SV: Plight of Buddhist art

[Samar Abbas]

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001 rohan.oberoi at CORNELL.EDU wrote:
> Western governments at present have pretty much zero influence over
> them because the West has chosen a stance of unrelenting enmity to the
> Taleban.

 The above statement is correct. Non-American westerners should think
about the wisdom of blindly following US-Zionist foreign policy:-

1. The US armed the Taleban to fight the USSR. Now, only a few years
later, they refuse to support their old allies, thereby providing indirect
support to the Communists. Europeans should think about whether they want
to help the US in supporting the Communists in Afghanistan, from where
they may regroup to restore the USSR. This is the secret hope of Russian
Communists, who are providing military support to their allies in the
North. Have Europeans forgotten the 100 million killed by Communism?

2. One day, Playboy-President Bill Clinton wakes up to find he is about to
be impeached over Monica cigarettes. So he decides to bomb `rogue state'
Afghanistan because it `opposes Israel, the center of the Universe'. Viola!
Bill Clinton is miraculously saved from impeachment.

3. Now, when priceless statues are being destroyed, the US only says,
"Hand over Bin Laden"

4. More than 1000 innocent Palestinians were killed by Israel using
helicopter gunships during the last 2 months. No protest from the US over
this massacre. Yet, Bin Laden, who is alleged to have killed fewer than
100 people, is hunted down.

5. After imposing a total economic blockade on Afghanistan, and attempting
to bomb the people into submission, the US now hopes that somehow the
Taleban will listen to them. Surely, not a very logical action to follow?

Europeans should think twice before blindly following the US line.

> If Indologists (or anyone, really) want to make an effective
> difference to this sort of issue in the future they should be speaking
> out against the policy of isolating entire countries and starving
> their populations through UN sanctions.

  I agree. This is the only way any difference can be made in future.
Perhaps Indologists may wish to write to the UN urging it to lift
sanctions against the Taleban.

Samar