Our Enemies’ Enemies Are Not Our Friends

In “Beef Up the Taliban’s Enemy” (Commentary, Sept. 20) Daniel Byman, Kenneth Pollack and Gideon Rose demonstrate the foreign policy planning rut our leaders have been stuck in since the start of the Cold War. Support for the “enemies of our enemies” led the U.S. into alliances with such paragons of democracy as Saddam Hussein, Gens. Manuel Noriega and Augusto Pinochet, the Shah of Iran and Osama bin Laden himself.

Our enemies’ enemies are not our friends, and in the long term, associations with illegitimate powers only come back to haunt us in devastating ways. If we are to avoid becoming the terrorists we deplore, our leaders must identify those involved with the World Trade Center atrocities and deal with them in the same manner that we are dealing with Slobodan Milosovic. They should be captured through political pressure and negotiation and tried for crimes against humanity. For once, let our government practice what it preaches. The Russians have already bombed Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. More bombs only create more terrorists.

John Garofano

Culver City

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How quickly we forget that the U.S. government trained and supplied armaments and goods to Bin Laden years back when he was fighting the Soviets. Supporting local warlords is not a solution to our current situation because these groups are capable of turning around and attacking anyone, including their onetime supporters, much like Bin Laden. They are not loyal to anyone except their own beliefs and are willing to take aid from anyone, including their enemies, to achieve their goals.

Wayne Chen

El Segundo

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Could it be? The Taliban a piece of the puzzle that was the Reagan legacy? Not the end of the Evil Empire but the birth of it?

Bob Ginn

Arcadia