Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 20:22:28 -0800
From: jack@webcommanders.com ("Jack Dean")
Subject: [libs4peace] This just in: Bin Laden wins Afghan war
To: libs4peace@yahoogroups.com ("Libs4Peace List")
Reply-To: libs4peace@yahoogroups.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26826
WorldNetDaily.com
March 14, 2002
This just in: Bin Laden wins Afghan war
by Harry Browne
Osama Bin Laden has won the war in Afghanistan --
the first big battle of the War on Terrorism.
Americans are claiming victory because American
bombers have devastated Afghanistan, thousands of
Afghans have been killed, and the already-impoverished
country is now almost completely in ruins.
But most likely this is exactly what bin Laden
wanted.
What has the devastation achieved? Osama bin Laden
and Omar the Tentmaker are still on the loose. To
the best of my knowledge, no one who had anything
to do with the planning or execution of the
September 11 attacks has been captured or killed.
And don't get the idea that the bombings have
shown Osama bin Laden that he can't get away with
his nefarious deeds. That conclusion is 180
degrees off the mark.
Do you think Osama bin Laden cares how many
innocent Afghans are killed?
Why would he? Every dead Afghan is another
argument for his crusade.
Hundreds of millions of people in the Third World
already hate the U.S. -- for bombing Iraq, for
interfering in the Middle East, for keeping troops
in a hundred countries, for propping up dictators
who support Americn policies.
And every bomb that fell on Afghanistan converted
more people into America-haters. The U.S. military
has been confirming bin Laden's argument that
Americans are bullies.
Around the World
In the same way, ten years of U.S. bombing Iraq
hasn't forced Saddam Hussein to change his
policies. Why should it? The bombs make his
stubbornness more popular at home.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel says he'll
continue to attack the Palestinians until "the
other side understands it cannot achieve anything
by using terror; [then] it will be easier to start
negotiations." But why would terrorists care how
many Palestinians die?
By definition, terrorism is the brutalizing of
innocent people in order to cause changes in
official policy. So terrorists don't care how many
innocent people are killed on either side. And
every one of their own who dies causes more people
to support the terrorists.
Why We Are Threatened
The root fallacy in the War on Terrorism is the
idea that we have no choice but to fight people
who won't rest until they destroy us.
But there have always been thugs in the world who
wanted to destroy others. There have always been
people who hated America -- for good or bad
reasons. There have always been evil people,
malicious people, brutal people.
Why is it that only now do they represent such a
grave threat to us?
The truth is that the evil, malicious, brutal
thugs rarely have the ability to make any real
trouble outside their own neighborhoods. The few
exceptions -- people like Adof Hitler or Osama
bin Laden -- succeed only because they can get the
financing, contacts, networking and other
resources necessary to spread trouble.
And they can get that support only if large
numbers of people have been mistreated. That was
the case with the Germans after World War I -- who
had valuable pieces of Germany torn off and handed
to France, Poland, or Czechoslovakia -- who had
all their foreign investments confiscated -- who
were told to pay astronomical reparations, even
though all their valuable assets had been taken
from them -- who were made to bear the entire
guilt for a war they were only one part of.
Hitler could command a very advanced, literate
country because of the terrible treatment the
Germans suffered after World War I. He promised to
avenge the terrible wrongs done to them, and they
responded enthusiastically. If he hadn't had that
fertile ground to work with, we'd never have heard
of him.
Today, Osama bin Laden couldn't get the worldwide
support necessary to carry out his evil plans if
there weren't hundreds of millions of people who
resent American troops stationed in their
countries, who are appalled by the American
blockade that's starving Iraqis, who don't like
American Presidents imposing their decisions on
their countries.
The difference between relatively harmless thugs
and truly dangerous thugs is the real grievances
the dangerous ones can play upon. They are still
thugs, but they gain the support of honest,
peace-loving people who have been pushed to the
limit.
You'll never be able to subdue all the thugs,
especially if you kill more innocent people in the
process because the very act of killing arouses
even more resentments.
By bombing Afghanistan, by killing people who had
nothing to do with the September attacks, George
Bush has handed Osama Bin Laden exactly the
victory he craved -- the evidence that Americans
don't believe innocent people have a right to live
if they get in the way of American global
ambitions.
The Terrorist Strategy
If Bin Laden could mastermind the September
attacks, he must be sart enough to know that
bombing the World Trade Center (or any future
terrorist act) isn't going to defeat America. So
why did he do it?
He could see an insecure American President, just
barely elected and worried about his reelection,
who might jump at the opportunity to demonstrate
leadership, play the macho President, start
bombing, and feed the worldwide resentment of
American foreign policy.
And so bin Laden has maneuvered George Bush into
destroying a poor, Islamic cuntry -- causing a
further decline in support for America among the
world's peoples (distinct from their leaders who
feed at the American trough).
Round 1 goes to bin Laden by something close to a
knockout.
Defeating Terrorism
We will never defeat terrorism by killing innocent
people. That's exactly what the terrorists want us
to do.
You can make the thugs powerless only by taking
away their ability to gain the support necessary
to carry out their plans. That means our
government must get U.S. troops out of foreign
countries, quit telling other nations what to do,
and quit killing innocent people in a futile
attempt to "rid the world of evil-doers."
Let there be no misunderstanding. I'm not blaming
America. I'm blaming American foreign policy.
And I'm not talking about pacifism. I'm talking
about protecting you and me and all of America by
not provoking war.
Nor am I talking about poverty as a cause of
terrorism. I'm talking about American foreign
policy as a cause of terrorism. The answer lies
not in foreign aid for the world's impoverished.
Quite the contrary.
The answer lies in minding our own business.
The answer lies in ending 50 years of foreign
policy failures.
Or are we going to let bin Laden win the rest of
the war as well?
Harry Browne is the director of public policy at
the American Liberty Foundation. You can read more
of his articles and find out about his network
radio show at www.HarryBrowne.org.
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