From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Sep 24 16:47:32 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from femail32.sdc1.sfba.home.com (femail32.sdc1.sfba.home.com [24.254.60.22]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 337BE37B410 for ; Mon, 24 Sep 2001 16:47:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ATLANTA.threespace.com ([24.21.224.204]) by femail32.sdc1.sfba.home.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with ESMTP id <20010924234727.CPKR19285.femail32.sdc1.sfba.home.com@ATLANTA.threespace.com> for ; Mon, 24 Sep 2001 16:47:27 -0700 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010924191808.0227cf28@threespace.com> X-Sender: tech@threespace.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 19:47:14 -0400 To: FreeBSD Chat From: Technical Information Subject: Re: helping victims of terror In-Reply-To: <20010925001027.A750@lpt.ens.fr> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010924170815.0180aee8@threespace.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org First off, let me say that I'm not well-educated enough about these other incidents to debate with you on them. So there it is for you--an American admitting on the record that he is ignorant on a foreign issue. ;-) But even if the CIA was involved in training and arming these people, it was NOT done in the name of terrorism. It was made in the interest of stopping the spread of Communism, which has been part of our national directive for decades now. The fact that these men later turned rogue and used their knowledge against the U.S. or any other peoples doesn't mean that they should not be stopped. As I've said before, their training and past history are irrelevant here. What they did was wrong. "This crime is not acceptable" and "it all comes around eventually" don't sound like they could come from the same person to me. Frankly, my hope is that if there's any good to come out of this whole horrible mess, it's that this can be used as a rallying cry to bring many nations together that will help stamp out terrorism. I don't believe that the U.S. can do it acting as a lone cowboy, but I do believe that this country is in a unique position to help co-ordinate and bolster the efforts of many nations that have the will but lack the way to achieve this goal. And if that means no more bombings in Bombay, London, or New York, then in my mind that's A Good Thing. Even if you do think the U.S. was slow to take a hard stance on terrorism, I don't really see how you can condemn our desire to stop it once and for all. With lots of luck and assistance, we may just succeed. --Chip Morton PS -- And I would still like to know where your country's leaders/people stand on this issue? At 06:10 PM 9/24/2001, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: >This crime is not acceptable. There is no justification for it. >America has every right to retaliate. No argument on that. > >BUT - knowing America, the retaliation is only going to create a >further unholy mess, which will poison the region for years, as if it >hasn't been damaged enough already, and I'm from a country in that >region which is already suffering from the terrorism which resulted >from America's earlier experiments there. Islamic terrorists, from >that part of the world, using know-how gained from Americans, set off >serial bomb blasts in 1992-93 in Bombay which killed hundreds of >people. Where was your American anti-terrorist fervour then? They >hijacked an Indian Airlines flight from Nepal, and after taking it all >over the middle east, kept it for days in Khandahar (Afghanistan), >killing one passenger on the way. They've killed thousands in >Kashmir. Forget about India if you like: Pakistan, America's >erstwhile ally, has been perhaps the hardest hit by fundamentalist >sectarian violence; Pakistan's politicians acknowledge it today. They >too made mistakes in not controlling the cancer earlier; but >ultimately all this, I repeat, is the doing of the CIA; they couldn't >stomach the thought of the Soviets entering Afghanistan, and any means >were fair game to the end of getting them out. Well, it all comes >around eventually. > >This time, I fear, the results of America's "revenge" will be much >worse: not only for countries in that region, but for the whole world. >That's not to say nothing should be done. Handled wisely, maybe >terrorism can indeed be controlled, the lot of those countries can be >improved, the world can become a better place. Somehow, I don't trust >America to take us to that kind of Utopia. Not on past record. I'm >mildly encouraged by the fact that they haven't started bombing yet; >but only mildly. > >R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message