1. Giving War a Chance
NEW YORK, October 24
13 “somehow, perhaps using satellite surveillance and pixie dust, the U.S. and its allies successfully hunt down every single member of every militant Islamic organization in the world and either jail or kill them. Who knows how? Anyway –
It still wouldn’t matter. Those dead and jailed militants have mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. They have friends. Any countless ordinary Muslim people would watch, driven to vengeance by the extraordinary ruthlessness of such a massive assault by America on individuals whose only proven sins are their beliefs. A new army of jihadists would rise from the ashes”
2. The New Great Game
NEW YORK, October 9
16 “the U.S. and Pakistan decided to install a stable regime into place in Afghanistan around 1994—a regime that would end the country’s civil war and thus ensure the safety of the Unocal pipeline project. Impressed by the ruthlessness and willingness of the then-emerging Taliban to cut a pipeline deal, the U.S. State Department and Pakistan’s Interservices Intelligence (I.S.I.) agency agreed to funnel arms and funding to the Taliban in their war against the ethnically Tajik Northern Alliance. As recently as 1999, U.S. Taxpayers paid the entire salary of every single Taliban government official, all in the hopes of returning to the days of dollar-a-gallon gas. Pakistan, naturally, would pick up revenues from a Karachi oil port facility.”
3 NIGHT OF THE HUNTERS
77 “I’d come to Afghanistan to get the truth. The truth turned out to be obvious and clear; why wasn’t it that way in my living room back in Manhattan? Americans were being told that their bombs were hitting with pinpoint precision. I’d suspected something less than 100% performance, but here they were, carpet-bombing Northern Alliance cities. CNN said that the Alliance were our allies. I’d assumed that they were just as scummy as the Taliban, but they were not only just as bad but the same exact people. I’d expected to find pawns being victimized by cynical superpowers. And I did. But day after day of getting gouged, ripped off and treated badly couldn’t help but harden you. Everyone, including me, was scum.”
10. When Life is a Short-term Lease
PDUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN, December 7
100 COMIC, 4 panels.
Top left, Bill Clinton signing papers in the Oval Office. “These sanctions send a strong message to Iraq and Afghanistan for supporting terrorism.”
Top right, planes crashing into the World Trade Center. “This terrorism sends a strong message to the U.S. for imposing sanctions.”
Bottom left, a hellish scene of bombs being dropped on and people being killed in Afghanistan. “These bombs send a strong message to Afghanistan for the terrorism of September 11th.”
Bottom right, split scene. Left side a US general speaks, “They’re not getting the message.” Right side, an Islamic terrorist leader speaks, “Repeat as necessary, but louder.” An in set reads, “NEVER EVER EVER THE END.”
11. A Snake Swallowing a Snake Swallowing Its Tail
NEW YORK, October 23
102 “No one wants to cave in to those who massacred thousands of our fellow citizens. But the alternative is even less attractive. If we continue to back every despot willing to run a pipeline through his back yard, his oppressed subjects will invariably strike at the power behind the throne: us. If we refuse to even consider the possibility that our actions abroad are sometimes less than decent and honorable, we can look forward to more such attacks in the future.
On the other hand, even considering—much less meeting—the demands of terrorists invariably leads to more demands. And so the hawks say: Bomb now, think later. Or better yet: just bomb. They have a point, but they’re the ones who got us into this mess in the first place.
There is no correct answer to this Escheresque conundrum. Thoughtful reevaluation of American actions throughout the globe, and not just in the Muslim world, is as welcome as it’s overdue. Unfortunately, it’s also a concession to mass murder. And yet: we obviously can’t blunder along as we always have.”
12. How We Lost the Afghan War
DASHT-E QAL’EH, AFGHANISTAN, December 6
106 “The vast majority of “Northern Alliance” fighters now were Taliban a few weeks ago; welcome to the first fashion war of the new millennium.”
106 – 107 “There are two ways to consider the success of War on Terror, Part One. The first is as an act of retribution against the Taliban for tolerating and supporting Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network (never mind that Al Qaeda is bigger and more influential in Pakistan than in Afghanistan or that it is merely one of hundreds of extremist Islamist organizations that trained in Afghanistan). In this view Afghanistan is a source of instability throughout Central Asia, and, by extension, for Western oil interests and the West itself. September 11 was merely the latest manifestation of the dangerous extremist phenomenon. Angry Afghans aren’t angry at anything America has done, say Rumsfeld and Powell: they’re perpetually ornery motherfuckers who have to be kept under lock and key so that the civilized world can get down to the business of the 21st century, which will be one hell of a business if we can ever convince people to stop selling off their mutual funds.”