Bush, Poppy, and His Friend Omar

Apropos of the ludicrous legend of Bush's loathing for fundamentalist Islam, and the failing memories of some of my most loyal readers, a review of recent historical events is in order.

For the first several months of Bush's Presidency, he saw the Taliban as someone he could do business with.  January 1, 2001 marked the beginning of the third year of a severe drought in Afghanistan. Because of its refusal to turn over bin Laden for the bombings in Nairobi and Dar, the Clinton administration had successfully pushed for U.N. sanctions against the country. (Remember when we had friends in the UN?) The only three governments in the world that recognized the Taliban were Pakistan, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

In July of 2000 the Taliban had banned the growth of poppies, declaring their production as against the will of Allah. It was amazingly successful, especially considering the desperation of the farmers. As the NY Times reported in May,2001:

The edict was issued by Mullah Muhammad Omar, referred to as Amir-ul-Momineen, the supreme leader of the faithful...

Almost every farmer complied, some grudgingly, some not. ''Even if it means my children die, I will obey my amir,'' said Nur Ali, sitting in his fields, sipping tea...

Poppy was not only profitable; it spread the money around. The work was labor intensive. Landowners had to hire field hands to turn the soil and collect the opium paste. The ban has denied jobs to hundreds of thousands.

Many of these laborers have now fled to Pakistan or Iran or the huge camps that have filled up like arenas near the city of Herat. Others are found eating roots and grass. In some villages, flour is considered too precious to be used in bread; it lasts longer if mixed with water and cooked as a soup.

The Bush administration loved this kind of radical act, and had nothing but praise for the Taliban, so we violated the sanctions that we had fought to impose.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell announced a $43 million grant to Afghanistan in additional emergency aid to cope with the effects of a prolonged drought. The United States has become the biggest donor to help Afghanistan in the drought.

''We will continue to look for ways to provide more assistance to the Afghans,'' he said in a statement, ''including those farmers who have felt the impact of the ban on poppy cultivation, a decision by the Taliban that we welcome.'' (emphasis added)

Bush has no fundamental problem with radical Islam; in fact he seemed to admire their fundamentalism - somewhat akin to his own.

Comments

[rick]

We flew thousands of tons of wheat and other surplus food commodities into the air base at Bagram during the summer of 2001. The Northern Alliance and Taliban were struggling for control of this airbase. The Northern Alliance was under the command of Ahmad Shah Masood who the U. S. strongly supported. Masood was the warlord of the Panjir valley which was the only area of Afghanistan not controlled by the Taliban. Our support for him was much more overt than our support for the Mujahadeen during the Soviet occupation. Flying the food stuffs into Bagram was an effort to get it into his hands for distribution. Masood was assassinated by the Taliban on September 9th 2001. Surely you know all this? Trying to paint this as Bush supporting the Taliban is; well, I’ll call it creative literature. You would allow a reader to believe we sent a suitcase full of unmarked Benjamins to Mullah Omar. Others might be a tad tempted to call it ‘lying’. Not me though. Your hatred of Bush clouds your memory and causes you to cut and paste things just a bit. You surely are not opposed to trying to get food to starving people? Are you? And you are generally ok with the heroin trade? And if the government in Columbia would crack down on cocaine trade that would not be a good thing? Not to worry, when the paint dries, you can simply walk out.

And yes, we did threaten to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age for supporting the Taliban.

“Bush has no fundamental problem with radical Islam; in fact he seemed to admire their fundamentalism - somewhat akin to his own.”

The Daily Kos is like the bar scene from Star Wars. This is the level of discourse I’d expect to see spewed over there. I always thought this to be beneath you. At least, that’s what I thought. I would not say that about the worst of the worst on your side. It sickens me to think that anybody on my side might say such a thing about a future President Clinton or Obama.

I have been paying close attention to Thompson lately trying to decide who to throw the shoulder behind. I have to confess though. You’re sorta making a Rudy fan out of me. I have always been bothered by his ‘colorful’, to say the least, past. But if it bothers the left I should probably rethink

[bbbustard]

It is amazing to me how little true patriots like your goodself, actually care about the ideal of a democratic republic. Many of my friends on the right have made similar comments indicating that they like to vote for the guy that would most irritate the other (my) side. You have often suggested that I am naieve -and you're probably right that I am silly to expect honesty from you, or even for you not to mock my respect for honesty. I actually even believe that a vote means something.
Rudy does not have a "colorful" past- his is a past of vindictive viciousness - the guy's a bastard. Some people to whom I am quite close, some who are probably just as right wing as you, have worked with or for Rudy, and even voted for him once upon a time - could better explain to you how bad he really is.
Does it bother me, as a leftist, that your cavalier attitude about politics indicates that you couldn't care less about your country? Yeah, it does.

You state that the $43 Million that Colin Powell mentioned went to our favored War Lord,and not to the Afghan government. I did not understand that from reading Powell's announcement. If I was wrong, I apologize.

I also apologize for disagreeing with you - as clearly you are quite ill. As the mere thought of anyone on your side comparing a "future President Clinton or Obama" to an Islamic fundamentalist sickens you - you must be most unwell, considering how constant is that refrain.

Hoping that your health, and your love for democracy, returns swiftly,
bbbustard