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Saturday, Oct 27, 2001
One, Two, Three, What are We Fightin' For?
October 27, 2001
The justification for bombing Afghanistan goes like this ...
Osama is pure evil. The Taliban have been providing refuge for him, so they are evil by association. The Northern Alliance is the enemy of the Taliban. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Our new friends in the Northern Alliance need some air support so that they can sweep the Taliban out of power. (But let's not move too quickly, because we need time to broaden the alliance and bring the old king out of his retirement villa.)
As we manage to take out a helicopter here, a tank there, a hospital, and repeated direct hits on a Red Cross food warehouse, it becomes increasingly clear that the Northern Alliance couldn't get it up with a wide open IV line of Viagra.
In the meantime, the words of recently executed opposition leader Abdul Haq seem prophetic. To paraphrase: There are too many civilian casualties of the bombing campaign. You will weaken the position of the moderates within the Taliban regiem, and you will cause the people of Afghanistan to rally around the Taliban.
Back on the Fox News network, hawkish elements are blaming the failure of the war effort on a) politicians tying the hands of the commanders in the field, and b) insufficient use of force. When in doubt, use a bigger hammer!