Mamie and Papi,
I wanted to pass this on to you and to hear your comments.  We'll talk soon
I'm sure.....
Love,
Robs
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Knight" <bobknight@cfl.rr.com>
To: "Tosha Knight" <tmknight2@yahoo.com>; "Todd Cluxton"
<tcluxton@cfl.rr.com>; "Joe Knight" <JoeKnight@yanceybros.com>; "Pat Knight"
<knighpcfl@aol.com>; "Debbie Knight" <DWK1216@aol.com>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 3:42 PM
Subject: Fw: article is by an Afghan-American


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <NSchaaf@ResourceDynamics.com>
> To: "Kurt W Altergott" <KALTERGOTT@prodigy.net>;
<jamidio@crosscountry.com>;
> <Christine_Brouder@voltek.com>; "Colleen Cronin" <cac@bloombuell.com>;
> "Norman Dahl" <selectcon@mindspring.com>; <EMSKeys@aol.com>; "angela fain"
> <apftn@netscape.net>; "John Fernandes" <John_Fernandes@epicdata.com>;
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> <judyj@dellepro.com>; <kristi.kerrigan@home.com>; "Bob Knight"
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> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 9:34 AM
> Subject: article is by an Afghan-American
>
>
> > FYI, this article is by an Afghan-American who has lived in the
> > San Francisco Bay area for 35 years.  It's something to think about
> > deeply as we determine how to deal with the horrific provocations of
last
> > week,
> > which may well have been designed to get up our collective blood lust
> > such that we play right into the perpetrators' hands.  We must ask,
> > what are their broader aims, beyond showing us the depth of their
hatred?
> > How can they best be thwarted?
> >
> > Edmund Burke said "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
> > is for good people to do nothing".   As we figure out what is to be
done,
> > we must show not only that we are stronger, but also wiser,
> > than these monsters who would destroy civilization as we know it.
> >
> >
> > An Afghan-American speaks.
> >
> > You can't bomb us back into the Stone
> > Age. We're already there. But you can
> > start a new world war, and that's
> > exactly what Osama bin Laden wants.
> >
> > - - - - - - - - - - - -
> >
> > By Tamim Ansary
> > Sept. 14, 2001
> >
> > I've been hearing a lot of talk
> > about "bombing Afghanistan back
> > to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens,
> > on San Francisco's KGO Talk Radio,
> > conceded today that this
> > would mean killing innocent people,
> > people who had nothing to do with
> > this atrocity, but "we're at war,
> > we have to accept collateral damage.
> > What else can we do?"
> > Minutes later I heard some TV pundit
> > discussing whether we "have the belly
> > to do what must be done."
> >
> > And I thought about the issues being
> > raised especially hard because I am
> > from Afghanistan, and even though
> > I've lived in the United States for
> > 35 years I've never lost track of
> > what's going on there. So I want to
> > tell anyone who will listen how it
> > all looks from where I'm standing.
> >
> > I speak as one who hates the
> > Taliban and Osama bin Laden.
> > There is no doubt in my mind that
> > these people were responsible for the
> > atrocity in New York. I agree that
> > something must be done about those
> > monsters.
> >
> > But the Taliban and bin Laden are not
> > Afghanistan. They're not even the
> > government of Afghanistan. The
> > Taliban are a cult of ignorant
> > psychotics who took over Afghanistan
> > in 1997. Bin Laden is a political
> > criminal with a plan. When you think
> > Taliban, think Nazis. When you think
> > bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you
> > think "the people of Afghanistan"
> > think "the Jews in the concentration
> > camps." It's not only that the Afghan
> > people had nothing to do with this
> > atrocity. They were the first victims
> > of the perpetrators. They would exult
> > if someone would come in there, take
> > out the Taliban and clear out the
> > rats' nest of international thugs
> > holed up in their country.
> >
> > Some say, why  [____] don't the Afghans
> > rise up and overthrow the Taliban?
> >
> > The answer is, they're starved, exhausted,
> > hurt, incapacitated,suffering. A few years
> > ago,the United Nations estimated that
> > there are 500,000 disabled orphans in
> > Afghanistan -- a country with no economy,
> > no food. There are millions of widows.
> > And the Taliban has been burying
> > these widows alive in mass graves.
> > The soil is littered with land mines,
> > the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets.
> > These are a few of the reasons why
> > the Afghan people have not overthrown
> > the Taliban.
> >
> > We come now to the question of bombing
> > Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.
> > Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets
> > took care of it already. Make the Afghans
> > suffer? They're already suffering.
> > Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools
> > into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate
> > their hospitals? Done. Destroy their
> > infrastructure? Cut them off from
> > medicine and healthcare? Too late.
> > Someone already did all that. New bombs
> > would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs.
> > Would they at least get the Taliban?
> > Not likely. In today's Afghanistan,
> > only the Taliban eat, only they have
> > the means to move around. They'd slip away
> > and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of
> > those disabled orphans; they don't
> > move too fast, they don't even have
> > wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul
> > and dropping bombs wouldn't really be
> > a strike against the criminals who
> > did this horrific thing. Actually it
> > would only be making common cause
> > with the Taliban -- by raping once
> > again the people they've been raping
> > all this time.
> >
> > So what else is there? What can be
> > done, then? Let me now speak with
> > true fear and trembling. The only way
> > to get Bin Laden is to go in there
> > with ground troops. When people speak
> > of "having the belly to do what needs
> > to be done" they're thinking in terms
> > of having the belly to kill as many
> > as needed. Having the belly to
> > overcome any moral qualms about
> > killing innocent people. Let's pull
> > our heads out of the sand. What's
> > actually on the table is Americans dying.
> > And not just because some Americans
> > would die fighting their way through
> > Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout.
> > It's much bigger than that.
> > Because to get any troops to Afghanistan,
> > we'd have to go through Pakistan.
> > Would they let us? Not likely.
> > The conquest of Pakistan would
> > have to be first. Will other Muslim
> > nations just stand by?
> > You see where I'm going. We're
> > flirting with a world war between
> > Islam and the West.
> >
> > And guess what: That's bin Laden's
> > program. That's exactly what he
> > wants. That's why he did this. Read
> > his speeches and statements. It's all
> > right there. He really believes Islam
> > would beat the West. It might seem
> > ridiculous, but he figures if he can
> > polarize the world into Islam and the
> > West, he's got a billion soldiers. If
> > the West wreaks a holocaust in those
> > lands, that's a billion people with
> > nothing left to lose; that's even
> > better from Bin Laden's point of
> > view. He's probably wrong -- in the
> > end the West would win, whatever that
> > would mean -- but the war would last
> > for years and millions would die, not
> > just theirs but ours.
> >
> > Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden
> > does. Anyone else?
> >
> > - - - - - - - - - - - -
> >
> > About the writer:
> > Tamim Ansary is a writer in San Francisco,
> > and the son of a former Afghani politician.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank You,
> >
> > Norm Schaaf
> > Resource Dynamics International
> > 203.315.3279
> > nschaaf@resourcedynamics.com
> >
> >
>
>