American Afghans support bombing

are you for real?

I am for real, and I would encourage you to seek out Afghan Americans and see what they think of this act.

The taliban is also real, and you would not want to live under their rule. I have come to believe that their is a vocal minority of Americans who do not take the time to learn about the realities of the world. They simply are suspicious and oppose any and all violence legitimized by their governement.

Most afghanis are here as refugees from either the Soviet invasion and subsequent communist regime, or from the Taliban. The bombing gives them hope that these regimes will be overthrown and their family and friends who are left behind will enjoy the freedoms that they do. I'm sure that simply because he/she "supports" the bombing doesn't mean 1) that they aren't concerned about civilian casulties or 2) that they want to eradicate everyone left.

Attribution of those two qualities (unconcern for innocents and a lust for genocide) to everyone who supports the bombing creates a false dicotomy and is messy reasoning that we all, as educated people, should avoid.

I was talking to an Afghan taxi driver in Freemont that told me the exact same thing a few months ago before all this began.

Yes, I've noticed this dissonance several times now -- when hearing Afghan-Americans speak on KPFA and also at the Afghan women's event co-hosted by Global Exchange last Sunday. People in Afghanistan (those who still survive, under conditions so miserable we can barely imagine them here) have been so brutalized that "they would welcome Genghis Khan" (a quote from something I read recently) if it might bring change. I heard one woman on the radio describe a relative still living in Afghanistan as saying that if she has to continue as she is now, she "would welcome a bomb to kill her and her children".

I do not advocate war. There has to be a better way to stop the atrocities in Afghanistan. I don't believe that civilians will not be killed, and this retaliation will likely only lead to more attacks on the US -- basically a spiral endangering life on earth.

http://www.indybay.org/display.php?id=104846

http://www.indybay.org/display.php?id=104262

Americans Celebrate as Bombs Fall: U.S. military attacks today were scheduled to coincide with the start of many professional football games taking place around the country. George Bush's "declaration of war" address was viewed on huge screens at the stadiums, prompting football fans to cheer and celebrate.
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The previous poster calls us childish...what about the above reaction...pretty infantile if you ask me.

Check Out http://www.rawa.org ...by the way these women are regularly harrased and killed because of thier work educating girls in secret schools....still in Afghanistan.

Bombing in retaliation at this time feeds into the insanity and pain and sorrow and despair that drives those that love him for all th worng reasons.

Do you remember the Story of David and Goliath?
We are Goliath.

Were those football games organized for the specific purpose of glorifying the death of Afghanis? Were Afghan flags burned at these events amid crowds of chanting Americans?

No. This is the difference between the extremists and the Taliban and Americans. Contrary to what you try to state, Americans do not rejoice and hold church services celebrating the misery and death of another people.

What evidence do you have that this announcement was "timed" to coincide with Football games? Please provide proof that this was an intent by our Governement.

Also, you confuse patriotism and support of our brothers and sisters in the military with the celebration of the death of innocents. The Americans were supporting the fight for freedom, and we all abhor (most of us) the death of civilians. The Taliban, on the other hand, openly celebrate it, and teach their children that this is the highest calling.

You have taken a coincidental event (the announcement of the war effort in a small number of football stadiums) and extrapolated it into the fact that Americans gathered to rally and celebrate the death of innocent Afghans. This is a complete distortion of facts.

I think if you look at the rallies in Palestine and among the extremists in the Muslim world-- you will see some disgusting "celebrations" indeed.

no, here in the USA things are different. at the football game, white men get drunk while chanting USA! USA! and then after the game they go home, start to lose their buzz, and settle into the reality of their lives, meaning that they may end up beating their wives, kids, or the first arab-looking person they see. just because this anonymous person claims to be afghan-american does not give them any special qualifications in my book. if they are afghan-american, why be anonymous? this is the land of the free, put your name/number on here and some indymedia person can interview you and get your voice REALLY heard. otherwise, to me it is bullshit and i know that most afghan-americans at heart do not want innocent people to be bombed. period.

I wouldn't be surprised if the US coincided the attacks on Sunday with the start of sporting events. If that happened, it is strategic propoganda and there is nothing wrong about it. It is a way to massively and collectively inform the general American public of what our President has correctly ordered our military to do. It is what I would do. If it is true at all, it's not a big deal.

You don't have to take my word for it. I suggest you go to Freemont, CA which is the largest population of Afgahns in the US-- and ask anyone there (several shops and Afghan restaurants) what they think. Even SFO has quite a large Afghan population. Our feelings our mixed, but we overwhelmingly support military action.... just like the American population at large.

You will be surprised.

As to the drunken white men at football games who beat their wives....well, that's quite a false generalization. I was personally at the 49ers game this past Sunday-- and the crowd did in fact chant "USA", "USA" after the National Anthem was sung, but it was very patriotic, and non-violent. There was no broadcast of Bush's speech or anything related to the war-- except for a deeply felt need to support our country, (the firefighters, police and military especially) in this difficult time. I actually did not see a single drunk person at this game--- it was very peaceful, full of families enjoying a sporting event in good spirit. A lot of flags and support for the land of the free and the home of the brave.

It's because of scary people like you that I won't post my address and number. Katari is my name, however.

Isn't it ironic that the ones who seem to be proudly flying our flag the most are the brave firefighters, cops, and emergency workers? You know, the people who are the ones who REALLY keep the peace in this country? The ones who run toward danger when everyone else runs away.
I'm proud of this great nation (I'm not a native, mind you) when someone like Katari can stand up to you ignorant flower-children and your truly stereotypical views of the world and our country's place in it.

Isn't it ironic that the ones who seem to be proudly flying our flag the most are the brave firefighters, cops, and emergency workers? You know, the people who are the ones who REALLY keep the peace in this country? The ones who run toward danger when everyone else runs away.
I'm proud of this great nation (I'm not a native, mind you) when someone like Katari can stand up to you ignorant flower-children and your truly stereotypical views of the world and our country's place in it.

Isn't it ironic that the ones who seem to be proudly flying our flag the most are the brave firefighters, cops, and emergency workers? You know, the people who are the ones who REALLY keep the peace in this country? The ones who run toward danger when everyone else runs away.
I'm proud of this great nation (I'm not a native, mind you) when someone like Katari can stand up to you ignorant flower-children and your truly stereotypical views of the world and our country's place in it.

Capitalism is incapable of promoting peace as its primary law is maximization of profit. The US is currently promoting one reactionary anti-women group against another. Neither will improve the lives of women or the poor of Afghanistan, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the population. Afghanistan is probably the poorest country in the world. It is poorer than Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. That is no accident; this poverty has been promoted by the old friends of the CIA, the Taliban, who aided in the destruction of the Soviet-supported Afghan government, which did promote greater freedom and education for women.

The Afghans living in the US are going to learn that the US is incapable of and has no intention of bringing peace to Afghanistan. They will learn that not only by watching the events in Afghanistan, they will learn what a permanent war economy means here in the US: Massive cuts in social services, education, health care, and the like.

The US is perpetrating this war to guarantee Unocal a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean via Afghanistan. The name of the game is always money in the capitalist world, and oil money is the biggest factor in this war, as in most modern wars. This is just another blood for oil war. The CIA-perpetrated events of 9/11 were the contrived excuse to promote fascism at home and war abroad. So far, there is no clear evidence of Afghan or Arab involvement in these events; there is a great deal of evidence of CIA involvement. The US has admitted advance knowledge and if there was advance knowledge, then it was an inside job.

The call for many years of a war "on terrorism" by a country that is recognized around the world as having a terrorist foreign policy is the excuse to do the only thing capitalism is interested in doing: perpetrating endless wars to benefit the war profiteers. This madness was stopped during World War 1 with an attempted socialist revolution in Germany, which forced the Kaiser to bring the troops home and then flee to Holland, and by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Please note that the Afghans in Britain seem to be of a different mind (article below from the Guardian, 10/9/01). Would anyone care to explain this discrepency???
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,565977,00.html
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Afghans in Britain voice concern

London community doubts wisdom of attack

Jeevan Vasagar
Tuesday October 9, 2001
The Guardian

Leaders of the Afghan community in Britain yesterday
expressed anguish and outrage at the bombings.

"This is not a matter of being pro-Taliban or anti," said Sayed
Tabibi, secretary general of the Society for Afghan Residents,
based in Acton, west London. "There are over 1m people living in
Kabul. Every single family has got relatives back home.

"This is why we are outraged. It is nothing to do with the political
stance of one side or another. This is our country and it is being
bombed." Uprooted by a series of conflicts from the Soviet
invasion to the Taliban takeover, Britain's 40,000-strong Afghan
community is drawn from a diverse background, encompassing
Sunni and Shia Muslims as well as ethnic differences between
Pashtuns from the south and Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara tribes
from the north.

Now their attention is focused on the humanitarian disaster.
They questioned if the strikes would have any military effect on
the Taliban.

"That regime does not have a proper command structure like
Iraq," said Mr Tabibi. "Men armed with one Kalashnikov each
can easily disperse among ordinary people. Afghans have not
been engaged in any terrorist activity - it is all Arabs. Why are
we getting the punishment?"

Professor Abdul Ahmed Javid, a former vice-chancellor of Kabul
university and one of many intellectuals to have fled the country,
emphasised the awkward position faced by opponents of the
Taliban.

"It is a very difficult situation. From one point of view, this is my
country and it has suffered for 20 years. But from the other point
of view, we should get rid of these terrorist organisations which
cause devastation; Osama bin Laden and the Taliban who
harbour him. It's the people of Afghanistan who are the victims."

The majority of Britain's Afghans are settled in a stretch of
suburban north-west London between Acton and Harrow, though
the Home Office asylum seeker dispersal scheme means there
are now also small communities in Birmingham, Glasgow and
Leeds.

At the Afghan Association of London, based in Harrow, a
spokesman appealed to the international community to protect
civilian lives.

"The Afghan people have endured enough suffering, destruction
and casualties in the past two and a half decades," he said.

The group also fears further racist assaults on Afghans in
Britain, following the attack in London which left an Afghan taxi
driver paralysed.

Police in Essex said yesterday that a fire lit by the door of a
mosque was being treated as a racially motivated crime.

Damage to the front door of the mosque in Southend-on-Sea
was discovered by worshippers attending morning prayers
yesterday.

It is the second attack on the building since the terrorist attacks
in the United States, but police said they were unable to confirm
if the incidents were linked to the events of September 11.

Paint was thrown on the walls and windows smashed during the
previous attack on the mosque last month.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the leader of the Muslim parliament, said
the US should have given diplomatic efforts longer to take effect.

"The first casualty of this attack has been the rule of law," he
told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The Americans have lost their credibility. They had this
opportunity to somehow recover the moral high ground. The only
people who will be happy will be the American arms industry
and oil companies. It's a very, very sad day."