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From: Professor Edward Kent <ekent at brooklyn.cuny.edu>
I just heard an Oxfam representative report that we have now cut off food distribution to 3.7 million Afghanis who were being fed by international aid agencies. Yesterday, along with bombing selected targets, we dropped 37,000 food packets (an adult ration for one day) -- but Afghanistan is still seeded with previous drops -- Russian land mines -- that kill approximately 80 Afghans each day under routine conditions.
I see no reason to believe that bombing this already devastated country has any gain prospects for anyone. All that I sense is that a revenge impulse is being satisfied. May I remind of the image that was put forth several weeks ago of Afghanistan as a nation of concentration camp prisoners being guarded by Nazis (the Taliban). I am not sure that this image is correct for the Taliban, which seems to consist of a rag tag collection of illiterates trained only in war, but I don't see how we can justify what we are doing to the people there. Winter is upon them and they are starving. The Oxfam rep suggests that it would take 1,000 plane drops each month to begin to match what they have been distributing directly -- but the Soviet land mines remain.
I see Bin Laden as a mass murderer, a madman, but I fear that we have now joined him in the same killing fields that he infests. Hitler also outwitted his adversaries with ingenious new war strategies.
Does anyone see a positive outcome here?
Shalom/Salaam/Peace, -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) Email: CollegeConversation-subscribe at Yahoogroups.com Web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
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