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Toronto Star | Sep. 25, 2001 | Orest Slepokura
Letters

Re Acts of horror sure to beget more of the same, Opinion, Sept. 23.

Michele Landsberg opines that, "had women in Western capitals really wielded a fair share of power, perhaps there would have been no Taliban left to play host to Osama bin Laden." The female gender is no guarantor of justice. On May 12, 1996, Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes asked U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "We have heard that a half million children have died [because of U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq]. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima [. . .] is the price worth it?" Albright looked straight at the camera and said: "[W]e think the price is worth it."

Who's to say that 12 Madeleine Albrights may not have concluded that leaving the Taliban to rule Afghanistan might not have suited some equally depraved instance of foreign policy?

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore, Alta.