Now Bush is sending money to the Taliban. What was I saying yesterday about the foolishness of supporting these god-awful regimes...?
Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.
That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban
latimes.com
So never mind if you're running the most oppressive, primitive and unpleasant regime on the planet: who cares if you force minority groups to wear special identification on their clothes: what matter if you're harbouring (and probably aiding and arming) the world's most wanted terrorist.
Just pay hypocritical lip service to a futile and unwinnable ideological cause and Dubya will send you the bucks...
<edit> and not even the DEA think it'll work!
the Afghan economy has been ruined by the religious extremism of the Taliban, making the attraction of opium as a previously tolerated quick cash crop overwhelming. For that reason, the opium ban will not last unless the U.S. is willing to pour far larger amounts of money into underwriting the Afghan economy.
As the Drug Enforcement Administration's Steven Casteel admitted, "The bad side of the ban is that it's bringing their country--or certain regions of their country--to economic ruin." Nor did he hold out much hope for Afghan farmers growing other crops such as wheat, which require a vast infrastructure to supply water and fertilizer that no longer exists in that devastated country. </edit>
Oh, wow. What a leader, what a vision. He must be too f**king stupid to be ashamed, but I wonder what excuses his advisors have? Oh, I forget... these are the guys that propped up Pinochet, Noriega, and who-knows-what tinpots. They don't even care if it works, I suppose. They wouldn't recognise success anyhow. |
