You can talk about it forever, but it will not change the fact that everyone out there thinks he's right, dead right, that he is defending all that is decent and proper, and that his opponents on the field of battle are wrong, dead wrong, and that they stand for all that must be opposed and defeated.

The Taliban believed it. The USA believes it. The Japanese in World War II believed it. The Nazis believed it. The Israelis believe it. The Palestinians believe it. The Indians and Pakistanis believe it.

Debates about whether the Taliban were "a legitimate government" or not are futile. In their eyes they were. Without the previous help of the USA and Pakistan they woudl never have come to power in the first place. In their eyes the USA is an illegitimate government, controlled by rich corporations, banks, and the Pentagon. If, in a very different world, they had had the military power to destroy the USA, their propaganda line would now be official gospel on the mainline media of their day...and if you were one of their citizens you would almost certainly believe it....unless you were a nonconformist skeptic like me.

Everybody is prejudiced. Extremely prejudiced. Most people are habitual conformists to the official line that is fed to them by their domestic mainstream media. Everybody is partly informed and partly uninformed. Everybody is partially ignorant of the humanity of his "enemy", excepting only those who are wise enough to have no enemies...and only saints and avatars qualify on that level.

At the end of the day only one thing matters...as GUEST JTT pointed out:

"How you treat your prisoners is a matter of how you respect yourself and what kind of standard of honour you impose on yourself, not on what kind of people your prisoners are."

Bravo, GUEST JTT. That is the heart of the matter.

- LH