Peter Benesh in Investor's Business Daily writes He Roared Against Oppression:
Ahmed Shah Massoud's goal was freedom. It cost him his life.Much more information about an exceptional man by following the link.
Massoud, the first hero of Sept. 11, died two days earlier. Two al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as Belgian journalists killed him with an exploding camera at his camp in Afghanistan's remote Panjshir Valley.
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He died unable to fathom U.S. abandonment of his anti-Soviet, anti-Taliban fighters. Nor could he comprehend U.S. backing for Pakistan, whose infamous intelligence service had created the Taliban.
Americans don't realize what they owe Massoud, says Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm" and "Fire."
Massoud made America's victory in Afghanistan possible, says Junger, who spent a month with Massoud for National Geographic Adventure magazine in 2000. "Had he not held out against the Taliban for so many years, militarily what we would have faced would have been vastly more complicated and costly."
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Said Junger: "We ignored Massoud's warnings about what was happening there. The connection between his assassination and 9-11 is absolute.
"I had interviewed a Taliban prisoner. He said, 'We have to kill Massoud. He's the last wall standing between us and our goal.' "
That goal was "a militant Islamist belt from Sinkiang to Chechnya," said Haron Amin, deputy chief of the Afghan mission in Washington, D.C.
Massoud had a vision for his country, says Amin, Massoud's emissary in the U.S. "It was one of social justice, tranquility and progress, keeping the Islamic character but integrating women into politics and the labor force."
His intellect, leadership, humanitarianism and war record made him a figure of mythic proportions.
