Aid to the `faith-based' Taliban? (Letters).

"The Bush administration in May approved a $43 million grant to the Taliban ..." I was sure I had read that somewhere. I pulled out my July/August issue of Church & State, and sure enough, there it was on page 18.

From other sources I have read, it seems that from shortly after the "bad guys" (that would be the "godless" Russians) invaded Afghanistan in 1979, up through May of this year, our federal government has both covertly and overtly supported (about $3 billion in direct aid) the noble, religious, "good guys" -- the Taliban -- in Afghanistan. These freedom fighters were going to help their American "friends" end heroin poppy growing in Afghanistan, not to mention helping us secure access for a gas pipeline through the area (see the Oct. 1 issue of Time magazine, page 42). Now, of course, these Taliban "terrorists" are the epitome of all evil in the world.

"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," says our president. Unfortunately, this simplistic, black and white, good guys vs. bad guys view of the world has the potential of plunging us all into an abyss from which we may never recover. If we are fortunate enough to avoid a catastrophic war, perhaps in the future our government officials will have at least learned to give some consideration to the moral as well as the financial and strategic consequences of their actions, and perhaps not to put so much trust (faith?) in repressive, "faith-based" regimes throughout the world.

--Don Havis
San Mateo, Calif.