A Journey Into Afghanistan

Another refreshing insight.



Why the United States Will Lose this War September 2001

by Paul Glover

New York City and the Yankees deserve to win, for the sake of justice. Our flag and our people and music are beautiful and sexy-- we deserve to win. And our military is the most powerful sonofabitch on the planet.

But the United States will lose this war and spoil everybody`s fun, and here`s why.

Thanks to movies and books everyone remembers Pearl Harbor-- how we were jumped by Japs and how our righteous anger became ruthless military force, and we beat half the world.

That was America 60 years ago. That America was lean and rich. Today the United States is profoundly weak within. We`ve used up most domestic natural resources and have built tall brittle cities ready to collapse without being attacked by foreign psychos. Today making global war is like screaming at your dog while the house burns.

The problem is simple-- while fighting a major war abroad you`ve got to keep the home front alive too, right? Can`t be done in 2001. The United States will lose this war because, among other things, during the past sixty years we`ve burned 80% of our original domestic oil reserves and now depend on tankers from abroad. Nearly all our strategic industrial metals are imported.

Sixty years ago most Americans lived in comparatively energy-efficient cities connected by railways. Today nearly half our population are suburbanites helpless without their cars. Home heating has overshot regional supplies (coal, hydro, wind) to rely on a continental grid that`s already stretched to the breaking point. Today the average house is bigger, with five times more light bulbs and many more appliances. Pumping domestic water has become a huge fuel load.

Speaking of water, it`s pretty necessary for growing food, which soldiers and their families will demand. Feed my family or I won`t fight. Sixty years ago plentiful groundwater made drought more regional and remediable. Today the Midwest breadbasket, with far greater population, has significantly emptied the Oglalla aquifer, and rainfall patterns are generally more unreliable. Sixty years ago, despite Dust Bowl drought, topsoil nationally was generally deeper. Since then it`s been scraped and scalded by massive combines and poisons. And while there are now twice as many hungry American mouths, there remains a fraction of our former arable land per capita.

Worse, remember that back in 1941 most Americans knew how to grow and preserve food and most had access to garden space. They even knew how to hunt food, and there was plenty to shoot at. Endless forests teemed with wildlife. Today just 70% of forest cover and a trace of wetlands remain.

During the Big War, Americans were neighbors. City or farm, they knew the people around them. They relied on each other for child care and housework when sick or mourning. Family doctors even visited homes, for small fees. Today these informal safety networks have been vastly dissolved, while government has been dismantling official nets. When everyone was poor, people pulled together. Today unequal scarcity is likelier to inspire robbery, drug sales and rioting.

Sixty years ago, Americans knew how to make stuff and repair it. There was a manufacturing and labor base ready for war or peace. Today, Americans likelier know how to sell gifts and process data. Shoes come from Asia.

We even had real money in 1941, backed by hard silver and hard goods. Dollars today are backed by speculation, rusting industry and $5.5 trillion national debt. Sixty years ago, farmers and small businesses could get reasonable credit from bankers they knew well. Today money moves mechanically from small towns to big cities, and from there overseas. Sixty years ago, most workers did essential work and saved money for real needs. Today we`re a frantic consumer economy, earning pretend money principally doing pretend jobs to meet pretend needs.

Now the bad news. America is more militarily vulnerable than ever. Our 103 nuclear power plants are giant landmines each capable of killing millions when punched by a commuter jet. Cities like Los Angeles can be clobbered more completely than was New York, by blasting certain freeway intersections. Slam the right electric substations with crowbars to shut down power grids for months. Explode reservoirs to sink cities. Enemies don`t need armies or missiles any more.

And face it, when enough people hate America enough, putting the National Guard on every street corner is not going to prevent every attempt to spray schoolyards with machine guns. There will never be enough video cameras and bomb-sniffing dogs to catch every container of poison gas or anthrax thrown into subways or churches. Terror? We ain`t seen nothing yet.

Finally, we`ll lose this war because an article like this will be unpleasant to read and thus will be dismissed as unpatriotic. Rather than make difficult changes, it`s easier to censor people in the name of national security. Some un-Americans would require us to follow the wartime dictates of authorities who are oil executives rather than statesmen. When that happens we`re really screwed, because a public scared of speaking out will be a public scared of speaking at all. And a silent nation, timid as elevator riders, will be even easier to infiltrate and attack.

Maybe that`s what some prefer-- realizing that permanent war justifies permanent unquestioned dominance by military and industrial interests.

An empire can do a lot of damage as it flails deeper into quicksand. Wrapping ourselves in flags does not pull us free.

Rather, to win this war we`ll have to rebuild our cities, consolidate suburbs into villages, superinsulate and re-tool our housing, revive regional agriculture, decentralize enterprise and finance, revive rail, plug in the wind and sun, establish nonprofit safety nets, and get more excited about creating than consuming.

And when we`ve done so, we`ll have built an America fundamentally independent of foreign resources. When that is accomplished, we`ll have broken the spiral of oppression and hatred abroad, to welcome visitors who will respect us and be happy to return home. We won`t need war. We`ll provide a grand and decent future for our kids.

September 24, 2001

Glover is author of Ithaca Power

Founder of Citizen Planners,

Ithaca HOURS

and the Ithaca Health Fund.

He holds a degree in City Management.

ng insight.

``That`s what happened in 1993 when a certain Brigadier Kamal Alam that India would simply collapse after the Bombay mayhem. In the event, it turned out to be another Pearl Harbour``

I lived in Bombay then, I remember standing near Dadar TT when the first bomb went off at the Plaza cinema. I remember the people walking by clutching a handkerchief to their wounds. I still remember the blood on their shirts. I remember my mother crying on the phone once I finally got through. I still remember the rage I felt that day. The people who did this still live comfortable affluent lives. But how can we blame the Pakistanis when Sajjan Singh and Tytler still roam the streets as free men...

A ``journalist`` working for the local AM radio station was taken off the Gary Condit beat and sent to Phakhistan to report on Izlamic fundamentalists. His coverage provides some comic relief in these times of anxiety and stress.

Similarly, Aakar Patel took time off from covering the Khatri prostitutes and Pimp Khans of Bollywood to write about Afghanistan. The result is not even comical, its just plain pathetic.

So Aakar Patel wants us to believe that Babar was the grandson of Taimur, and Afghans love India, and monkeys can fly and cowurine has tremendous medicinal potential.

The author is a product of an educational system that teaches vedic astrology as science, and seems to have learnt his history from RSS schools where kids learn that Taj Mahal is actually Tejo Mehlo. But does he have to wear his khaki shorts over his head all the time, specially in Afghanistan??

Such claptrap can be only be expected from fanatical, fundamentalist Indians. I hope chowk staff will stop publishing articles from these bigots.

For those of you who don`t remember, Aakar Patel fired Farzana Versey from Midday when she wrote an article on chowk.com that criticized India, albiet mildly. He then wrote a post on chowk.com bragging about this great service to the nation that he had performed.

A ``journalist`` working for the local AM radio station was taken off the Gary Condit beat and sent to Phakhistan to report on Izlamic fundamentalists. His coverage provides some comic relief in these times of anxiety and stress.

Similarly, Aakar Patel took time off from covering the Khatri prostitutes and Pimp Khans of Bollywood to write about Afghanistan. The result is not even comical, its just plain pathetic.

So Aakar Patel wants us to believe that Babar was the grandson of Taimur, and Afghans love India, and monkeys can fly and cowurine has tremendous medicinal potential.

The author is a product of an educational system that teaches vedic astrology as science, and seems to have learnt his history from RSS schools where kids learn that Taj Mahal is actually Tejo Mehlo. But does he have to wear his khaki shorts over his head all the time, specially in Afghanistan??

Such claptrap can be only be expected from fanatical, fundamentalist Indians. I hope chowk staff will stop publishing articles from these bigots.

For those of you who don`t remember, Aakar Patel fired Farzana Versey from Midday when she wrote an article on chowk.com that criticized India, albiet mildly. He then wrote a post on chowk.com bragging about this great service to the nation that he had performed.

This is good!!!!

Top Ten Tips For Ambitious Indian Prime Ministers

Ayeda

10. Hijack your own airplanes when American airplanes get hijacked

9. Bomb your own buildings when American buildings get bombed

8. Spread Anthrax scare in your own country when Americans get Anthrax

7. Start vandalizing national Islamic architecture when mosques in America attacked

6. Conjure up domestic crises and declare them “acts of war”

5. Label everyone who disagrees with you a “terrorist”

4. Start beating up on own Muslim citizens when America does so

3. Start beating up on Muslim countries when America does so

2. Beg America to use your bases

1. When it doesn’t, shell your neighbors when visited by senior American officials

Baby Laden! There`s much in a name

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





Sao Paulo, Nov 2

An out-of-work Brazilian construction worker who used to live in Iraq and says he hates the United States is set to go to court to fight for the right to name his sixth child Osama bin Laden.

Oswaldo Oliveira`s son was born September 8 and after the September 11 terror strikes on the United States, the 46-year-old had no doubt what his son`s name should be: Osama bin Laden Feliciano de Oliveira Soares.

Authorities in Embu, just outside South America`s largest city, nixed Oliveira`s idea, arguing that the name could put the child in an uncomfortable situation for his entire life. ``That is what his name is going to be, because of the hatred my wife and I feel for Americans,`` said Oliveira who lived in Iraq for nine years working for a Brazilian construction company.

``I am not giving up on the name, and if they don`t give me permission to name my son that I am going to appeal to every authority possible,`` the father told local media. ``I am quite fond of Osama bin Laden. He is a good person and not the terrorist they say.``

The determined dad says if officials don`t change their tune, ``he will be baptized Mateus Oliveira Soares, but in my home he will always be known as Osama bin Laden``.

Much ado about a name is nothing new to Oliveira who also clashed with authorities after he tried to name another son Saddam Hussein Oliveira Soares

Just another day of Indian RAJ keeper defender of Bharat



TOP STORIES Saturday, November 03, 2001





SS

‘Mistaking’ him to be a militant, CRPF kills youth in Guwahati

SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, NOVEMBER 2: A scooter-borne youth was killed last night when a CRPF jawan, reportedly mistaking him for a militant, opened fire from close range after he refused to stop when flagged down at a police checkpoint on the Zoo Road here last night. The youth, identified as Samir Khan (21) was returning from sabe barat prayers.

Yesterday’s killing is believed to be a panic reaction to the killing of a CRPF jawan in the city on Tuesday and takes to 21 the toll of militancy-related deaths since Durga Puja.

The Birubari area of the city observed a spontaneous bandh today, the people demanding the immediate punishment of the CRPF jawan who killed Samir. Around 2,000 people, carrying anti-government placards, joined the procession that carried Samir’s body through major thoroughfares of the city.

A note issued by the Assam Police said a police picket posted on the Zoo Road saw six youths riding three motorcycles ‘‘moving in a suspicious manner’’. They were signalled to stop but one motorcycle continued, ‘‘coming in speed’’ towards the picket’’. ‘‘Seeing that there may be danger, the police party, in self-defence, fired one round towards the motorcycle’’, the note said.

The bullet hit Samir in his stomach and he was dead on arrival at Guwahati Medical College Hospital.CRPF officials here refused to comment on the incident. However, Samir’s friends claimed he had indeed stopped a few metres ahead of the police picket. ‘‘My friend and I were following Samir on another bike and clearly saw him stop just after passing the police picket, when he was shot from a close distance,`` said Arfat Alam.

The scene at Samir’s Birubari house was pathetic, with relatives failing to console Manowara Begum. Samir was her eldest child and only son; she, along with her husband and Samir’s three sisters, were waiting for him to return for dinner after the sabe barat prayers late in the night.







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© 2001: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world.

DELHI FORMULA FOR KABUL RULE



FROM PRANAY SHARMA



New Delhi, Nov. 2:

India has mooted a formula to replace the Six-Plus-Two Group on Afghanistan that has Islamabad as a key member but not Delhi.

According to the formula, members of the G-8 countries, along with Afghanistan’s neighbours — which, of course, includes Delhi — should be roped in to help install a broadbased, multi-ethnic and representative regime once the Taliban are toppled.

Sources said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who begins his three-nation visit from Sunday, will impress upon Moscow, Washington and London the need to expand the existing group to make it more relevant to the situation.

Foreign secretary Chokila Iyer told reporters the expansion of the Six-Plus-Two Group will be one of the topics of discussion between Vajpayee and the other leaders during his 10-day foreign trip. Besides the US and Russia, the group now has China, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan — which have borders with Afghanistan — as members.

Despite several meetings over the past few years, the group has not been able to bring about a regime in Kabul that could bring peace to the country, ravaged by years of war and ethnic rivalry. But Terror Tuesday and the subsequent American strikeback have thrown open the door to countries like India to be part of the decision-making set-up.

The Group of Eight — countries with the strongest economies — has the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada and Russia as its members. Neighbouring countries that India wants to be part of the new dispensation will definitely include almost all the six nations that have a border with Afghanistan and were part of the earlier group, sources said.

It is important for India to be part of a structure that is likely to play a key role in deciding the new political structure in post-conflict Afghanistan.

Delhi has always had strong ties with Kabul. But the first hiccup in its Afghan policy came in 1979, when Soviet troops invaded the country. A close ally of Moscow, India — though opposed to the Soviet move — decided to maintain a low profile, alienating Kabul from Delhi. The alienation was complete once the Taliban seized control in the mid-1990s.

US elite troops helicopter crashes





The Taleban says civilians are being bombed

A team of US special forces had to be rescued after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said it was one of two helicopters on a special operation inside Afghanistan, and was forced down by bad weather.

The crew of the downed aircraft are said to have been safely transferred to the second helicopter and taken out of Afghan territory.

According to a Pentagon official, F14 Tomcat fighters were sent from the USS Theodore Roosevelt to destroy the damaged helicopter.

The precise location of where the helicopter came down has not been disclosed.

It is the first time the US has admitted losing an aircraft since the military campaign began on 7 October.

At an earlier briefing, Pentagon officials said bad weather was hampering efforts to fly more special forces into Afghanistan by helicopter.

The enemy won`t rest during Ramadan and neither will we



George W Bush

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters in Washington that freezing rain had made it impossible to use helicopters to deploy the troops.

``Within the last 24 hours it would be fair to report that the weather has been hampering our efforts,`` he said on Friday afternoon.





Heavy bombardment of Taleban front lines north of Kabul by B-52s

Strategic Tutakhan hills overlooking opposition-held Bagram airport hit



His comments came a day after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US planned to significantly increase the numbers of American troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

The bombardment of Taleban positions by American warplanes has continued.

The US-led military campaign is being waged against Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic militant suspected of masterminding the 11 September terror attacks on New York and Washington, and his Taleban protectors.

In other developments:

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld starts a five-nation tour of Russia, Central and South Asia to bolster support for the offensive against the Taleban

A 17th case of anthrax is confirmed in the US as the FBI makes another appeal for help

The Taleban consul in Pakistan says the movement`s leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and Bin Laden have been protected from any ``American harm``

The Taleban are carrying out a massive manhunt for rebel leader Hamid Karzai - an aide to the exiled former king - who narrowly missed capture after Taleban troops raided his hideout in Uruzgan province

New York Mayor Giuliani attacks firefighters protest as plans to scale back hunt for bodues as unacceptable

A letter sent to the editor of Pakistani newspaper Daily Jang reportedly tests positive for anthrax - if confirmed this would be the first attack on a non-US organisation

The US House of Representatives votes for new regulations to tighten security, as California`s governor warns of possible bomb attacks on key bridges

The US recession deepens, as figures show that almost half a million jobs were lost in the wake of the terror attacks

Rear Admiral Stufflebeem also said that US intelligence reports indicated that the ruling Taleban now faced armed opposition in the predominantly Pashtun south of the country.

It is the first suggestion that some tribal groups in southern Afghanistan might now be actively fighting the Taleban, who also face opposition in the north from the Northern Alliance.

Smart weapons give way to carpet bombing



The White House has reiterated that bombing will not be suspended during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November.

Several Islamic leaders had voiced fears that a continuation of the raids during Ramadan could cause major unrest in their countries.

``The enemy won`t rest during Ramadan and neither will we. We`re going to pursue this war until we achieve our objectives,`` President George W Bush said.

Friday saw American B-52 bombers resume bombing Taleban front lines north of the Afghan capital Kabul in what Northern Alliance forces described as one of the fiercest bombardments yet.

The heavy bombers struck at least twice at the strategic

The bright side of USA---people like Laurence Cruz.





News Friday, November 2, 2001

speaker shares tenets of Islam

Willamette University professor David McCreery spent 15 years in the Mideast.

LAURENCE M. CRUZ

Statesman Journal

November 2

America is likely losing the propaganda war in Afghanistan, despite efforts to bring humanitarian aid to citizens, according to Willamette University religious studies professor David McCreery.

“I think the 2,000-pound bombs are probably influencing people more than the food packets,” McCreery said Thursday.

McCreery, who has spent nearly 15 years traveling and living in the Middle East, spoke about Islam and the current conflict to about 20 people at the offices of The Statesman Journal. He was invited by the newspaper to speak at an informal lunch.

He said President Bush’s insistence that the war in Afghanistan is not a war against Islam probably carries little weight with most Muslims, many of whom distrust the U.S. government and view its intervention as a crusade.

McCreery also cautioned that continued bombing of Afghanistan during the holy month of Ramadan could threaten the fragile coalition of Muslim nations backing the U.S. — even though Muslim nations in the past have fought each other during that period.

“Two Muslim armies fighting each other is one thing, but one predominantly non-Muslim army fighting a Muslim army is totally another thing,” he said.

McCreery debunked rhetoric on both sides of the conflict.

Bush’s assertion that some Muslims hate America because of its freedoms, for example, overlooks the fact that most Muslims favor democracy, McCreery said.

What draws the hatred is America’s hypocrisy in overriding local communities to install regimes of its choosing, he said.

Likewise, suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden essentially is motivated by a desire to see Muslim nations choose their own fate without interference from the West, he said.

“His major motivation isn’t even religious although he uses a lot of religious rhetoric,” McCreery said. “He’s basically a political activist.”

He said Islam and the concept of jihad, or holy war, have often been falsely used to justify aggressive actions. Most Muslims would not accept the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center as a holy war effort because it also targeted women and children.

“There are pretty strict guidelines for war,” McCreery said.

He said he felt safer from crime living in the Middle East than in Salem because of the hospitality in Muslim nations.

“They do a better job of separating U.S. foreign policy from individual Americans,” he said.

Laurence M. Cruz can be reached at (503) 399-6716

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hamzad afaqui ``Afghanistan---the land where Pride & Honour stil reign supreme `` Millions of Afghans have been voting with their feet over the past 10 years to leave the land of Pride and Honor. I guess they dont know what they are leaving behind. I assume also that you admire Afghanistan`s virtues from a safe distance, and have chosen to raise a family in some western country rather than in Afghanistan. Please correct me if I am mistaken...

The fact is that Afghanistan is a country that harbors a gang of known criminals (unless you think that OBL and his gang are in Afghanistan on a vacation on the well-known Hindu Kush Ski Resort), whose head has secured the loyalty of the chief taliban by handing over his young daughter. I dont see anything in this land to be proud of.

The pashtuns are justly proud of their traditions, and that is fine. However, other people in the world are not without pride and honor either.

dear all

apologies for the errors.

babar should have been referred to as great-great-great grandson of timur, or merely as descendant.

grandson is of course wrong. have corrected for the print version.

somebody wrote that i should have got the taliban version as well. i hope to do that soon: there are some difficulties in getting pakistan visas at the moment and there is no access to southern afghanistan beyond bagram for now.

regards

aakar patel

Saima Shah;

``At the earliest opportunity I want to write an article about the coverage of these events in India, Pakistan and America which might help to soothe your sense of umbrage at pointing out the obvious``

-Hurry up and write it, but let me give you some advice. Dont waste tears and anger because you dont like what Indian newspapers write about your country. Whinging was the only thing that was obvious from your post. I dont see any Indians whining and moaning at the biased rantings of hate filled Pakistani journalists. With all due respect, get over it.

bong_dongs:

``But how can we blame the Pakistanis when Sajjan Singh and Tytler still roam the streets as free men...``

Well said my friend. It is so easy to fall into point scoring and suffer self inflicted blindness to the corruption in our own land.

aaker #46 ``babar should have been referred to as great-great-great grandson of timur``

Babar could be a descendant of timur, although quite possibly an ``adopted`` one. I doubt if in late 15th century Farghana such things were documented any better than they are in the 21st century in most developing countries.