What make Afghanistan such a terror?
I think there is two reason:
The first very reason is WAR.
The WAR between  Afghanistan and soviet , the WAR between  Afghanistan 
and US and so on have treated the people of Afghanistan so familiar 
with War and all thing about War.
The second reason is POVERTY.
Because the extreme poverty in Afghanistan and the extreme rich in 
US,especially somehing that related with the money between US and   
Afghanistan have more or less stimulate the Afghan to think out some 
method to get some "justice" no matter you(US people or other country 
people) think so or not.
So I think the best method to get rid of terrorism is not "only catch 
one or two Laden, Osama bin",is to really get rid of WAR and all thing 
that maybe cause WAR.
Everything in the world is like the natural environment.If the natural 
environment is polluted,nobody can not be affected by it!So maintain a 
good "envirment" is not only the responsibity of  Afghanistan but also 
of the US.I think more is of US,because the rich is US not the 
Afghanistan and only the rich can do more thing for God.
The above is only my opinion.I have no relation with Afghanistan!

38 responses total.

I think this item should be linked to Agora.

(Where was it started?)

Look, we are NOT at war with Afghanistan nor with the Afghans.  We are on
a mission to arrest, capture, incarcerate Osama bin Laden.  We asked the
government of Afganistan, the Taliban (who were largely invaders and NOT
Afghans), to hand him over.  They refused, and in fact offered to protect
him:  To get to him, we had to go through them.  And so we have.

It is completely reasonable to expect that we will offer such civil support
as may be desired now that the Taliban has surrendered.

We will continue to search for bin Laden, of course.

(It was started in the femme conference, presumably by mistake.)

        As long as the Afghans try to grow *food* instead of
poppy plants (heroin), they might find self sustinance.

  The famine in Afghanistan is largely a result of natural disaster,
  mostly drought, and to a lesser extent the man-made calamaties of war.
  Poppy cultivation is a problem, but I doubt it's a significant cause
  of the current famine.  Simply re-planting the fields currently sown
  with poppies with a more nutritious crop is not going to fix the Afghan
  hunger problem.

  Clearing land mines, providing seed and fertilizer, and donating enough
  food to help people survive the current crisis will go a long way towards
  sorting things out but the real trick will be convincing all of the 
  Afghan warriors to beat their AK-47s into plowshares so that the farmers
  who do manage to grow sucessful crops in coming seasons get to keep some
  of them and aren't just forced to hand everything over to the local band
  of brigands with the biggest guns..  I wish them luck working *that*
  problem out -- they're going to need it..

re4:  what kind of *food*  do you intend on helping them grow?

Yeah, they grow the poppy plants because it is more profitable. They 
might not be able to grow enough food to feed their families. 

  re #6:  I think he was planning on advocating cannibalism.  At least
          that's what I took "self sustinance" [sic] to mean.

I expect that the growing of opium poppy in Afghanistan will explode in 
the wake of the Taliban's ouster.  The economics favor it over food crops 
overwhelmingly, and without the moral strictures of the taliban to 
prevent it, and with the subsequent government being nebulous at best and 
criminally opportunistic at not worst but more likely anyway, there are 
few motivations to plant anything else...

Uh, no.  From what I hear, the Taliban had no objections at all to growing
opium, as long it was sold to infidels.  So it is neither more nor less
likely.  Unless our foreign aid package can make a difference.

  Uh, no to your "Uh, no."

  The Taliban tolerated (perhaps encouraged) opium cultivation for years
  but fairly recently (no further back than 1998, I think..) they agreed
  to ban cultivation in the areas under their control and apparently did
  a fairly thorough job of it.  

  It was one of the few examples of the Taliban regime changing policy in
  response to external pressure and the U.S. and several other western
  countries with fairly chilly relations with Afghanistan rewarded the
  move by providing funds for food aid and other "humanitarian relief."

  [In the early days of the aftermath of 9/11, this U.S. policy even
  came in for fairly heavy but erroneous criticism from pundits who
  claimed that we'd given millions of dollars to the Taliban regime
  as a payoff for going along with our "War on Drugs" policy.  The
  criticisms were misguided because (a) the aid was supplied in the
  form of food and relief supplies, not cash, and (b) the materials
  were provided to humanitarian relief organizations and not directly
  to the Taliban government, for whatever distinction that counts for
  when the Taliban control most of the country.]

Until the early 20th century, civilized countries were making a lot of money
selling drugs like opium to poorer countries in Asia while banning its sale
at home. (Like DDT).  In fact England had a war with China to force them to
permit the legal importation of opium so that the English could make money
to buy Chinese silks.  The opium was grown in India.

  "The English love for China tea
   brought deficit to the economy.
   What could we sell back?
   Send in the army to deal some smack.."

                              -the Mekons

Yeah, it was tea not silk the brits wanted.  It was partially the fault
of the chinese.  The chinese required hard money (silver or gold bullion
- silver lac for the most part).  THe british merchants had a hard time
comming up with the cash (no pun intended - is where we get the term)
and took to running opium to fund the legitimate trading in tea - the
brits (some americans) required hard money in payment for opium. 
Officially, the british and the qing outlawed the drug trade. 
Unofficially, many depended on it for their livelyhood - british banks
were worried about the hard money flowing out funding the tea trade and
qing officials didn't like money just sitting doing nothing, thus the
drug trade.

Many prominent US families 'made their bones' in the chinese opium
trade.

Tea and opium are both addictive drugs and have both been heavily taxed and
both have been the cause of wars.  Other highly taxed drugs now or previuosly
- alcohol, tobacco, salt (at one point the salt tax in India was so high that
there was a thriving smuggling business).

Tea is not addictive. I drink a lot, but I can go without for long periods
with no withdrawal symptoms. All addictive drugs involve significant
withdrawl problems (by definition). While tea is not addictive, it
is still "recreational", and putting special taxes on it would be like
putting special taxes on chocolate.

Tea has been the subject of special taxes in the past.  Tea & coffee are
both definitely addictive, but the effect is much less strong than
nicotine.

Rane is obviously one of those people who denies that he has a drinking
problem.  He probably drinks when alone (and not to be social), and
keeps a private stash, which we all know are symptoms of his problem.
In another age, Rane might have paid smugglers, or even staged a
rebellion, in order to ensure his supply of tea.

My Lipton tea does not seem to have the kick that morphine has.   Are you
brewing opium tea, Marcus?  Harper's published a recipie two years ago.

I did say "much less strong".  Sure you got your reading glasses on?

help. i am a teaholic. :( <--sad boo boo face

Everytime I've been at Rane's, he's tried to force me to drink some tea with
him. Sure sign of an addict.

Yes, every time I've been at Rane's, he's also tried to force me to drink
tea with him.

OH man. I guess that means that the big friendship I have been planning 
to have with rane will have to be called off. I cant have other 
teaholics in my life. Sorry rane. :( <---- sad boo boo face

8(.....  <---sad booboo face with drippy sad tears!

Hey, this item is about what make Afghanistan such a terror, not
what makes Rane such a terror.  Not that the latter is an
uninteresting topic, mind you.

JOhn, are you suggesting that Rane blew up the WTC? That's slander, sir.

Suffice it to say that for all practical purposes a comparison of tea and 
opium is specious at best.

I AM addicted to water. I get very grouchy if deprived of water in some
form. I'm not sure what I might do if forcibly denied water.

I've heard that, if Rane doesn't consume something with water in it every day,
he'll die. Sounds like an addict to me.

#27> May I see your credentials, the ones the entitle you to rank such
arguments?

the first time i met rane, he tried to sell me a scone. "fresh, kid. and
piping hot. just flown in from my secret lab outside of inverness."

Cranberry or plain?

(I wondered what happened to those clones......)

Send in the scones?

  re #28:  depriving you of water would no doubt result in Rane-al failure..

<waits for someone to make the rane-water joke>

Anyone here younger (mentally) than 10?

I've been so accused, but I'm not going to make the rane-water joke.
Besides, I'm just passing through.
PASSING.
Heh heh.

Oh nevermind.

reign it in a little, kersh.

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