I certainly agree wholeheartedly that bombing back is not a constructive
answer. When I said that I agree, I meant more that I understand what Owens
was saying about the role of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the suffering
that is happening there. I also believe that this war that Bush announced
yesterday is just what bin Laden wants to happen. He basically announced the
need for a world war, and I think that for all of us, that is very very
frightening. I live and work in New York City and all of this is making me
rethink alot of things including my personal safety. I am in my late 20s
with two parents who lived through WWII, one who was very active, and was
always praying that I would never have to experience something like this,
and I'm sure that this will change all of us in someway, and make us
question many beliefs that we have. I think that for all of us, the coping
process will be an enormous one, and I think that we are all making comments
that need to be heard, and are also being done as part of our process of
questioning everything. Whatever happens, I'm sure it will be something that
none of us have experienced, so it is very unfair for any of us to judge
each other. (Violet-this is a comment to everyone, not you. I very much
appreciated your response.)

I wish the best for everyone and hope that you, your families, and friends
are all safe and well.
Leah

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Violet Ciotti [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 4:48 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: [Re: article: Sep.11 & the nature of museum mission]
>
> Thank you Dominque for presenting the other side of the story in that
> touching letter.  Leah and Patricia, I understand your concerns and
> questions on this terrible event and also find it hard to fathom.
> However, if we react like the terrorists, we are no better ourselves and
> thats why we are differnt. My very good friend actually sent me the same
> letter and wrote this at the beginning of her forward which I thought was
> very moving:
> hey everyone!
>
> my apologies in advance for anyone who's already received this, but i
> really
> feel it needs to be read by as many people as possible. it was forwarded
> to
> me by one of my highscool teachers from back in costa rica; a teacher who
> was instrumental in teaching me not to let CNN guide my beliefs, but
> rather
> take it as one source out of many that i can draw my own beliefs.  i have
> recieved so many emails about the righteousness of the American
> government.
> i really feel that this is dangerous because it encourages blind support
> for
> whatever they do and however they choose to deal with the current
> situation.
>   we have ample accounts of past American initiatives (Vietnam, Serbia)
> that
> resulted in massive amounts of civilian casualties - after which everyone
> hummed and hawed and then got on with their daily lives because after all,
> it wasn't Americans being massacred.  do we really want to see history
> repeated?
> no one that i know seems to have any idea about the reality of life in
> Afghanistan, and just what kind of people the US wants to blast to
> smithereens in the name of fighting terrorism.   after all the wars we've
> fought, after all the bombs we've dropped, after all the sanctions we've
> imposed on dissident countries, have we still not learned that attacking
> civilians DOES NOT WORK?  this forward sent to me is so well-written,
> articulate, and effective because it comes from the mouth of the horse,
> so-to-speak.
> I truly beleive that a major step along the road to a more peaceable
> existence is that we recognize ourselves, individually, as citizens of the
> world, and not just as citizens of our respective countries.  if we
> accept,
> and live off the benefits of a country that expounds freedom and democracy
> (most importantly a democratically elected government - a "government of
> the
> people")  then we also have to accept resonsibility for what our
> government
> does.  (remember Canucks, we offically support the US) the death of every
> single afghani peasant, farmer, and peddler will be on our hands - as the
> people who support a regime who goes outside of our borders and kills
> innocent people....when in this case, IT IS NOT NECESSARY.
>
> please read on and be aware of the *value* of AWARENESS.  let's educate
> ourselves.  where we have no power to act, let's at least change the way
> we
> think.  most of you of my generation will have kids to raise, beliefs to
> instill in them, and examples to set for them.  governments are made up of
> people and people make mistakes.  let's not support ours doing the same
> this
> time just because we are angry and hurt and sad and scared.  terrorism
> WILL
> beget terrorism, if we let it.
>
> love heather
> PS this is what happens to you when you study political science for four
> years - you become a raving madwoman re: anything political!
> ____________________________________________________________________
> >>Dear Friends,
> >>The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim
> >>Ansary. Tamim is an
> >>Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most
> >>brilliant people
> >>
> >>I know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he
> >>talks, I listen.
> >>Here
> >>is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are
> >>in.
> >>  -Gary T.
> >>
> >>Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
> >>
> 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
>
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