Currently millions of people across the globe anticipate military retaliation in Afghanistan in response to Tuesdays outrageous attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, yet the fact remains that the vast majority of Afghanis that are in Afghanistan, do not have the slightest inkling of what they might be in for. Afghan community leaders and refugees in London issued an emotional plea on Friday begging that their country is not destroyed. Iran, a major trade partner with Afghanistan has recently closed all Borders with Afghanistan and are refusing to allow refugees to leave the country, which has been ravaged by civil war for almost 30 years.

With a population of about 26 million* and an average adult literacy rate of 36%* anyone that may have come across a newspaper would not be likely to have read it. Other forms of communication are equally scarce in this barren land. There is only one active radio station and a total of 167,000* radios and 100,000* televisions receiving transmissions from 10* stations in the region.

The domestic telephone network is very primitive consisting of a microwave and satelite telecommunications link between Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad. International telecommunications are also very limited with 1 Intelsat system allowing communications to Iran only and a commercial satellite telephone centre situated in Ghazni, South of the Capital, Kabul.*

The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued an address on Shariat radio and international television warning of the anticipated retaliation from the US and urging all Muslims to stand steadfast against the enemy. In another development yesterday the Taliban issued a warning to it's neighbours (Pakistan, China, Tajikstan, and others) that acceptance of US ground troops would result in attacks against them. The United States meanwhile has applied pressure on Pakistan to allow the use of Air Space and the deployment of ground troops if necessary. This leaves Pakistan's Prime Minister, Pervez Musharraf in a no win position. Musharraf today pledged support to the US and All Pakistani diplomats have been evacuated from Kabul.

Meanwhile in the US congress has approved the allocation of $40 Billion dollars (a considerable multiple of Afghanistans total gross GDP) to the emergency relief effort and the military reactions which are increasingly likely to accompany it. President Bush has also given the green light to the call-up of 50,000 reserve forces to work on home-based defence projects. The President also issued a warning to uniformed personnel saying they will "all be busy soon."

And so even now as the full might of the US Military machine gears up for action with the unilateral backing of NATO, innocent Afghan civilians who never knew the World Trade Center ever existed, let alone know it was razed to the ground last week, will lose their lives to avenge the deaths of the thousands of people who are believed to have been killed in the attack on the 11th of September.

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* Stats obtained from CIA World Factbook.