Subject:
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Re: Thinking Out Loud...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 19 Sep 2001 18:07:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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531 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Low writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> >
> > snippo
> >
> > Read some of the links posted here, the interviews with him, the link I gave
> > here: http://news.lugnet.com/off-topic/debate/?n=12938, the NYT article
> > analysing the fundamentalist message.
>
> I read that article from the New Yorker -- a really valuable perspective
> piece I thought. Vollmann does more than describe the Taliban message too,
> he gives a good background on how they were brought to power by decades of
> misery in Afghanistan.
>
> > "freedom is good" snipped
> >
> > And I think their statement deserves a reply. It is not the duty of the US
> > to right all the world's evil. But if in going after the perpetrators of
> > this particular evil we happen to take a fundamentalist dictatorship or two
> > down, that's OK by me.
>
> But it's not a "conventional" dictatorship. There is no charismatic despot,
> no military junta; just a whole lot of fundamentalist imams and a generation
> of men whose only education was war and the Koran. I don't believe that
> "toppling a dictator" is ever sufficient to change a country's government:
> in Afghanistan there isn't even a dictator to topple.
Agreed. I wasn't keen on the "nation building" exercise we tried in Somalia,
it failed dismally. But maybe that's what is required here. I have no idea.
What's the alternative though? I am *opposed* to just going in and
indiscriminately lobbing bombs or killing civilians. That will accomplish
nothing. Something much more akin to careful disassembly is required.
Problem is, that's a great metaphor and sounds good but isn't exactly a plan
you can just roll out.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Thinking Out Loud...
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| (...) The Somalia analogy holds for a decade ago, I think, when several factions had a more or less equal hold on different parts of the country. Now I'd say Afghanistan has "stabilised" as a decentralised theocracy. (...) First make it clear that (...) (23 years ago, 19-Sep-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Thinking Out Loud...
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| (...) I read that article from the New Yorker -- a really valuable perspective piece I thought. Vollmann does more than describe the Taliban message too, he gives a good background on how they were brought to power by decades of misery in (...) (23 years ago, 19-Sep-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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