Guest guest Posted September 19, 2001 Report Share Posted September 19, 2001 Friends on Lyme Aid: This was written by my doctor, Dr. Teitelbaum who treats Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Fibromyalgia ( of which mine is being caused by Lyme with his help). His message is very potent and helps us to see life from another perspective. I, for one would like to suggest another type of strategy: that the worst thing we could do to the Afghanistan country would be to HELP their people, with food, medicine, education, asylum to other countries for their own protection, adoption of orphaned chidden, helping widows and at the same time, " smoke out " ben Laden! The Bible says that we are to help those in need, if this is the true state of affairs in Afghanistan as stated below, this would " heap coals of fire " on ben Laden and the Taliban's heads, because this is exactly what they DO NOT WANT TO DO, help their people to become strong enough to overthrow their own tyrants! Just a thought, pass this on if you think it is worthy to share with others! God Bless America! Let us show what kind of people we really are, loving, caring and helping to even our enemies, in the midst of our pain, we still reach out to help others, while still trying to " root out the evil " in their land, Afghanistan! KC in TX A Letter on Terrorism A Letter on Terrorism Dear friends, I know that these are trying times for all of us. Instead of an update this week on Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, I hope you don't mind my sharing some thoughts and feelings on these events. We are all looking for ways to help heal our country, our planet, and ourselves. Many of us tried to give blood, only to be turned away (lovingly) by the Red Cross having been told that donating blood had often flared people's CFS/FMS because of the blood volume depletion seen in these syndromes. I would like to propose another way that we can help. During these times, it is easy, because of our very appropriate anger, to want to lash out at somebody. This is very normal and, with our vast military might, would be an easy and tempting thing. Although it might briefly assuage our anger, it would need to be very carefully directed. Otherwise, we will simply be repeating the horrific acts that the terrorists have perpetrated on us. As the terrorists were willing to give their lives for this horrible act, it is obvious that (albeit from their very warped perspective) they thought they were doing the right thing. To go in and, as a few commentators have proposed, " bomb Afghanistan back to the stone ages " will simply create more terrorists and the unnecessary deaths of more of our loved ones. Those who know me well know that I'm not the least bit afraid, when necessary, to take drastic action. I simply choose that the action take us where we want to go. Although I do feel that some military action will be needed, I think it needs to be done with an understanding of the perspective of others living on our planet and compassion for the suffering felt by many thousands of parents who watch their children starve to death everyday. It is in this way that those all over the world who love can come together to heal the planet -- instead of fighting with each other to destroy it. I hope the letter I received below may help in our understanding. Love and best wishes, Teitelbaum M.D. Just received the below forwarded email from my friend Didi, a lovely woman (and Rabbi's wife) with much heart and soul. It is written by Tamim Ansary, an Afghani-American writer. Here is his take on Afghanistan and what is going on. It definitely gives us another perspective. I don't know that a " solution " will constellate anytime soon, yet the more perspectives we can accept, the more compassionate our intentions may be. With compassion and love, M. Adam Sheck ******************************************************************* I've been hearing a lot of talk about 'bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age.' Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but 'we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?' Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we 'have the belly to do what must be done.' And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing. I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters. But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think 'the people of Afghanistan' think 'the Jews in the concentration camps.' It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban. We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that. New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time. So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of 'having the belly to do what needs to be done' they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's allright there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else? Tamim Ansary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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