Note: The links below connect to a disturbing story, and an even more shocking photograph. Not for the faint-hearted or the squeamish.
A while back, I asked to be reminded of what we're doing here. Ultimately, is the cost of so many allied and Afghan lives, not to mention the financial burdens, worth it for what we may accomplish here. I still don't have an answer to that, at least not one that I find satisfying. My own opinion changes from day to day.
Time Magazine has a cover story about one Afghan girl's experience with Taliban justice. Time even used a photo of the girl on the cover of their latest issue. Needless to say, both are disturbing. The other day, in a post about WikiLeaks, I mentioned the Taliban's concept of "justice." That concept is on display in the Time story.
I won't editorialize the story here, except to say that it is A) one individual's story and should be read as such, and B) it certainly highlights one of the things that is fundamentally wrong with this place. To all who claim that we should reduce our presence here to simply hunting Al Qaeda with drones and let the Afghans sort out the rest for themselves, try going to Aisha's house and tell her that Afghanistan will be a better place under the Taliban. Somehow, I don't think she would agree.
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4 comments:
Just ran across your blog. This is going to be interesting. Searching for a Gunga Din reference now. I will consult P.J. O'Rourke for a good quip.
Sounds like "nation building" talk.
Not that it's a bad topic, nation building is something our SoD, Gates has been apposed to. Sometimes doing the right thing is not so easy. It's just this whole funding of Pakistan who funds and supports talabin terror in Afghanistan that mucks the program.
The girl was mutilated a year ago. At that time there were some 100,000 NATO troops in country pluas lots of contractors.
So if a 100,000 troops can't prevent such, what are they doing there?
And how would that change with 200,000 troops?
Just asking ...
b-
Good question. Quick response is here: http://knightsofafghanistan.blogspot.com/2010/08/other-day-in-post-titled-taliban.html
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