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Harry Hope · Guest

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/14/203232/585/547/551678

Mon Jul 14, 2008

Bush Gave Taliban $43 Million Four Months before 9/11

by Brandon Friedman

As Barack Obama begins the effort of turning America’s attention
toward the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/opinion/14obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
and as American soldiers die at the hands of Taliban militants in
numbers never before seen--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?hp it’s
worth drawing everyone’s attention to a piece in The Nation that
VetVoice’s Chris LeJeune dug up this afternoon.
http://www.vetvoice.com/showComment.do?commentId=10076

It was originally published May 15, 2001--less four months before
9/11.

Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-US terrorists, destroy every
vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush Administration
will embrace you.

All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the
only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the
Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American
violators of human rights in the world today.

The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell,
in addition to other recent aid, makes the United States the main
sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring
that opium growing is against the will of God.

So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but
it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.

Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading
anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from
which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American
embassies in Africa in 1998.

Sadly, the Bush Administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at
a time when the United Nations, at US insistence, imposes sanctions on
Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden.

Bush made the U.S. "the main sponsor of the Taliban."

Looking back, it’s sad to see that the writer, Robert Scheer, knew
just how far $43 million and more would go in a place like that.

The first American died in Afghanistan six months later.

Since then, 556 American troops have died there, with 64--nearly 12
percent--having been killed in the last six weeks.
http://icasualties.org/OEF/Default.aspx

The Taliban have proven resilient, formidable, and more than capable
of waiting out their enemy in a war of attrition.

But given the history of the region, this should have been anticipated
by the U.S. government.

Thus, the troubling aspect of this is the mind-blowing pattern of
carelessness and neglect on the part of the Bush administration with
regard to the region.

With their $43 million corporate sponsorship of the Taliban in 2001,
the administration failed to take the Taliban seriously enough
then--as we learned four months later--and they do not take the
Taliban seriously enough now--as we’ve seen with the spiraling
violence this summer.

What’s worse is that John McCain is of the same school of thought.

From his vote to invade Iraq, to his obsession with the "surge" in
2007,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500548.html
to his fetish for war with Iran,
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/McCain_unplugged_Bomb_bomb_bomb_bomb_0419.html
John McCain has displayed a stunning lack of awareness and knowledge
when it comes to the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1015

Unfortunately, the damage may have already been done.
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1553

As the moderately saner heads of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and
top military man, Admiral Michael Mullen, push for more troops in
Afghanistan, it’s painfully apparent that there are none left to
spare.

They are all in Iraq.

So, as American troops in Iraq see the news of their buddies
fighting--under-resourced and under-manned--in Afghanistan, they will
sit behind concrete barrier walls in Baghdad.

They will remain helplessly there on 15-month-long tours, helping to
prop up a corrupt, Iranian-backed government, while continuing to pay
Sunni insurgents to not take up arms against them.

Meanwhile, their comrades in Afghanistan will continue fending off
increasingly sophisticated attacks brought on by a Taliban funded with
the $43 million given to them by the U.S. government.

Osama bin Laden will remain a free man, as will many others
responsible for attacking us on 9/11.

The Bush administration will react too slowly, if at all.

John McCain will remain fixated on Iraq and Iran.

And with or without help from the Commander-in-Chief, American troops
in Afghanistan will continue fighting.

They will do what they can to hold the line until leadership that
actually understands the gravity of the situation arrives next
January.

UPDATE: I should have included this piece from the CATO Institute
somewhere in my post. It's from 2002 and fleshes the topic out a
little more. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3556

___________________________________________________

Harry

z · Guest

On Jul 15, 11:31 am, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: