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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cage Rattler who wrote (9535)	11/9/2001 4:06:13 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>Iraq/Iran have proven they have no qualms about violating the Geneva Convention.<< I'm not sure if you are wondering if Iran or Iraq would support the Taliban, or Bin Ladin, with biological weapons? At least in Iran's case, they don't like the Taliban at all, and are supportive of the opposition. So they would unlikely to provide anything to the Taliban, at least on the state level.

To: Cage Rattler who wrote (9535)	11/9/2001 4:40:56 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

An interesting viewpoint. One has to take into consideration "worst case scenareos" in war all the time. Although I am a civilian, I have watched closely the Falklands War, Desert Storm, and now Afghanistan only by the public media. I'm a veteran civilian listener -g- Well OK, I also made some of the electronic stuff that got dumped on the opposition. Simple transistors etc that make stuff go "bang" -g- The Taliban underestimate us softie western civilain types sometimes. We are used to dealing with life threatening crapola too. Anything can kill you. Always be careful in the home and understand basic statistics, and drive carefully. -g- No...these Taliban guys expected to win. They might try some real bad plays in desperation, but humankind has a habit of winning.... read the human soul does have to win somehow. There is some spark of good in some Taliban soul that will tip the balance where hopefully 6 mil Afghans dont starve this winter. Things can be worse then we can imagine, but listening to OBL...even he didn't want the human race to lose out to the bugs in my understanding. The word "unflinching" has cropped up by all sides. Once we want the human race to continue, we don't mind losing is my understanding. My arguement is that Western medical technology is worth preserving. So is the logistics of feeding 6 mil people who have a failed harvest and live at 15k+ feet, and who have a limited amount of recipies of serving poppy plants for the main meal of the day.

To: Cage Rattler who wrote (9535)	11/9/2001 4:56:59 PM
From: FaultLine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I wonder, and perhaps you can fill me in, is there any chance that the Hemorrhagic Fever effecting the refuge camps may be terrorist in etiology? No, the World Health Organization web site documents many recurring outbreaks in these areas, probably aggravated now by the misery of the refugee camps. If I were the Taliban and wanted to defeat the Northern Alliance at this stage of the game, biologicals would certainly be high on my weapons list. Why? Because of the period between infection and symptomatic recognition coupled with the spread vectors within the enemy group. There are a lot of hazards involved in spreading biological agents, least of which is that your own population may become infected resulting in a self-inflicted wound to your cause. Spreading smallpox is an excellent example of this problem. The First World countries can quickly move to isolate and eliminate smallpox but the Third World peoples would be decimated. --fl