I haven't been on Two Plus Two in the last few days so I don't know if this has come up. If it has I appologize. If not, people might want to check out:


http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp#BODY


The CIA has denied it, but given that we spent $8 billion on the afghan war and that bin Laden rose to prominece during it, it is somewhat ridiculous to say we had no connection. The BBC and other sources have been reporting on this recently, but few American media have been. Note that the above link is from 1998.


As another point. I think that we will be left with no single event that will bring closure here. Bombing Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for over 20 years and is already almost bombed back to the stone age seems silly to me. What we can bomb is the infrastructure of the country (what is left of it). This followed on 20+ years of warfare and 4 years of drought will only result in greater civilian suffering. While I think the Talliban is the most reprehnsible regime in the world today, there is no good replacement for it.


Paul Talbot