Message-ID: <13034613.1075858612254.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 10:22:54 -0700 (PDT) From: mkopinski@prodigy.net To: legal <.taylor@enron.com>, koger.aileen@enron.com, meyer.anita@enron.com, haskins.barbara@enron.com, adams.carl@enron.com, terpstra.chris@enron.com, tansey.cathe@enron.com, oester.dean@enron.com, cleary.debbi@enron.com, robb.debbie@enron.com, levine.erin@enron.com, levine.erin-2@enron.com, bonsey.gail@enron.com, ishii.ione@enron.com, attinello.lauren@enron.com, mintz.margaret@enron.com, walsh.mary@enron.com, worman.mike@enron.com, lynch.pat@enron.com, cox.terry@enron.com Subject: Fw: Before we make a parking lot out of Kabul: Cc: mmjr1113@aol.com, dpsalerno@aol.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bcc: mmjr1113@aol.com, dpsalerno@aol.com X-From: "Kopinski Family" @ENRON X-To: Taylor, Mark E (Legal) , Aileen Koger , Anita Meyer , Barbara Haskins , Carl Adams , Chris Terpstra , Cathe Tansey , daianjc@netscape.net, Dale Van Pelt , Dean Oester <924.95@prodigy.net>, Debbi Cleary , Debbie Robb , Erin Levine , Erin-2 Levine <09099714218@jp-t.ne.jp>, Gail Bonsey , Ione Ishii , Lauren Attinello , Margaret Mintz , Mary Walsh , Mike Worman , Pat Lynch , Simon_Thomas@aporter.com, Sean Cleary , Terry Cox X-cc: Michelle & Joseph Sanchez , Pam Salerno X-bcc: X-Folder: \MTAYLO1 (Non-Privileged)\Taylor, Mark E (Legal)\Inbox X-Origin: Taylor-M X-FileName: MTAYLO1 (Non-Privileged).pst I thought this was really interesting. > > Mark Kopinski > SVP/Senior Portfolio Manager > American Century Investment Management > New York Office > ----- Forwarded by Mark Kopinski/INTL/ACIM/americancentury on 09/17/2001 > 08:38 AM ----- > > > > > > > Dear Friends, > > The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an > > > Afghani-American writer. > > Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole > mess we are in.> -Gary T. > > > > Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread: > > > > 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 > > all right 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 > > > > > > > This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain > confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No > confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. > If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all > copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the > sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, > print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended > recipient. CREDIT SUISSE GROUP and each of its subsidiaries each reserve > the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any > views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except > where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorised to state > them to be the views of any such entity. > Unless otherwise stated, any pricing information given in this message is > indicative only, is subject to change and does not constitute an offer to > deal at any price quoted. > Any reference to the terms of executed transactions should be treated as > preliminary only and subject to our formal written confirmation. > > > > > > >