The Taliban: Our Future Allies

[mckitterick]

What, another post from McKitterick? Can you tell the CSSF Workshops and Intensive Institute are done, and that my Dad is on his way back to Minneapolis? Great visit, by the way.

Fred Pohl nails it in his most-recent blog post about US efforts to work with (read: "bribe") the Taliban in order to stop their attacks. Re: this month's cover of TIME about an "18-year-old Afghani woman whose husband’s family were so abusive that she ran away," Fred says, "the Taliban does not grant this kind of freedom of choice to any persons who are unfortunate enough to possess a vagina, so, to teach her a lesson, they ordered her ears and nose to be cut off. These people are pond scum. If not people like them, who are we fighting against?"

Unfortunately, fighting the Taliban doesn't stop atrocities like this, either. What's the answer? Unbearable pain and suffering are going on right now, somewhere in the world, all the time, and we are powerless to stop it. Perhaps because we occupy Afghanistan, we have a special responsibility there. I dunno. All I know is that the Taliban is pure evil, and good people are responsible for stopping evil. Isn't that why we have police and prisons? Can't we just arrest everyone who behaves like a psycho?

I hate feeling powerless. I'll just share one of my favorite quotes: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Philo

Chris

Comments

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

She's so pretty....

Poor thing! And this is just one we heard about. Don't forget the rape victims who get publicly stoned for having been so evil as to temp some poor man into assaulting them.

Or a story about 15 year ago about a young girl from India who went up to a stewardess on a plane and said, "That man is not my father. He just bought me and plans to take me to his home to be his concubine." She was eleven. The plane landed at the nearest airport, authorities from several countries were contacted, massive charges were filed, and she was a free woman. Girl. The whole incident was treated on all sides as if it were a great shock and scandal, as well it should be. But left silent was the question... how many little girls *don't* find someone to confide in, or try and *don't* get believed, or are believed, but no one cares?

The cover of Time is not, in this case, an example of "civilization," or even "human."

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

So true. The fact that this made the cover of TIME is a big deal, because something this bad or worse happens continually, but at least the mainstream media is paying attention now.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Indeed, religion is no reason to allow psycho behavior. "Honor killing" is the next best thing to human sacrifice. At lease occasionally they are being held to the constraints of civil law, but not half often enough.

The people who should be put out in stocks are the British judges who keep surrendering to Sharia law. Right after Sharia law -- or along with it, comes human sacrifice. Under Sharia law all Christians and Jews are dhimmi, their lives worth half or less than half of a Moslem life. You know, the Constitution theoretically has an amendment to get rid of the stupidity of "half-a-white-man", but such a thing is built into Sharia law.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that British judges were so full of FAIL. Or that Sharia law still has less-than-human values associated with other humans.

Gah.

[sarahbrand.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about this cover. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree that, as you said, the Taliban is pure evil. And the thought of such things happening to the woman on the cover and many others like her makes me sick. But I think it's misleading and manipulative to title it "What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan." What happens if we stay in Afghanistan: the same things, plus a lot of people die who might have lived otherwise.

I don't have a solution, either. I'm not sure there is one.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It's just ugly, no matter what we do.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

I suspect the solution is not hate, but love.

Years ago, I read an article written by a woman who had been born in a country that routinely practices female circumcision. (If you don't know the term, look it up and prepare to be horrified.) She moved to Britain as an adult, and when she had a daughter, found someone to perform the surgery illegally. The daughter never talked about sex in high school because her non-Muslim friends were sensitive to her beliefs. It was not until her first year of college that she learned that what had happened to her was Not Normal. She went home and spoke to the mother (author of the article) and asked, "Why?"

The answer? "I didn't know any better. I thought I was doing a good thing for you."

The last part of the article was the woman explaining that she was now devoting her life to educating masses. Going up and knocking on doors, one-by-one, saying, "My daughter is angry, and I must make it right."

But in Afghanistan, specifically, no one outside has ever come up with a solution, not in thousands of years.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what's needed here: A grass-roots effort to change tradition. But I think such change is impossible in such a horrifically misogynistic culture.