A Note on True Politics and Terrorism

Al-Qa'ida, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of them. HAMAS, another terrorist group; actually there are a lot of terrorist organizations that anyone with internet access can go to http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm and see the Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. There is the Aum Shinrikyo, the Revoluntionary Armed Forces of Columbia, al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad), the National Liberation Army (ELN), Salafist Group for Call and Combat, just to name a few. Some of the names sound more like clubs that anyone can join on a college campus that actual organizations that have purposes to harm/kill people.

But amoungst these names, there seems to be a name missing, a name that has been synonymous with ethnic persecutions, massacres, horrible treatment of women, and that name is the Taliban. The U.S. State Department, Britain, European Union, Canada, and Australia do not recognize the Taliban as a terrorist organization. The Taliban's main supporters were Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan but they halted official support after 9/11 and partnered up with the United States.

I have to wonder why this group is not recognized as a notorious terrorist group even with all the attention they seem to be receiving from the media, but I guess the Council on Foreign Relations put it rather soundly, "possible political support, you can't call them terrorist and then try to reconcile with them".

Does a list matter when its purpose is not reflected in its contents? This is just another example we can ponder while sipping our lemonades on our porches while feeling utterly helpless. How's the foreign policy going?