I started this post as a reply in samhael's thread about immigration, but when I finished, my focus had shifted to a new topic. Her post brought back memories of a thread that was instigated by a discussion in Chat about seven months ago. In it (linked below), we discussed boatloads of Afghan refugees that were being turned away from Australia. I just looked at the date on that original post: Sept. 1, 2001. In one of my posts in that thread, I wrote, "However, the Taliban does not stop at forcing religious beliefs on those who live in Afghanistan. Their treatment of women is nothing short of pure brutality..." That was written 10 days before September 11. And this part is almost surreal (from post 40851):

"This same thing happened in World War II, when numerous countries -- including the U.S. -- closed their doors to the Jews who were trying to flee persecution. The countries said they had no room and that their "quotas" were already filled. What happened? Millions of Jews had nowhere to go but into the fires of the deathcamps. Only after the war was over did those countries realize what had happened. History repeats itself because people refuse to look at it and realize that cruel things continue to happen."

Seven months later, I look at Afghanistan. Thousands have died in the war, and at least 1,800 more were killed yesterday in an earthquake. Those who have survived are left with nearly nothing, and yet, they're trying to pick up the pieces and go on with life, just as every population ravaged by war has done in the past. I'm not sure what to think, except to wonder when history will yet again repeat itself.

Ellmyruh