Both Sides Now...

News and Views/Feb 17, 2007
The Armchair Curmudgeon
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Imagine Eisenhower having to pay for both sides of the War in Europe?


Sound crazy…but there’s enough evidence to suggest that’s exactly what’s happening in Afghanistan in our war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

A stepped up effort by the Taliban is expected after the
Spring melt, when the mountain passes between Afghanistan and Pakistan have thawed enough to permit the Taliban warriors to continue their war with the current regime.

Not only do we support the regime in power, we are asking for another fourteen billion dollars to support the War against the Taliban this year. We are also committing to another brigade of troops to engage Taliban forces; this is in addition to the contingents of English and Dutch who are willing to help with the heavy lifting.

So far, so good. But there is another dimension to the problem.
And it has economic underpinning. The bottom line: There’s a body of evidence to suggest that the Taliban’s efforts are being underwritten by Al Qaeda. Supporting this assertion is the fact that Taliban drivers on motorbikes have been seen escorting Al Qaeda paymasters to areas where Taliban units are supporting the attacks on the Afghan security forces and other incursions into Afghanistan. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that Al Qaeda has underwritten Tailiban expansionist plans.

This, of course, raises the question: Where does this economic support come from? This is where the wicket gets sticky. Here’s what we do know: Under the guise of giving to charity, a number of of Saudi princes support terrorist causes including Al Qaeda. The money flows from the princes to these causes. What that means indirectly is that America, with its impossibly heavy investment in fossil fuels, is providing the Saudis with the funding to support the War and that’s unsupportable.

If we needed a better reason to insist on conservation or to promulgate a switch to alternative energy, this has to be it. Good citizens, good patriots who send their progeny off to War should demand it. And it is unconscionable that the president who understands these facts has not taken strong action to limit our dependency on Saudi Arabia.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon