[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Najibullah

[Bill Effros]

Slim,

Actually, I think the last middle eastern military dictator to fall was
Najibullah in Afghanistan who was backed by the then Soviet Union.  The
United States, with brilliant forethought and planning, sent money, provided
weapons, and set up training areas in remote regions of Afghanistan for a
group of Muslim fanatics, many imported from other countries, we called the
"Mujahadeen", who were able to down Soviet helicopters with Stinger missiles
we provided.  One of the leaders of the "Mujahadeen" was a fellow named
Osama
Bin Laden.

When the Soviets had enough, and left; Najibullah was killed, and the
"Mujahadeen" started fighting over the spoils.  In Afghanistan the only way
to earn real money is by controlling the opium trade, and that is what the
"Warlords" fought over.  Various regions were taken over by Warlords, and
run in a feudal manner as they had been since time immemorial.  These
fiefdoms were financed by opium trade money.

Other "Mujahadeen" who had been fighting the Soviets for the ouster of
secular governments and against foreign intervention in Arab countries, took
control of the training areas, and mountain caves we had set up, which were
of no interest or value to the "Warlord" group.  This group, which coalesced
under the name "Al Quida" saw the retreat of the Soviet Union as just the
first of a string of victories sure to come.  They continued to train,
finance and ship fighters, along with our weapons, all over the world, to
advance their agenda.

Most of the Afghan foot soldiers simply returned to their towns and villages
all over Afghanistan, bringing with them their late 20th century weapons,
which allowed them to erect "toll booths" throughout the country from which
they collected revenues from anyone attempting to go from any place to any
other place.  "Law and Order" was never Afghanistan's long suit.

The country became wilder and woollier than the wildest our West ever got.
Afghanistan was soon the leading source of heroin in the world.  The United
States was deeply enmeshed in our last war, the "War on Drugs", and we soon
discovered, much to our chagrin, that some of our former allies in
Afghanistan, who had humiliated the Russians at our behest, had now become
some of the leading suppliers of drugs in the world.

Something had to be done.  So we went to the religious teaching centers (men
only) in southern Afghanistan, called "Madrassas", and recruited a
fundamentalist group called the "Taliban" offering to equip them if only
they would bring some semblance of  "Law and Order" to the country.  We
agreed not to meddle with the way they ran the country's affairs, if they
would agree to eradicate the opium trade.

The bargain was struck, and each side was true to its word.  We supplied the
Taliban, they killed and dismembered highwaymen, warlords, and anyone
growing poppies.  In almost no time, Afghanistan fell from the ranks of
major opium producers.  Taliban rule was harsh, but hey--if they had trains
they would have run on time.  The Warlords lost their grip throughout
Afghanistan and were pushed into the northern provinces where they fought
losing battles against the Taliban.

Then came 9/11 and we noticed, almost for the first time, that Al Quida
might be an even bigger problem than the drug trade.  We told our former
allies, the Taliban, who had scrupulously upheld their end of the bargain,
that we were changing the terms.  They had to capture and hand over the
leader of Al Quida, the self-same Osama Bin Laden, or we would switch sides
and support the nefarious "Warlords" whom we had been vilifying for the past
several years.  The Taliban lacked the means to fight both the home grown
Warlords and the imported Al Quida.  What's more, they had no quarrel with
Al Quida who, over the years, had lent logistical support, men, money, and
weapons to the Taliban in their fight with the Warlords.

Slim, are you still with me?

The rest, as they say, is history.  The Taliban are back in their Madrassas
teaching the younger generations to hate us.  Al Quida is back in their
caves teaching and exporting terrorism.  And the Warlords (whom we now call
"The Northern Alliance") are back in Kabul dealing dope.

Next week:  The rise of the Baathist Party and Saddam Hussein in Iraq
(thanks to our brilliant global strategy, weapons supply, and financing) and
the successful thwarting of Iran's attempt to oust Saddam Hussein.  (I'm not
exactly sure, but I think Iran is now one of our allies vs. Iraq, but one of
our opponents in Afghanistan...........)

Hope this helps,

Bill Effros

PS -- Going to see the Stones tomorrow night.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Alm" <salm@mn.rr.com>
To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 4:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Taxes, Politics, & Fables


This disclaimer thing is cracking me up but it seems to be working.  It's
not getting all funky like it did the last time and I think it won't blow up
at all. :-)  DELEAT NOW!

I'm a middle aged boomer, middle income, self-employed gigger and I think I
get taxed to death.  I have to pay both halves of the S.S. Tax, (about 11.X%
right off the top) 1/3 income tax bracket even after pumping as much as I
can into my IRA's pre-taxed--no capitol gains for me--it all just rolls back
in.  No disability insurance, no unemployment safety net.  No group health
insurance, and, as an individual, the best health policy money can buy still
sucks.  At least now it's deductible.  But a catastrophic medical situation
would probably wipe me out.  Frankly, I feel pretty vulnerable.

The good news is that my job is pretty recession-proof.  When times get
tough, people gotta go out and hoist a few and that's where I come in.
Somewhere, somebody's always happy to hear "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie"
because it takes us back to our youth, a simpler time, and gives us comfort.
Sniff...I'm proud to do my part for the American spirit.

...Even if they do vomit on my shoes.

It's difficult for me to untangle all the ramifications of macro economic
change in tax codes, but I doubt I'll be looking at much of a change for me.
No more rebate checks from Gov. Ventura, property tax will stay about the
same, some user fees will go up and services will go way down.  I'll still
cough up about the same.

WARNING:  THIS IS REALLY THE TIME TO DELEAT.

Because of our two party system, trends in economics and business swing like
a pendulum.  In the bear market whirlwind of the 90's, with so much business
popping up, especially  .coms,  unemployment was low and companies had to
pay higher wages for help, if they could find any at all.  Computer techs
were commanding 30K and benefits right out of college.  Good for the labor
force but not good for the big, bottom-liners.  Now, did you feel the
pendulum switch directions the day Bush took office?  Just like
magic...Poof!  Economic crisis!  A little creative accounting and the big
businesses can post losses and lay off thousands.  A few CEO's were thrown
to the lions as sacrificial lambs but most are unscathed.  Unemployment goes
up, people get desperate and the companies can hire them right back, but at
a lower wage.  Loosen the environmental laws and the energy companies can
get a leg up.  BTW, if the Alaska oil drilling proposal goes through, who do
you suppose will get the contract?  Could it be...a Texas company?

WARNING:  THIS IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY THE TIME TO DELEAT.

Taxes, taxes, taxes.  Anyone want to talk about foreign policy?  The two
parties argue until they're blue in the face on domestic issues, but
interestingly, the congress has always been pretty unified on our foreign
affairs.  My prediction: We WILL invade Iraq regardless of what the
inspectors find and regardless of UN approval.  We may succeed in ousting
Saddam but that will only create a vacuum and it's anybody's guess after
that.  The last middle East military dictator to fall was another guy we
helped into power, The Shaw of Iran.  The pendulum swing in Iran then put
the religious cleric, Ayatollah Kohmeini (sp) in charge.  Would that happen
in a post-Saddam Iraq?  Would that trigger an all-out holy war (World War)
between Muslim and Judeo/Christians.?  If Lieberman was elected president
(slim chance) how would that play on the world stage?

Songwriter, political humorist Tom Lehrer said political humor has taken on
a whole new dimension ever since Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat won the
Nobel Piece Prize.  (cough, cough)

Slim


On 1/16/03 5:58 PM, "Todd Tavares" <sprocket80@mail.com> wrote:

> Same disclaimer as everyone else.....delete if not interested.
>
>   I am so poor, I can not afford to pay attention to this thread.
>
>  Boo hooo,  it's the poor ones like me who are discriminated against by
the
> tax laws.  I just want to grab a case of beer and go sailing.   But I have
got
> to first pay my sin tax on the beer, and the luxury tax on my boat.  ;^(
> sniff.... sniff    lmao
>
> (JOKING of course)
>
> Todd
>
> P.S.  who wagered it would be Thursday?
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rik Sandberg" <sanderico@earthlink.net>
> Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 11:57:20 -0600
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Taxes, Politics, & Fables
>
>> Same disclaimer as everyone else.....delete if not interested.
>>
>> Ahh....the ever controversial Bill
>>
>> I hope this truly was said "tongue in cheek". If not, then you and your
>> neighbors have much to be proud of.
>>
>> It's things like this, that make me favor doing away with personal income
>> tax altogether and instituting a pure sales tax, with an exemption for
the
>> basic staples in the grocery store and a few other things like maybe
>> clothing (conservative) and medical care (non-elective). With a system
like
>> this, if one insists on having the fancy and expensive things normally
>> associated with the rich, he pays the taxes that should be assessed from
the
>> rich. Those who choose to live conservatively and save for later, or are
>> unable to do more than "just get by" would pay very little, just as they
>> should. But there's one thing that's for sure, no matter what you
make....as
>> soon as you spend big money, you pay big taxes.
>>
>> Spoken as someone who contributes his fair share and the shares of a few
>> others too.
>>
>> Probably contributing to the eventual blow-up, but...........oh well.
>>
>> Rik
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Bill Effros" <bill@effros.com>
>> To: "R22 List" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 8:50 AM
>> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Taxes, Politics, & Fables
>>
>>
>>> Paul,
>>>
>>> Keep those fables coming!
>>>
>>> Here in Greenwich, Ct. my neighbors and I can't believe how many people
>> seem
>>> to be willing to pay our taxes for us!  Tax law revisions don't change
the
>>> total amount that must be collected to pay for what the government
spends,
>>> they only change the proportions of who pays how much.  So if our taxes
go
>>> down, somebody else's taxes are going up.
>>>
>>> So far, Mr. Bush has already saved most of us, here in Greenwich,
>> literally
>>> millions of dollars in taxes.  Each.  The "Death Tax" fable worked like
a
>>> charm.
>>>
>>> Now we get to belly up to the trough yet again, with the "Double
Taxation"
>>> fable.  Make no mistake, most of our money has never been taxed even
once.
>>> We are among the four diners who have always eaten for nothing, because
>>> under the current tax law system we have been able to show the other
>>> diners that we are the poorest by repeatedly deferring our income from
one
>>> year to the next. (We can do that because we don't take home
>>> regular paychecks--according to our tax returns we don't earn a cent.)
>>>
>>> The only problem is that, eventually, we stand to get hit with a tax
that
>> is
>>> actually proportional to what we have earned.  But no!  Fables to the
>>> rescue!  It worked once--could it possibly work again?  If this tax law

>>> revision passes as proposed, neither we, nor our families, may ever have
>> to
>>> pay
>>> federal taxes on most of the money we have earned so far in our entire
>>> lives!  We can dine for nothing forever!
>>>
>>> Thank you, thank you, thank you,
>>>
>>> Bill Effros
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________
>>> Use Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>>
>> _________________________________________________
>> Use Rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list

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