> > Still... How, exactly, does one draw the line? Suppose, for instance, that the entire population of a small Chinese city showed up in your town. 100,000 people, let's say. Well, they don't have freedom of religion in China, or a lot of other freedoms. So a migration isn't without cause.
>
> I think there's a fundamental difference between migrating for a "lack of freedom" and migrating due to an "oppressive government that will kill you if you look funny at something." Still, 100,000 Afghans all trying to immigrate at once does indeed present an interesting dilemma.

I realize that the Chinese are our "friends" these days, but I would not be so quick to say that they merely have an "oppressive government." Might I remind you that they have a bit of a history of doing things like using tanks to run people over that speak out against the government. A bit of a tangent, but I find it interesting how quickly the US is to overlook the many crimes committed by the People's Republic (I *love* that title) simply because the country is of particular economic interests to us these days. Tell me again why we have a total embargo against Cuba, but not China?

> > What about all the people *still* in Afghanistan? Shouldn't the world community do something about that? I would suggest perhaps an international "crimes against humanity" tribunal.
>
> Absolutely. I suspect that if it would not spark an immediate global religious war, this would have already been done.

Sam, since you seem to be of the belief that the people in Afghanistan are being oppressed extremely, I am curious if you feel it would be correct for the US to simply remove the Taliban by force (something which we could have done by the end of the month were we so inclined). You seem to indicate that there would be ramifications, but I find the US is in the unique position of being able to pretty much deal with any country in the world how we choose, save the nuclear super powers.

It is my understanding that the Taliban took control of the government by force and is in no way representative of the people there. Certainly this makes it more than a religious matter. Would the United States be justified in bringing swift military action against the government? If so, would we be justified in doing so against the countless other oppressive dictatorships in the world.

Stephen