Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Afghanistan is actually negotiating with the US over giving Osama bin Laden over. In Dagbladet.no the headline is "Afghanistan declares holy war", which is not supported in the article. True to the level-headed nature of western journalism, a potential war is much better news than the more reassuring facts. What the article contains is a list of benefits the Taliban government wants in exchange for Osama bin Laden, hero and son-in-law to the head of the Taliban government (she's his fifth wife, gee, isn't it convenient to live in a culture where you can marry strategically as many times as you like?). Despite the fact that there is no hard evidence made public which connects bin Laden to the killings at the moment, they are negotiating.

Where did the holy war come in? That's the last threath if the United States starts bombing. History shows that when the people of Afghanistan say they are willing to die for a cause, well, that's just what they do. USA took advantage of that to destabilise USSR. Will the need for a symbolic act to satisfy the blood-thirst of grieving Americans be what puts USA in the situation USSR was in?

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