"Call me a cynical brit if you want,"
I had various other descriptions in mind.
"but this tells me that the US considers anyone who isn't behind them 100% a terrorist threat, and a target for "pre-emptive defense"."
Frankly, it would seem that there is little chance of that, at least if the current frenetic attempts on the part of the US administration to distance itself from said report are anything to go by. My suspicion is that this is a continuation of the general reluctance to speak ill of religion (as Frank Furedi wrote in an article I posted a while ago, the idea of religion being superstitious and atavistic has been a commonplace since the enlightenment but has clearly now become a taboo) and therefore to speak ill of one of the most theocratic states in the world (though the role of oil clearly plays into this). I would take the view that the US has desperately been trying to find reasons not to speak ill of Saudi Arabia.
"The US put the Taliban in power."
In which case, they surely had a duty and obligation to correct that state of affairs. They that giveth, taketh away.
---- This message was posted by kharin to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25964>
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