11 September 2001 - One historical perspective

[Guest guest]

List;

This is not dwarfism related - however it is fascinating. It is not

a chain letter or a hoax but it can be construed as political.

It is an article written to SLATE by the former prime minister of

Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, (as far as I know - the only female leader

of an Islamic nation) and details a quite interesting history of the

Taliban organization.

This is purely for information and it is quite long - so feel free to

delete it if you're not interested.

If this is out of line, then please accept my apologies in advance.

Randy Bradford

A Former Pakistani Prime Minister Weighs In

By Benazir Bhutto

Friday, Sept. 21, 2001, at 2:27 p.m. PT

Little in life springs from whole cloth. That is especially

true of Sept. 11, 2001, a date stained into the calendar of

civilization. This was a calamity two decades in the making.

At the end of 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, hoping

to strengthen their position in Central Asia and develop

proximity to the resources and warm ports of the Gulf. Almost

immediately an indigenous insurrection developed to challenge

the Soviet occupation. The freedom fighters were called the

" Mujahadeen " and were composed of seven different factions.

In its early days, the Reagan administration made a decision

that would shape the course of history. It backed the one

faction most likely to successfully challenge the Soviets on

the battlefield. Working with their counterparts in the

Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the CIA armed,

trained, and empowered the most extreme, anti-modernity,

anti-Western zealots within the Mujahadeen. This propelled

the extremists to a leadership position in the war of

resistance and in the politics that followed.

The war in Afghanistan caused one of the great refugee

migrations in modern history. Nearly three million Afghans

crossed into Pakistan to escape the fighting. Almost

immediately scores of special Islamic schools, called

Madrassas, sprang up. The boys that were sent there by their

parents to be nourished and educated were taught extremism,

intolerance, subjugation of women, and violence. All of these

elements are antithetical to the Holy Book and to the

teachings of the Prophet.

When the children were not being brainwashed, they were

trained in hand-to-hand combat, the use of weapons, and

terrorist strategy. These schools became the recruitment

centers for the fanatic administration that ultimately took

control of Afghanistan after the Soviet exit. The new

political movement was named after the schools themselves.

The word " Talib " means student!

I became prime minister of Pakistan in 1988 during the waning

days of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The last Soviet

troops were airlifted out of Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989.

The international community quickly turned its attention to

events in Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was left

concerned at the lack of a post-Soviet plan for the

reconstruction and governing of Afghanistan. I was also

concerned at the go-at-it-alone attitude of the extremist

factions that wanted the government, and ultimately they

prevailed. I suspected that having defeated one superpower,

the zealots felt invincible and divinely empowered to take

aim at another.

As a moderate, progressive, democratically elected woman prime

minister of Pakistan, I was a threat to the fundamentalist

zealots on multiple levels and targeted by them in both my

governments. They had the support of sympathetic elements

within Pakistan's security apparatus and the financial

support of people like Osama Bin Laden. I had closed their

training university in Peshawar and was targeted for that. I

had tracked down and extradited the Ramzi Yousef, the

perpetrator of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and

was targeted for that. My government was destabilized. Money

was pilfered and laundered from state banks to fund the

campaigns of opposition parties. We learned from Ramzi Yousef

before he was extradited to the United States that I was the

object of two separate assassination attempts in 1993. Osama

Bin Laden personally spent over $10 million in late 1989 in

support of a motion of no confidence to topple my government.

And ultimately, with the active support of elements of the

Pakistani military, my two democratically elected governments

were sacked and elections rigged to ensure that my party

would not return to power. Beware the power of zealots who

are well-funded, well-armed, and supported by elements of

your own government!

That brings us to the present. A complex and well-funded

terrorist network executed the most inhuman terrorist attack

in history. The target was America, but it was also the

values of freedom everywhere. It seemed Osama and his cohorts

read Professor Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations

and wished to provoke its thesis into reality. Their goal

is for the Muslim world to see U.S. retaliation as an act of

aggression against Islam. Sept. 11 was the bait.

Sadly, this is not over. The United States responded quickly

in declaring a fight against international terrorism and

cautioned it will be a long process. Asked to assist the U.S.

effort against terrorism, Islamabad responded positively. It

did this despite elements within the military intelligence

complex that have sympathy for the Taliban.

Pakistan is saddled with $38 billion in international debt,

with $4 billion owed to America. With Egypt and Jordan, the

United States has repaid political support with debt

retirement in the past. Islamabad expects the same

treatment. It also expects the repeal of the discriminatory

Pressler amendment denying military and economic aid to

Pakistan because of its nuclear program.

There is one price that Islamabad could demand that is too

great and too dangerous to grant. The United States and the

Commonwealth support the holding of free, fair, party-based

elections to restore democracy to my nation in 2002.

Islamabad may be tempted to ask the United States to abandon

its support for Pakistani democracy in exchange for support

in the war against international terrorism. The previous

military dictator General Zia did this successfully in the

'80s. But pressure for a return to democracy should continue.

In fact, in light of the horrible lessons of Afghanistan in

the 1980s, the United States should be exquisitely sensitive

to the fact that democracies don't start wars; democracies

don't engage in international terrorism. Allowing

dictatorship to strengthen its stranglehold over the

democratic institutions of Pakistan can, in the long run,

create an even greater enstein than the U.S.

miscalculation with the Mujahadeen in the 1980s. Osama

commandeers jets. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The United

States must demand a democratic Pakistan to stave off a true

catastrophe in the future.

Benazir Bhutto is the former prime minister of the Islamic

Republic of Pakistan