And then we dropped Afghanistan like a hot potato and went into Iraq. We never finished there. Not only are they not a democracy, but they are the world's #1 supplier of opium, it's their cash crop, paid by peasants to the war lords in exchange for favors and largesse, like weddings. The war lords fight one another. The country is one huge Mafia. The Soviets had managed to keep the narcotics down (they didn't need drugs on their border) but the Soviets were driven out. I suspect that one of the reasons Russia is riddled with AIDS may be because of the drugs that come in through Afghanistan. Also the social upheaval of 70 years of Communism and of the Cowboy Capitalism promoted by the U.S. after the collapse of the SU (money became worthless while the oligarchs carved up the country; no wonder Putin is so popular). I'm not even sure why we're still in Afghanistan except to try to keep it relatively stable, and fail. It's become the forgotten war. Early on in the war i n Iraq it became clear that Afghanistan was the model for what Iraq was turning into. But, democracy was on the march ... ----- Original Message ----- From: Carol Kirschenbaum To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 8/11/2006 12:57:13 AM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A Movie [longish] >But it >never happened. It's too bad. Early detection, early response. ck: You forgot. We bombed the hell out of Afghanistan asap. Carol ----- Original Message ----- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 5:34 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A Movie [longish] <<We can't go on like this. If nothing else, the whole world is going to die of PTSD donchaknow!!!>> Amen. Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj:[lit-ideas] Re: A Movie [longish] Date:8/10/06 2:44:21 P.M. Central Daylight Time From:pas@xxxxxxxx To:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent on: >Simon Says: Just how many would that be? The 300 million is not MY number. Perhaps I should have taken my own advice and quoted. I'm sorry, but I've heard that between 10-20% of muslims are what Ireney would term "radical". Since there are something like 1.2-1.3 billion, some people were putting the top possible as "as many as 300 million". Of course I'm not advocating the mass slaughter of 300 million people. Don't be silly. >What you should be concerned with is not the inciters (we have enough of >those in the west), but rather why it is that the rest would feel the need >to listen to them and take them seriously. To my mind, that 'why' is >concerned with how the west is perceived which in turn is shaped by how >the west acts. That's interesting too: the psychological necessity for half the western democracies' populations to look inwardly and say "we MUST have deserved this hatred... because why else would they hate us?" I thought myself one of those people, but my inclination has been tipping towards "no, they just hate us because they are bred to hate." I don't think the "WEST" has done anything even approaching what they propose to do and evidently would do if they had the wherewithal to do it. And I'm not even pissed off about the terrorist attacks. Of course they are horrible and when hundreds and thousands of "innocent" people die, it's bad, but it's not that they have bombed, NY, D.C., London, Spain, Bali, Morocco, Israel etc. etc. it's their obvious, concerted effort to continue and never surrender no matter what we do. For some reason, they have made up their minds to kill us all. I can't think of a single act, or even a group of acts that 'the west' has perpetrated that could warrant that kind of retributive fervor. It'd be very easy to see if it were true, we accede to all their demands and then see if they keep boming the shit out of us. My bet is that they might take it easy for a while, but then they would resume. Another little 'experiment' would be to give them a nuclear weapon... then when they use it, we would at least have 'just cause'. Really, I'm not fooling here... at least I'm trying to think of a solution. We can't go on like this. If nothing else, the whole world is going to die of PTSD donchaknow!!! >It comes back to whether you believe, as a result of US and UK actions >after 9/11, the number of muslim fundamentalists has grown or subsided. >Though I can't know myself, I would imagine that of all those people >arrested this morning, the vast majority would never have dreamt of taking >part in such a plan before 9/11 So... let's get this straight, 19 terrorists blow up downtown newyork and kill 3000 people living their daily life and it's The West's fault that there are MORE fundies? All the more reason to hit back harder, faster. My VERY FIRST thought on Tues, Sept 11 at 9:15 when, for some reason I turned on CNN was "Oh, man, someone is going to get their ass kicked." But it never happened. It's too bad. Early detection, early response. >or before the Iraqi invasion. This makes much more sense, since at least The West DID perpetrate that. paul ########## Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Kingsville, ON, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html