quote:
Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
I hate to resurrect this discussion but I am not sure I agree with the last post by Gaelic. The Taliban did offer to hand Bin Laden to a nuetral country. If the US et al had just have let it stand at that and bought him to trial there then a lot of people would still be alive. Also we wouldn't have 4 million people abandoning their homes.
The Taliban suggested they
might be willing to hand him over to another Muslim country
only when it became obvious there would be military action and that most of the world wouldn't support them. They didn't actually agree to do it, they
suggested they
might.
Maybe they were serious, or maybe it was a delaying tactic. The point is they defended him, sponsored him, and refused to even consider turning him over because he
couldn't have done it (dispite his subsequent admission), and without consideration to his previous actions and current threats until they realised the Muslim world would not stand behind them.
Keep in mind, many of those who abandoned their homes did so before this conflict to escape the Taliban. Now many are able to return home that couldn't have otherwise.
The latest UN figures cut the number of refuges in half, thereby reducing it to the pre-coalition effort levels, and in addition, states that due to the safety provided by coalition forces they think they can feed them all, which wasn't happening before September 11th.
[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]