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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence
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To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (878)9/12/2001 10:27:07 PM
From: Mark L.  Read Replies (1) of 27666
 
Thank you for your well-considered response to my points.

I am hardly an expert on Afghanistan, but it did not appear to me that the attack around Kabul that I saw on CNN was the work of Boy Scouts, as you suggested.

Even if you're right, and the Northern Alliance is not capable of helping us unseat the Taliban, I still think an ultimatum would be a wise decision. And, no, I wasn't suggesting a ground war. But I think a simple statement would be effective: something like "If the Taliban government does not comply with our request, it would be foolish for any Afghani to remain in a city with a population over 10,000 or to be anywhere near a military installation." This would be de-stabilizing for as long as we were willing to enforce it. This is intended to be a novel form of a blockade; I think it would ultimately prove effective. And it would certainly be a hell of a deterrent to other regimes which harbor terrorists. Yes, the Afghanis could take to the hills, but how long would a whole country want to do that?

Incidentally I agree with you about a long-term commitment to fighting terrorism. We're not even sure that Bin Laden was responsible for the World Trade Center. But we do know that he was responsible for Kenya, and that the Taliban regime ignored our extradition requests for years. By declaring a war on terrorism, we would be holding the Taliban regime responsible for their years of complicity. And we'd be giving them an opportunity to back up their new words with actions (by turning over Bin Laden). I bear no ill will toward Afghanis or even toward the Taliban as long as they realize that there is a new world reality and that the timetable for complying with our previous extradition requests is now down to a few days.
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