[lbo-talk] query: Arundhati Roy

[Jim Devine]

On 3/6/06, Chris Doss wrote: Afghanistan >is in abominable shape. But
things have greatly improved in the countries AROUND Afghanistan,
since the Taliban are out of the spreading international jihad
business. From the viewpoint of people in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
India, and Russia, that was the point of the war.<

are you sure? I'm no friend of the Taliban (for some reason they
wouldn't have me ;-), but isn't it possible that U, T, I, and R's
leading cliques were simply blaming the Taliban for
internally-generated problems? It's common to blame class or ethnic or
nationalist antagonisms on "outside agitators."

For example, India has problems with "jihadists" because of the
ongoing fight over Kashmir. Might not this problem (including the
terrorism at India's parliament) have occurred anyway, even without
the Taliban? After all, India or Kashmir wasn't the major focus of the
Taliban's ire, was it?

(do you know about the new radical washing machine?

(yes, it has an outside agitator!

(rim-shot)
--
Jim Devine / Bust Big Brother Bush!
"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their
common sense." -- Gertrude Stein