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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H-Man who wrote (180938)	9/14/2001 5:15:50 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

I disagree with your assessment, and conclusion. Firstly: As I understand it, there are rebels (I previously referred to) in the North East, as you say... and Iranian-backed opposition to the West. Neither group has the strength to seriously challenge the Taliban under current circumstances... but circumstances are about to change. Without Pakistani support, (and having already lost Iranian support) the Taliban is more than wobbly as a governing force. The key factor here is Pakistan, who effectively enabled the Taliban to take power to begin with. Now, as to your point that if the Taliban fall "the theocracy we despise, becomes even more virulent", I regard that as an unprovable point. Obviously, they are pretty "virulent" right now. A more important question might be would they be able to export their: 1) Religiosity and theocratic inclinations or 2) Worldview and enemy list To other nation-locations where they would possibly flourish and grow into greater threats? That is possible, but perhaps it is less in their ability to accomplish this... then it is in our hands to prevent it by how we perform our actions, and what actions we undertake? Now as to your comment that if rebel groups take over Afghanistan... that would put "75% of the worlds opium back on the market", and that I'm "ignoring this 'fact'".... I regard your percentage as ridiculous. There are plenty of poppies grown in the golden triangle, for instance, in Burma along the newly rebuilt China road... with possibly a million Chinese ethnic laborers having moved down the road into Burma from China to work the poppies (and support the military road). Poppies are an up-and-coming crop in several Andean nations, for another example... they are fairly easy to grow. And, there is no noticeable shortage of end product on world markets, nor is there likely to be if we stick with these shell game type interdiction / suppression operations instead of demand reduction. This whole round of posts started with my simple observation that President Bush giving $43 million to the Taliban this spring was an idiotic thing to do, and showed a not very good understanding of who are enemies are. So, if the choice were some peasant growing a few poppies, or training under the Taliban for a life of self-sacrifice as a human missile, I'd choose to let him remain a farmer.