ISLAMABAD -- A news release from the U.S. State Department explaining the possible consequences of this month's U.N. Security Council sanctions against Afghanistan was mainly concerned to set the record straight.
"The United Nations sanctions very specifically target only the Taliban leadership, not the people of Afghanistan," the release said. "The sanctions are political, not economic. . . . Trade and commerce, including in food and medicine, continue unabated. Large-scale international humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people continues."
The United States has reason to justify the sanctions, as it has led the initiative to tighten the noose around the Taliban, the group of radical Islamic fighters who achieved notoriety with their creation of one of the world's most puritanical states, where women are banned from public life and strict laws are enforced.