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Tamim Ansary
I've
been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone
Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed 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 here 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 Ben 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 health
care? 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 folks. 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?
-Tamim Ansary
-Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces
We
at Project for Public Spaces were all very effected by Tuesday's
tragedy, so we got together as a group yesterday and wrote this up.
Andy and Julie from our staff put words to the feeling we expressed.
Know that our resolve is only strengthened by what happened. We send
our love to all of you.
We at PPS are closer to the World Trade
Center tragedy than we'd like to be. Our offices are located just a few
blocks south of St. Vincent's Hospital, which is receiving many of the
victims, and less than two miles North of what was once the World Trade
Center. As we mourn the dead and injured, we feel fortunate that all of
us and our immediate families are safe.
Some might believe that this
attack would cause people to retreat into their homes, or flee the
city. One goal of this terrorist act, after all, was clearly to
frighten and isolate us - thereby further encouraging divisiveness and
hate. However, we can report that the opposite is happening. We are
seeing how this disaster has led people to affirm public life more than
ever.
All over New York City, people are gravitating to public
places. Along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, with its views of the
now-incomplete Manhattan skyline clouded by dust and smoke, a quiet,
uninterrupted vigil takes place. In Union Square and Washington Square,
people are offering comfort and stories to each other. In Brooklyn
neighborhoods close to the waterfront - and Manhattan's financial
district - that were dusted with soot and debris from the explosions,
people emerged from their homes to talk in the street, on the
sidewalks, and in the parks.
All of these people, all of these
places, help us to re-affirm the value of public life in the face of
such overwhelming violence. The need to gather, to share stories, to
celebrate, protest and grieve in a common place is basic, human, and
universal. We must continue to allow - and encourage - the diversity,
culture and commerce of the United States to thrive in healthy, livable
cities, markets, parks and neighborhoods. At this critical time, when
so many are scorched by tragedy and fighting fear, we cannot afford to
react by building higher fences. Instead we must come together on
common ground to re-establish our communities as the foundations of a
civilized, compassionate society.
-Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces
www.pps.org (212) 620-5660
steve@teamwell.com
In the wake of the events this morning, I am asking you a question:
Will
you choose to turn on your TV and sit mesmerized for hours wringing
your hands in fear or worry, or will you choose to respond differently?
Please understand that the emotions of fear, worry, terror, and
anxiety are flooding across our nation today, feeding the intentions of
the perpetrators of these events.
Will we choose instead to find
the calm within, to go within ourselves and find our strength, then
spend our energy sending out a wave of calm serenity in the face of
these acts of terror to soothe the wounded, to help those who have
crossed over to adjust to their transition, and to bring an air of calm
deliberation to the inevitable retaliation that will ensue?
Let us
not descend to the level of these attackers by blindly responding with
vengeance. Let us take a moment to visualize a blanket of white light
over our nation, and ask the beings of light to support us in
protecting our nation from further attacks and returning stability and
calm deliberation to the process of recovery. Take time to envision the
light of love surrounding our planet as well.
What can we each do?
We can sit together in prayer and meditation, knowing the power of our
intentions for peace can provide antidote to the negative intentions
that have resulted in these tragedies. These acts began as thoughts.
Those thoughts have manifested in a powerful way. Let us examine what
power of our thoughts we choose to respond with.
On the physical
level, we can use our intention to do what we can to support those who
are suffering. Donate blood. Donate cash or supplies to the Red Cross
or other agencies that will be involved in the disaster relief. Spread
the message; spread the light with everyone you talk to about this.
Realize that listening to hours of speculation and rumor and graphic
rehashing affects your energy in a negative way. It feeds into the
chaos that is the intention of these terrorists.
Use discretion as
you view the news. Listen only long enough to hear a real update, then
turn it off. The media is running off at the mouth and saying nothing
new. Choose to spend your energy in more positive responses. Spend time
contemplating the meaning of these events.
Our nation has long
slumbered under a blanket of illusion, a false sense of security that
these events would never happen here. Today they have. It is time to
wake up. It is time to realize that we are not separate from the pain
and terror in the world. It is time to be an active agent in bringing
true peace to this planet. It is time to look at our world with a
larger view, seeing with clear eyes the truth that we are all one, and
we must work together to heal the planet and ourselves.
I have
sent this to all on my email address, not just those who I know to be
open to these words, but those others of my friends and loved ones who
will shake their heads and make some comment to themselves about this
'new age' stuff. Take a moment and realize that these events signal a
time of no return. Never again will we be able to go back under our
security blanket of self-delusion. Nothing will ever again be the same.
Perhaps, it is time for all of us to open our eyes and our hearts, to
take personal responsibility for where we find ourselves today. Please
take a moment to send this message to all those on your email list.
Imagine how far we can spread this idea, if we take this few seconds to
do this. "Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening
the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be
swift to love, make haste to be kind." -Henri Frederick Amiel
- steve@teamwell.com
