that does not involve mindless bombing. In particular I agree with the progress Rendelius suggests in an other post.