Modern day genius

Quotes from the article:

"I was rather surprised to see how thin the evidence was that the US presented, transmitted via Tony Blair. ... Charges against the Taliban were virtually non-existent: if harboring suspected terrorists is a crime that merits bombing, then much of the world, including the US, should be instantly attacked."

What happened to that "white paper" Colin was going to produce any way?


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By Noam Chomsky

Oct 8

So far, the US-UK response is about what had been expected. What has been
reported is attacks by cruise missiles and high-altitude bombers,
accompanied by some food drops outside of Taliban-controlled areas (most of
the country), such a transparent PR gesture that there is no attempt even to
conceal it. The attacks appear to have been based entirely outside the
Muslim world, presumably because of fear of protests. It is far too early,
and we have much too little information, to say anything with confidence,
but it is not unlikely that the mood is captured by story from Cairo in the
Boston Globe with the headline "Protests, horror greet US assault," quoting
an Egyptian waiter as saying "I give you food and I kill you? It makes me
crazy to think about that."



I was rather surprised to see how thin the evidence was that the US
presented, transmitted via Tony Blair. After what must be the most intensive
international investigative effort in history, they were able to find very
little -- much less than I speculated on my own, without resources -- to
link bin Laden to the Sept. 11 crimes. That tends to support the conclusion
of many specialists that the perpetrators come from decentralized networks,
probably with limited communication, and very hard to penetrate. Charges
against the Taliban were virtually non-existent: if harboring suspected
terrorists is a crime that merits bombing, then much of the world, including
the US, should be instantly attacked. That should be too obvious even for
comment. And we do not know whether Taliban offers of negotiation and
transfer of bin Laden were serious because the West simply dismissed them,
preferring to bomb -- a traditional stance, though it is obscured in the
rewriting of history. The systematic falsification of the past is deplorable
in itself, but has serious human consequences, as we see once again.



There still remain the lawful means that have been pursued by other states,
which have been subjected to far more destructive terrorist attacks even
than those of Sept. 11. It is rather striking that these are not even under
consideration, and I have not even seen any mention, in the mainstream, of
precedents that are appropriate and entirely uncontroversial, because of the
judgment of the International Court of Justice and the Security Council
Resolution (which the US vetoed), all apparently unknown; a success of
historical revisionism that would have left Orwell open-mouthed in
astonishment, and an ideological achievement of no slight significance, as
we see in today's headlines.



It is impossible to estimate how many miserable and innocent Afghans have
already died as an immediate consequence of the threat of bombing and the
closing of the Pakistan border that the US demanded at once (if we can
believe the NY Times), and the failure to provide food, as could have been
done from the first day, not only by air drops -- nothing has hindered
that -- but also by truck convoy, as the international relief efforts
demonstrated when they began. I dearly wish there had been some surprises,
some deviation from traditional patterns of behavior. Unless that happens,
the immediate future looks very grim for the people of Aghanistan, and the
cycle of violence may be escalated in a familiar manner, with consequences
that are not pleasant to contemplate.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Voice of Reason on 2001-10-26 22:26 ]</font>

[The Mister]

<font size=2>VOR, PLEASE get rid of line breaks in any article that you copy and paste.

[Aaron Brachowitz]

It is impossible to estimate how many miserable and innocent Afghans have
already died as an immediate consequence of the threat of bombing and the
closing of the Pakistan border that the US demanded at once.

Citizens are often made to suffer for the crimes of their government. We killed a lot of German civilians during WW2 but the end result was worth the cost. Of course we didn't have a CNN correspondent broadcasting live from the rubble in Berlin.

American pilots are more capable than any in the world of putting bombs on target. They aren't perfect, but nearly so. And unlike our enemies, we are not targeting civilians.

[Hierophant]

If you're doing the math, you need to subtract out the number of Afghans that would have died under the Taliban regime until the Taliban regime was removed through some other route. Also, the number dying is probably certainly less than would have died had the Afghans chosen to forcibly remove the Taliban.

This, of course, is a vile calculus.

Finally, there are reports that the Taliban is interfering with humanitarian aid efforts; the Taliban is contributing directly to the suffering of the Afghan people.