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Many features of recent events have motivated me, most significantly
the recurring gaps between US and foreign accounts of what is
happening (see below). My concerns are grouped accordingly.
1) The need to prioritize political over military response
From the outset, there has been a tendency in official and press rhetoric to blur Afghanistan,
the Taliban, and al-Qaeda all together. This may be useful propaganda to
unite Americans in an anti-jihad. But it has had disastrous consequences
politically.
For months, as James Ridgeway reported last June in the
Village Voice, the US has been negotiating informally with Taliban
representatives for the surrender of bin Laden. The Los
Angeles Times reported on August 8, 1999 that the Taliban one
year earlier had almost agreed to hand bin Laden over to Saudi
Arabia for trial in that country. As late as a few days
before the WTC attack, one Taliban leader suggested publicly that the
Taliban might offer up bin Laden to be tried under Islamic law in
another Muslim country. This could have been a first step towards containing
the al-Qaeda problem.