On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, James A. Donald wrote:
> The Taliban were illegitimate, not on legal grounds, but
> because they were evil.
Using this line of "reasoning", Shrub is ripe for that overdue case of
high velocity lead poisoning.
> If someone was in the Taliban, then those threatened by the
> Taliban have a strong case for locking him up, just as we
> locked up nazis. Thirdly a government that systematically
> depopulates large areas of the territory it supposedly rules is
> not as legitimate as warlords with genuine local roots and
> traditional authority, who for the most part came to power
> through religious or military leadership in a spontaneous
> revolution against tyranny.
And if the local warlords are also participating in a vast depopulation,
then what?
> No one in the Northern alliance
> ever controlled territory though ethnic cleansing.
>
> I can easily imagine circumstances where ethnic cleansing is a
> legitimate response to an intransigent enemy with strong roots
> in the local population - but the fact that the Taliban used
> such measures shows they did not have strong roots in the local
> population.
You don't see a circular problem here?
--
Yours,
J.A. Terranson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
0xBD4A95BF
"An ill wind is stalking
while evil stars whir
and all the gold apples
go bad to the core"
S. Plath, Temper of Time
