Nov. 4, 2001, 6:00PM

Humanitarian Aid

Taliban is the problem, not American bombing

Some well-intentioned groups and people -- such as Mary Robinson, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights -- claim U.S. bombing in Afghanistan is interfering with humanitarian food deliveries and should be stopped.

Obviously, Commissioner Robinson wants to help Afghans, but the quickest and best way to improve the plight of these downtrodden people is for America and her allies to destroy the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization.

The Taliban and not American bombs have caused the greatest hunger and misery in Afghanistan. The Taliban have pursued policies that have oppressed and isolated Afghans and set them on a path to starvation, ignorance and religious slavery.

Civil war and Taliban tyranny caused Texas-sized Afghanistan to have a gross domestic product in 1997 of only $1.55 billion, less than spent by the Harris County government in 1996, notes Brett D. Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation.

Afghans comprise the world's largest refugee population, with an estimated 4 million refugees abroad and hundreds of thousands of displaced people within the country.

Meanwhile, the Taliban hinder the work of foreign aid missions, while oppressing women and ethnic minorities. Taliban soldiers have stolen more than half the food designated for distribution to starving Afghans by the World Food Program.

The United States, make that the U.S. taxpayer, has been the leading donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, to the tune of about $174 million a year. Following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks on the United States, another $320 million in American aid was added Oct. 4.

American bombing is not the root of the problem. Looting and criminal behavior by the Taliban against Afghans is the problem.

The sooner the United States and its allies can oust the Taliban from control and get bin Laden and his gang, the sooner Afghans will gain better lives and full stomachs.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001