Opinion
Not all Afghans like the Taleban and Osama bin Laden, and there are thousands of reasons for this: hunger, the lack of freedom, the executions of sinners, the oppression of women, their loss of homes, their uneasy nights. But even the Afghans who despise the Taleban… are in no position to accept that the missiles and bombs raining down on their country are exclusively targeted at bin Laden and his radical sect. No bomb-ravaged people has ever been brought round to the notion that to attain freedom, they first have to perish in a war they never desired, or at least, to see their land being destroyed by the munitions of foreign liberators. And there is no reason why the Afghans should prefer the Americans to the Soviets who also invaded their land to free them. How are the Afghans supposed to feel about the beans, biscuits, potatoes, jam, napkins and, above all, the toothpicks which are falling from the sky before and after the bombs? What god should they turn to for guidance and help? Will it be to the god of need, of starvation, thus deciding that peanut butter is the latest reincarnation of the traditional manna? Or to the god of their pride and dignity who will first ask them… why have all these who are now sending food not cared about the hunger which has plagued their country for years now, forcing them into migration? Regardless of whether the prime minister is able to muster a similar percentage – which is up to the assembly – the Greek public is more interested in seeing an end to the sterile PASOK rivalry after the congress.
