A country not worth saving?
[Note to readers: If you notice problems with fonts, spacings, etc, in the next few posts, be assured that it’s neither your eyes nor your computer. WordPress geeks in their infinite wisdom eliminated the W-button I used to employ to insert post rough drafts from MS Word. I’ve found a temporary fix, but I’m still exploring work-arounds. Apparently, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” isn’t a workplace motto at WordPress where they’ve adopted a policy that users are beta-testers, just like Microsoft, the company they hate. I won’t apologize–they should.]
This question is appropriate when considering Afghanistan. The good Afghans don’t seem capable of standing up to the Taliban. The bad Afghans—and these aren’t the Taliban, who are worse than bad—are poppy farmers and the people like Karzai, who, through graft and corruption, exploit everyone and everything. Karzai bites the hand that feeds him too: he has to know that his life wouldn’t be worth a Russian ruble if the Taliban take over again. And, let’s face it, the Afghan landscape is more desolate than the moon’s; only Iceland’s is worse.
The recent murders of three doctors is but another instance of why we should write Afghanistan off. There are good people there. These doctors were on a mission to help them. One, I believe, had been doing so for seven years. The Taliban don’t care. These doctors were Christians, foreigners, and not supporters of the Taliban’s vicious brand of radical Islam. The Taliban’s ideology is one of death. Doctors, a little girl making appeals for the right of women to educate themselves, and many others who dare to work for peace and a better life and naysay Taliban fanaticism, are targets. They are now claiming they shot down a NATO helicopter (the Pentagon claims this is false—I’m not surprised, because the Taliban would probably take credit if Karzai got a cold).
We know from experience that a Taliban-controlled state is rabid, radical Islam at its worse. It’s more than a theocracy—it’s North Korea on steroids, where, in the name of religion, fanatic fascists rule by fear. But we also know there are other places in the world nearly as bad. Most of them have more strategic importance than Afghanistan, a country with no future. Should we seal the borders and contain the contagion? Maybe do the same to Pakistan too, because it can’t seem to decide which side it’s on? And when the poisonous insects congregate in either of these countries, attack with drones like Orkin exterminators to eliminate the infestations. Works in Yemen. Why not Afghanistan?
You see, there’s absolutely no way to convince a fanatic ideologue, religious or political, that his or her cause isn’t just. These people are zombies, their minds burned out by brainwashing. Their cowardly leaders, never fighting themselves, push all the right buttons to send the zombie hordes around to do their murderous bidding. Zombies is too nice a word, in fact; these fanatic ideologues are murderous robots. There’s nothing human about them. They’ve been programmed contrary to Asimov’s laws—their first law is to kill anyone who disagrees with them even if it means dying, the anti-second law. There’s no third one, because they can’t count to three.
It’s sad that the Afghan people can’t stand up to this blight that has infected their land. But it is their fight, after all, not ours. When the Taliban were harboring al Qaeda terrorists, it was perhaps more important for the U.S. to have a presence in Afghanistan—a strategic imperative, if you will. But, let’s face it, al Qaeda fighters are piss-poor fanatics compared to the Taliban. They might be more bent on international jihad, but, with the exception of stupid plots in U.S. TV shows, can you imagine an uneducated Taliban fruitcake mastering enough English to infiltrate the E.U. or U.S.? Their minds are so blasted with brainwashing fanaticism that they can’t even read or write in their own language. They learn passages from the Quran by memory that represent maybe one percent of the teachings of one of the world’s great religions.
I’m ambivalent. I know our people in Afghanistan—soldiers, doctors, engineers, and others—were there because they believed they could make a difference. After more than ten years, though, any reasonable person should have doubts. Are we willing to lose more good people in trying to save a country from itself? I often think I’d rather keep our good people alive and ready to help where it makes a real difference. I’d also like to think U.S. and European leaders are having these same doubts. You can say what you want about the Russian devil, Vladimir Putin, but, as Mr. Obama says, he’s not stupid. He retreated from Afghanistan, deciding it wasn’t worth the time, effort, personnel or manpower. Maybe it’s time to take a lesson from that wily old fox. After all, he might be ruling the world one day!
And so it goes….
