Debaser

I thought some of you might find this food for thought.Courtesy of mapinc.


BUSH'S FAUSTIAN DEAL WITH THE TALIBAN

Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists and 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 U.S. insistence, imposes sanctions
on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin
Laden.

The war on drugs has become our own fanatics' obsession and easily
trumps all other concerns. How else could we come to reward the
Taliban, who has subjected the female half of the Afghan population
to a continual reign of terror in a country once considered
enlightened in its treatment of women?

At no point in modern history have women and girls been more
systematically abused than in Afghanistan, where in the name of
madness masquerading as Islam, the government in Kabul obliterates
their fundamental human rights. Women may not appear in public
without being covered from head to toe with the oppressive shroud
called the burkha, and they may not leave the house without being
accompanied by a male family member. They've not been permitted to
attend school or be treated by male doctors, yet women have been
banned from practicing medicine or any profession for that matter.

The lot of males is better if they blindly accept the laws of an
extreme religious theocracy that prescribes strict rules governing
all behavior, from a ban on shaving to what crops may be grown. It is
this last power that has captured the enthusiasm of the Bush White
House.

The Taliban fanatics, economically and diplomatically isolated, are
at the breaking point, and so, in return for a pittance of legitimacy
and cash from the Bush administration, they have been willing to
appear to reverse themselves on the growing of opium. That a
totalitarian country can effectively crack down on its farmers is not
surprising. But it is grotesque for a U.S. official, James P.
Callahan, director of the State Department's Asian anti-drug program,
to describe the Taliban's special methods in the language of
representative democracy: "The Taliban used a system of
consensus-building," Callahan said after a visit with the Taliban,
adding that the Taliban justified the ban on drugs "in very religious
terms."

Of course, Callahan also reported, those who didn't obey the
theocratic edict would be sent to prison.

In a country where those who break minor rules are simply beaten on
the spot by religious police and others are stoned to death, it's
understandable that the government's "religious" argument might be
compelling. Even if it means, as Callahan concedes, that most of the
farmers who grew the poppies will now confront starvation. That's
because the Afghan economy has been ruined by the religious extremism
of the Taliban, making the attraction of opium as a previously
tolerated quick cash crop overwhelming.

For that reason, the opium ban will not last unless the United States
is willing to pour far larger amounts of money into underwriting the
Afghan economy.

As the Drug Enforcement Administration's Steven Casteel admitted,
"The bad side of the ban is that it's bringing their country -- or
certain regions of their country -- to economic ruin." Nor did he
hold out much hope for Afghan farmers growing other crops such as
wheat, which require a vast infrastructure to supply water and
fertilizer that no longer exists in that devastated country. There's
little doubt that the Taliban will turn once again to the easily
taxed cash crop of opium in order to stay in power.

The Taliban may suddenly be the dream regime of our own drug-war
zealots, but in the end this alliance will prove a costly failure.
Our long sad history of signing up dictators in the war on drugs
demonstrates the futility of building a foreign policy on a domestic
obsession.

__________________
Real eyes realize real lies.

Debaser

This is an excerpt from a letter that came ,once again, through mapinc.It is in rergards to the "Bush's Faustian Deal" peice.

FACTS

*Half of the terrorists in the world have been trained in the US at places
like
the "School of the Americas"

*Bin Laden was trained by the US in the USSR/USA Afghanistan war.

*The US War on drugs and drug prohibition is the other means by which
terrorists raise money. ILLEGAL DRUGS = INCOME FOR TERRORISTS. LEGALIZE
DRUGS
AND THEY ARE BROKE.Unfortunately this would dry up funds for the CIA in
cases
in which congress forbids financing a war, ie Nicaragua, see
http://www.copvcia.com/

The fact is that bombing the **** out of Afghanistan will do squat. Unless
drugs are legalized there will always be money for terrorists.

And if the US gives 50 million bucks to every **** head that enrolls in
their
War on Drugs, the fight against terrorism can not be won, because the only
people who could possibly be interested in implementing such draconian and
repressive legislation and enslave their population like the US has (700 out
of
100,000 in prison compared to 115 in Canada) are terrorist and rogue states.

The US needs to look at its priorities.

While the US has been busy fighting the longest war in history against its
own
citizens, the real crooks are getting away with murder.

While these terrorists were planning the attack on New York the US
government
was busy gunning down marijuana activists in Michagan and forfeiting thier
property. http://www.mapinc.org/bcmpnews/v01/n1635/a03.html?999

While terrorists were planning this attack the US federal government was
busy
figuring out how to put sick people in California in jail for medical
marijuana
and trying to extradite Rene Boje from Canada to give her a ten year
mandatory minimum for watering plants.

And a 50 million gift from George bush and Colin Powell to the Taliban -
thats
how this attack was financed.

I wish it weren’t so.

But someone has to look at the facts.

----------------------------------------------

-Debaser

Panama

To the Current Affairs forum.

__________________
"This fight against the War on Drugs is not a war in the classic sense of the word, so it's virtually impossible to point to one instance and say, 'That was the battle that stemmed the tide in our favor'. We have had many small victories that have led us to where we are and each day we continue to communicate and educate brings us that much closer to our ultimate goal: The end of marijuana prohibition." -Richard "Panama" Red-
Marijuana.Com Posting Guideline

potheadreturns2

Bin Laden get's his money from his oil rigs in afghanistan. Peace

__________________
2

Panama

In the World in Crisis forum.