# US Embassy In Kabul Has Been "Torched" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 26, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880 "2001-09-26T06:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/21 "2001-09-26T13:52:53Z")
Define western. Those pictures I’m using this morning are from Reuters. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/22 "2001-09-26T15:58:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan \* > **The news from Afghanistan that has me more upset is the masses of people at the border, waiting for Pakistan for reopen it…\…It sounds like things might be very desperate. Maybe a million people? The Red Cross is committed to helping 250,000, and hope the other relief agencies can get the rest.** [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=797067) estimates 1.5 million. The rest of the story is no less depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/23 "2001-09-26T18:35:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Philistine \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan \* > > **The news from Afghanistan that has me more upset is the masses of people at the border, waiting for Pakistan for reopen it…\…It sounds like things might be very desperate. Maybe a million people? The Red Cross is committed to helping 250,000, and hope the other relief agencies can get the rest.** > > [The Economist](http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=797067) estimates 1.5 million. The rest of the story is no less depressing. \*\* Nothing in there that I didn’t already know. Seeing it all together like that, tho…These people are not just an oposing government, they are not simple religious fanatics, they are…evil. E-V-I-L. Evil the likes that hasn’t been seen since Nazi Germany. I guarantee you that Allah is weeping over what they are doing in his name. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/24 "2001-09-26T19:52:25Z")
Sorry–I knew that the embassy building had been abandoned. I was tired. It was almost four AM, fer cryin’ out loud! As for the journalists, MSNBC has at least one in Pakistan. Don’t know about Afhganistan, but I coulda sworn Dr. Bob Arnot was reporting from there just a day or two ago. Maybe I just got my “stans” mixed up. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/25 "2001-09-26T19:52:32Z")
The local reports are apparantly being provided by Arabic-language news agencies, which are then being picked up by world-wide agencies. From [CNN](http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/26/gen.embassy.fire/index.html): > [@](#): > > News footage from _Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera_ showed men with machine guns milling around the embassy and shouting. \ al Jazeera can be found [here](http://www.aljazeera.net/). This is in Arabic, so, you’ll need a translator… ---
**Author:** ![rundogrun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@rundogrun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rundogrun)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/26 "2001-09-26T21:47:10Z")
So if I’m following this correctly…and I believe I am…they just burned down their own building and a bunch of their own cars? Interesting way of protesting… ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/27 "2001-09-26T21:49:02Z")
More or less, **rundogrun.** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/28 "2001-09-26T22:04:38Z")
Just to go on a tangent, isn’t “torched” kind of a slang word (“they, like, totally torched it, dude…”) ?? If I was a journalist, I’d use the term “set ablaze” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/29 "2001-09-26T22:13:30Z")
Yes, **LC,** that’s what I thought too. But I swear, that’s what she said. More than once. But she was also reading from something that came over the wire, and the way she was reading it (I don’t have TV, so all I’ve got to go on is tone of voice) it sounded like that’s precisely what came over the wire. “Torched.” Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/30 "2001-09-26T22:17:29Z")
Oh, I know - I heard it too. I wasn’t accusing you of misquoting the news. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/31 "2001-09-26T22:25:19Z")
Oh, I know you weren’t accusing me of anything. I just got the impression from your post that you hadn’t heard it, so I was trying…oh, never mind. We’re starting to sound like those two really, really polite chipmunks from the cartoons. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880/32 "2001-09-26T22:26:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rundogrun \* > \*\*So if I’m following this correctly…and I believe I am…they just burned down their own building and a bunch of their own cars? > > Interesting way of protesting… \*\* Sorta like the LA riots huh? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-embassy-in-kabul-has-been-torched/83880.md?page=1)