Watched 13 Days Last Night

Post #9,351 by gdaustin 9/16/01 8:24:48 AM Reply	Watched 13 Days Last Night And the chess match that ensued over the Cuban Missile Crisis. I really didn't realize that we were hours from a nuclear exchange. Had Kennedy listened to the military, most of us might not be here right now. Now I see a justifiably angry United States and President, but I also see a huge chess match being played by what I believe to be a bunch of rich Arabs who possibly want to take us down many notches on the worldwide ladder. I fear that we are walking into a huge trap if we engage in Afghanistan. I have no doubt that we will fare better in combat than the Russians did there, but I'm certain that as soon as we attack, most of the Muslim world will join on the side of the Afghans. We'll see countries like Pakistan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia all join on Afghanistan's side. I think Pakistan is a trap to get us built up militarily in there, and then attack us. We only need 1 country with nuclear capabilities to join "their side" and this gets really ugly fast. Maybe I shouldn't be watching nuke theat movies at this time. Glen Austin
Post #9,352 by dmarker2 9/16/01 8:47:41 AM Reply	Re: US will not ... do it for the very reasons you raise. This is a mighty trap. The assisnation of Masood (now confirmed dead) was to remove the only Afghan that could legitimately have presented a challenge to the Taliban, with extra help from others. Pakistan is the country the provided the weapons that pushed Masood out. Pakistan to a degree is the Taliban. Pakistan is walking a tightrope but also must be considered to be part of the trap. The one hope here is that the Indians would be more than ready to attack Pakistan if things got really ugly. India wants to destroy Pakistani nuke capacity. The next few days will be telling Cheers Doug M
Post #9,379 by Ashton 9/16/01 3:45:00 PM Reply	I lived through Cuban events, too. It was well understood what might occur next, at least among the literate - though rarely overtly addressed in media. This was a direct face-down with Khrushchev (who had previously near-humiliated the new President in a naive exchange, at a first meeting). SAC bombers were all in the air; options included.. what could only be accurately described as H. Kahn's spasm war, and those who knew technology: understood fully what might actually occur. Fortunately for all higher life-forms, Khrushchev possessed a heart as well as an intellect. For it ALL WAS up to: Nikita Khrushchev and the Presidium of the USSR. We had made our response to his stimulus evident. I deem Khrushchev the wiser of the two leaders, in the near-END. He alone - prevented near-annihilation. That should have been close enough.. for ANYONE, and surely is a major reason for the restraint all those next years. Perhaps in retrospect: it was a Victory for us all. ('nuclear winter' had not yet been coined; certainly its prospect was not envisioned even amongst the techno- intelligentsia of '62. Maybe there also weren't quite enough active missiles to achieve that epitaph for homo-sap repetitive folly. But that fact would have been incidental to the ego-battles.) 39 years later .... ???
Post #9,415 by Steve Lowe 9/17/01 12:12:26 AM Reply	but are they? from the AP: Official: Pakistan to Demand Bin Laden ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) A delegation of senior Pakistani officials will go to Afghanistan on Monday to demand that the ruling Taliban militia hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States, a top government official said. The delegation, which is traveling to the Taliban's headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, will issue an ultimatum to the religious militia: either deliver Bin Laden, the leading suspect in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, or risk a massive retaliatory assault, the official said Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Taliban will be told that the international community has been mobilized to attack Afghanistan if the Taliban, a devoutly Muslim militia that rules roughly 95 percent of the country, refuse to turn over bin Laden, the official said. There was no indication that the Taliban would be given a deadline to decide. They are, at least, in appearance, attempting to help. ----- Steve
Post #9,543 by dmarker2 9/17/01 8:02:30 PM Reply	Re: You are being misled !!!! What you are being told in US is not what we are hearing from direct interviews in Pakistan. The delegation from Pakistan is to tell the Taliban (who they keep supplied with weapons) to expell Bin Laden. It is only in US reports that it reads hand over So if you want to believe those reports do so - but they are not correct. Cheers Doug
Post #9,430 by GBert 9/17/01 9:51:24 AM Reply	Round two of Gulf War I have to see this as yet another try at creating a Moslem superpower by force of arms. The invasion of Kuwait was very strange, and in my mind must have been linked not only with taking control of the Saudi oilfields, but even more importantly of the Saudi holy places of Mecca and Medina, and thus provide a rallying point for islamic supernationalism, around which a de facto Islamic superpower could form with nukes, manpower, financial assets, and, with a potential reach from Morocco to Indonesia, and from Nigeria to Kazakhstan, a stranglehold on the world's oil supplies and a dominating position over some of the most populated and productive areas of the world. The coalition that defeated Iraq was made possible I think by the realisation by arab leaders that Saddam would be in charge of them if he got what he wanted. This time the aspiring "leader" is not so obvious and some may hope to gain advantage by going along with the project. I believe the outline of a similar goal is becoming visible here -- create a totalitarian anti- or at least un-western superpower using islamic fundamentalism as the tool to rally support. The continuing search by islamic countries to develop weapons of mass destruction (Pakistan has had them for many years, but were not so influenced by fundamentalists as they have been recently) is a prerequisite for a superpower. The most important countries to "get on board" because of their population and technological and scientific capabilities would have to be Egypt and Pakistan, and both certainly have powerful fundamentalist movements capable of exerting strong influence (that's a euphemism) on their governments. We really need to get people to understand that a holy war waged on behalf of such terrorists and thugs would a crime against Islam -- but is this possible? Giovanni

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