From: jamesd :The Taliban was not a spontaneous internal phenomemom, not a :response to an outcry for law and order. There were :repeated, massive, and bloody efforts by foreign powers, :primarily Pakistan, to "assist" the aghans in achieving law :and order, and the Taliban is only the most recent, and most :bloody, of these. : :Far from reflecting a spontaneous desire for government, law :and order, these various wannabe governments found it :necessary to devastate and depopulate vast areas that they :were unable to govern. ---------------------- Well, of course I was speaking metaphorically, drawing a parallel with having a tyrannical, repressive group "governing" a population - regardless of how that group came into their position. And of course, it must be distinguished between what those who fight to be in positions of power imagine for themselves vs what those who will be subjected to that power, imagine when they consider it. And it must be distinguished between what people in the U.S. (or in the 'free world') imagine when they wish for law and order, vs what a religious, fundamentalist group will imagine. As libertarian/anarchistic types are aware, what people want when they call for the establishment, or re-establishment, of 'law and order', is a return to a definite situation where they can calculate the causes & effects of human actions more predictably, with fewer nasty surprises, less uncertainty in the outcome, greater expectations of positive and pleasant interaction with others, and no intrusions into their monotony (joke). This doesn't necessarily mean that they spontaneously want a government, but that they want the activities of life to proceed in a "governed" manner (and they never expect that it will be themselves who will be among the governed - only the bad guys will be caused to suffer it). Having an institution called "government" is the only thing that most can imagine in order to achieve and maintain such a situation. (As we know, the problem with these governing institutions is that, instead of exercising a control over error, all liberty of action is reigned in, to eliminate any kind of disturbance which they are unable to deal with, given their scope of comprehension and competence). .. Blanc