How some parts of Afghanistan might look BEFORE...	...and AFTER

As Operation Incessant Firing continues virtually unopposed by the rulers of one of the World's poorest countries, President Dubya was explaining to reporters that he cannot and will not communicate intelligence to the press. This shock announcement from the man who said that Al Quaeda had MIS-underestimated the US in more than one way, paves the way for the conclusion that Bush has no intelligence to communicate in the first place.

Tonight the boast was that supremacy in the air over Afghanistan had been achieved. With the resources available to the Taliban, most aero-modelling clubs could win aerial supremacy over Afghanistan. The US and Britain have been firing Cruise Missiles by the shipload and have already destroyed one civilian building; that of a UN Mine Clearance Office with the loss of four lives.

Over and above this are reports of the use of Depleted Uranium Penetrators which can pollute water tables and leave land uninhabitable for many generations. Uranium isotopes have half-lives as listed below.

Can you guess which isotope of Uranium is used in Depleted Uranium Weapons? (Clue. Which is most common?)

Operation Enduring Freedom has become a lesson in reducing a crumbling economy to a powdered one. The amount of aid required to feed refugees on the borders each month is estimated to be 55,000 tons. Thousands could die from starvation and hunger over the coming weeks, but the message from the US is that if they can stop Bin Laden / The Taliban / Saddam / Lex Luther (shurely shome mishtake) it will be worth it.

I wholly condemn the WTC and Pentagon attacks, but I also think that the US should look closer to home for the reasons why the US is seen as the evil oppressor. Anyone who knows anything about US interventions around the World over the past fifty years, will know that there is clear evidence that the US has sanctioned the slaughter of innocent civilians where it has met their political and even business ends. It has even been suggested that the CIA supplied intelligence information to General Suharto of Indonesia in 1965, to enable him to wipe out opposition to the coup which removed President Sukarno (democratically elected) from power.

Knowing what we do about the past, makes us cynical about what the US are doing at present. Bush is a dangerous man. Dangerous not just because he has the military might of the US at his disposal, but more so because he actually thinks he is doing the right thing!