Keith Hudson wrote: > Whatever else may be said about the unique qualities of mankind, the > activity of trade between two culturally disparate groups -- who may even > hate each other on other matters -- is certainly one of them. Amazing > examples of this occurred in the Bosnian war a few years ago when Muslims > and Serbs would be fighting each other savagely one day, and trading > essential foodstuffs with each other the next.
It is a sick irony that Keith mentions this example, because it was the so-called "Free Trade" (IMF policies) that had brought these people into that desperate situation in the first place. (see http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9904a/yugodismantle.html and http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumnew22.htm ) The same is true for the latest war. Rather than a "war on terrorism" (Sudan had offered to hand over Bin Laden years ago, and the Taliban offered to put him on trial), the issue in Afghanistan is the oil pipeline that oilman Dubya and a Texan oil company has planned to build for years, to drain the "oil reserves of the future" in Central Asia. As the vice- president of that oil company put it in February 1998 (in a U$ parliament hearing): "From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of our proposed pipeline [through Afghanistan] cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of ... our company." (see http://www.house.gov/international_relations/105th/ap/wsap212982.htm ) What's going on now is the (preps for) installation of such a government. Meanwhile, the U$ vehicle fuel efficiency has hit the lowest level in two decades (20.4 miles per gallon), so it's about time for cheaper oil thru a new pipeline... (see http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-05-06.html ) Chris ____________________________________________________________________ "It was the Americans, after all, who poured resources into the 1980s war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul, at a time when girls could go to school and women to work. Bin Laden and his mojahedin were armed and trained by the CIA and MI6, as Afghanistan was turned into a wasteland" --UK newspaper The Guardian 13-09-2001
