It might be instructive to ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic (after proper burial rites, of course). Uncontroversially, he is not a “suspect” but the “decider” who gave the orders to invade Iraq -- that is, to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: in Iraq, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country and the national heritage, and the murderous sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region. Equally uncontroversially, these crimes vastly exceed anything attributed to bin Laden.

There is Much More to Say by Noam Chomsky.
posted by klue on May 24, 2011 - 463 comments

Following recent events; Frontline has rushed out a special report (53 mins). which takes the viewer inside two fronts of the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. They also find new evidence of covert support for elements of the Taliban by the Pakistani military and its intelligence service, the ISI [more inside]
posted by adamvasco on May 5, 2011 - 55 comments

More Q & A on Terror and War
"A number of folks feel that current events -- particularly in the last few days -- have dramatically changed the logic and morality of what has been done in Afghanistan, calling into question much of the analysis and assessment that has been offered by critics of the war. Here are some of the questions we have been asked, and our brief replies."
posted by mapalm on Nov 18, 2001 - 60 comments

Taliban to U.S.: Go ahead, make my day. The Taliban has refused, as Bush demanded in his speech, to turn over bin Laden without evidence of wrongdoing. Unclear whether he's still "uninvited" to remain in Afghanistan. I thought Bush's refusal to consider a deal with Afghanistan was rash -- we can't afford to create martyrs in this war.
posted by mattpfeff on Sep 21, 2001 - 21 comments

The Pakistani government will ask the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden in three days. Why didn't the USA make such an obvious move?
posted by arf on Sep 16, 2001 - 42 comments