No-win Danger for U.S. -- Taliban appearing to make sense

Akber Choudhry -

Despite the history of the Taliban and the revulsion they generate in most of the world, the Taliban may appear to be making some sense to the rest of the world:

  1. Air strikes cause civilian casualties while ground campaigns do not. Air strikes are a choice of the U.S. to save U.S. casualties.
  2. If al-Qaida says “civilian casualties are a necessary evil for combating the enemy” and the U.S. says the same, how long will the anti-war intellectuals in the West be entranced with the U.S. propaganda?
  3. In the long run, the U.S. has to support the rule of law — indictable evidence? impartial jury? act of war?
  4. The Taliban are the creation of the U.S. and “terrorist camps” are the training grounds for the mujahedin that enable the U.S. to win the cold war.
  5. The disastrous “either you are with them or you are with us” has already backfired in most of the Islamic world.
  6. The singling out of Muslim terrorist organizations has, despite “official denials” created a state of fear and deprivation in Muslims all over the world, including myself, the author of this article. This can only result in more anti-U.S. sentiment.
  7. The Israeli-Palestinian process is being put on the fast track, but we can only “wish” that the rest of the world will see no connection to the attacks on the U.S.
    Don’t we wish Clinton was back?

Despite the history of the Taliban and the revulsion they generate in most of the world, the Taliban may appear to be making sense to the rest of the world:

  1. Air strikes cause civilian casualties while ground campaigns do not. The U.S. had fair warning that an air strike alone can never solve the “problem.” The reluctance to put ground troops in Afghanistan is a choice made by the U.S. and not the Taliban. Air strikes are increasingly being seen as a choice of the U.S. to save their own casualties.

  2. The premise of al-Qaida can be crystallized as “civilian casualties are a necessary evil for combating the enemy” and the U.S. says the same, the difference is starting to blur, as the Indonesian leader’s remarks show. How long will the anti-war intellectuals in the West be entranced with the U.S. propaganda?

  3. Ultimately, the U.S. has to support the rule of law — and these are the pre-requisites
    (a)there is no indictable evidence agains bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attacks and the current attacks by the U.S. are as a result of the Sept. 11 incidents. The bombing of the East African embassies has already been avenged with 200 cruise missiles. The ancient rule of “if you take the law into your own hands, do not expect justice to side with you” will show its ultimate truth

(b) no jury can be empaneled in the U.S. which can be impartial to bin Laden, so any attempt to bring him to trial in the U.S. will haunt the U.S. for decades
(c) If it is an act of “war” it has to be tried internationally. Aaah – catch 22!
(d) If bin Ladin is killed, that too will haunt the U.S for the rest of the century.

  1. The Taliban are the creation of the U.S. and the “terrorist camps” were founded to train mujahedin against the U.S.S.R. The U.S. won the cold war partially due to the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Muslim world has a long memory and they can see how expendable the friends of the U.S. are. It would not be wrong to say that the U.S. owes the present-day Taliban their present world hegemony and economic and military might.

  2. The disastrous “either you are with them or you are with us” has already backfired in most of the Islamic world. They already knew the U.S. was not with them, so the only choice was the other camp.

  3. The singling out of Muslim terrorist organizations has, despite “official denials” created a state of fear and deprivation in Muslims all over the world, including myself, the author of this article. This can only result in more anti-U.S. sentiment.

  4. The Israeli-Palestinian process is being put on the fast track. This is the only good thing to come out of the current events. The U.S. government and Giuliani and the Jewish lobby can turn themselves blue in the face denying the link between the two events. Now, the U.S. has no option but to establish peace here – and any settlement within the next 10 years – of a 50-year old problem will be seen as a further inducment to terrorism to the bin Ladens of the world.

Don’t we wish Clinton was back?