The Taliban originally gained popularity as a force against crime and corruption (alongside their strict enforcement of Sharia, of course). Will the Afghan populace again look to a more openly hardline Islamic regime to restore a semblance of order at the expense of the few freedoms the mullahs haven't yet revoked in the name of the Sharia constitution? The rising chaos in southern Afghanistan is certainly playing into the hands of the Taliban and like-minded warlords.
From the Christian Science Monitor: "Security slipping around Kandahar"
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - Last summer, Shahida Hussain was pounding the dusty streets of Kandahar campaigning for Parliament in defiance of Taliban threats. Now this outspoken woman rarely leaves her house for fear of getting caught up in the violence engulfing Afghanistan's southern city.
[...]
Her family is no longer sending her granddaughter to school because they are afraid she will be attacked en route, if not by the Taliban then by criminals who are in league with an increasingly corrupt government that is profiting from the country's rampant drug trade. "Corruption is the number one reason behind the rising violence," says Hussain.
As violence in southern Afghanistan reaches its worst levels since 2001, a chorus of Afghan officials, security experts, and Coalition commanders share Hussain's basic assessment. While the Taliban are fighting with greater vigor, the violence ultimately has more to do with the failures of government, they say.
[...]
NATO commanders say the Taliban are stepping up the offensive in a bid to break popular support in troop- contributing nations.
Foreign troops can still draw upon reservoirs of goodwill here. In many parts of southern Afghanistan, memories of the civil war and the hard-line Taliban rule that followed are still fresh, and many residents remain willing to support the deployment of foreign troops.
But those memories are dimming.
"When the communist government was not good, the mujahideen came; when they failed, the Taliban came. I don't know who will come after this government, but it is losing the trust of the people," says Hussain.
Hey, none of us ever thought that the Afghan tribesmen would be beacons of freedom in islam.
Although we are kind of hoping to see something like that take place in iraq.... And we're willing to give it a chance, spend billions and put our men in the field, to try to give it that chance, a real chance, a genuine chance, and not one that throws up its hands at sings of the first difficulties.
But so far for the Afghan tribesmen, they are as apt to war as just about anybody on the planet. Nothing that occurs in Afghanistan and the Northwest Frontier Province is really going to surprise us.
What might be the problem is skyhigh expectations held by the Afghan people, with the arrival of Karzai and the new government. That might have a great deal to do with what we are seeing.
What exactly do we think will drive the economy of that region ? They have no resources other than poppy. And they certainly are not working towards building a basic agrarian economy. As long as there are muslims over there, it can never be a successful country. But for crude, there are no islamic countries that are succesful. All are failed economies or sponsors of terrorism. I, personally, have no hopes for afghanistan.
"I don't know who will come after this government, but it is losing the trust of the people," says Hussain."
Living in Russia in 1990's, I was astounded at how many Russians longed for the "good ol' days" of communism. They said, "At least under Stalin we were a powerful and proud people but now, post-communism, we are weak and ashamed to be Russian.
A similar mindset is in play in Afghanistan post Taliban. There's a certain (albeit pathetic) security that comes from being enslaved, whether it's from communism, or Sharia and apparently these primitive people are willing to forego freedom for the "security" that Islamic enslavement brings.
I think part of the problem is that we, the West, the civilized world TOLERATE THE TRIBAL PRACTICES, we TOLERATE the cult of the kalshinkov in the Northwest Frontier Province.
The tribesmen tell us to keep out, while they allow in every mass murdering muslim lunatic. Provide that lunatic safe haven, and simultaneously demand from us, that we do nothing to intrude on that safe haven.
I think it needs to come to an end.
Their idea, that they are some separate place on the planet, apart and distinct from the concerns of the rest of the world, has got to come to an end.
We need to tell the Pakistani government, "Either you go in and crush the resistance to law and order in the Tribes area, in the NWFP, or we will. And that doesn't mean we're going to be sending in troops, we'll send in our bombers, and the problem will be solved in minutes."
We're tolerating entirely too much crap within and from islam.
And it's gotta come to an end. Otherwise, this crap will continue indefinitely.
I think, (rather unfortunatly) that many of the commentators on this article are right.
THe Taliban stil exert influence outside of Kandahar and even including the city.
The Pashtun tribalism has shown no sign of moving ahead.
Poppy production is skyrocketting.
While we look at this conflict in a matter of years or months our enemies see the restoration of a caliphate coming over a series of hundreds of years.
We have given them a chance and they are pissing it away while Karzai hides in his little palace outof fear of assasination. What can be done? Unfortunatly, I think that this is just a fight that we will have to fight again and again.
The Islamists are far more formidable and dangerous than even the Nazis. What we need is full mobilization and total war as mcuh as I hate to say it.
I think, (rather unfortunatly) that many of the commentators on this article are right.
THe Taliban stil exert influence outside of Kandahar and even including the city.
The Pashtun tribalism has shown no sign of moving ahead.
Poppy production is skyrocketting.
While we look at this conflict in a matter of years or months our enemies see the restoration of a caliphate coming over a series of hundreds of years.
We have given them a chance and they are pissing it away while Karzai hides in his little palace outof fear of assasination. What can be done? Unfortunatly, I think that this is just a fight that we will have to fight again and again.
The Islamists are far more formidable and dangerous than even the Nazis. What we need is full mobilization and total war as mcuh as I hate to say it.
Assalamau Laikum all,
I is indeed sad for the peoples of Afgan not to have a charamastic leader who can lead them to a successful muslim society.
My Arjun.Sevak has it right when he talks about some failed states being muslim.
This is because the muslims have forgotten what success feels like...like a team that keep losing every week in football...it sort of becomes a habit...and they need to break free.
Normally a change of coach, the environment or the success of winning turns things around.
Perhaps what is required then is to show the muslim that Islam & success go hand in hand as it used to in the golden old days.
I think that this can be shown by a western country embracing Islam....Islam & success... This would be a model that the muslim could lookup to ...admire & emulate.
Like the Sikh gurus who would pay the ultimate price for the sake of humanity...it is now the turn of the Amriki to do the same.
I *urge* you to turn to Islam....embrace it...to show that the mix of Islam & success go together....it could bring a new meaning to world peace.
Rather than wait the full 50 years for this to happen demographically....you could start to make a difference from today.
Think about the good that you can do...think about the Afgans that you could inspire... success could start to come to the Pakistanis, the Egyptians, and the somalis.
Make that sacrfice ....the Islamic world needs to expand now !....Make Alla your saviour!
Zero G wrote:
"There's a certain (albeit pathetic) security that comes from being enslaved, whether it's from communism, or Sharia and apparently these primitive people are willing to forego freedom for the "security" that Islamic enslavement brings."
Zero G - you hit the nail right on the head. I agree 100% with you.
I live in Germany since 1997, and lived in the old East Germany for 4 years, from 1998-2002.They (the east germans) have the same "Sehnsucht" (longing) for the good old days of the DDR, in spite of the fact that it was a crappy, horrible, oppressive, criminal system. Kind of like the Stockholm Syndrome, but for an entire people. I assume it is not much different for the afghanis, who are going to have to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, just as we americans have done it over and over and over again.
We are going to have a huge mess in Afghanistan. It is not Bush' fault in any way, shape, or form, but the administration had better start beefing up forces there or we will have a new form of Intifada right there. EEK.
Naseem,
I sincerely doubt that any reasonable thinking person, after having endured the condescension, disdain, racism and hatred that the islamic world hurls at us day in and day out, would have the slightest inclination to embrace islam. I for one will never do this.
How about encouraging the islamic world to come out of the middle ages and really see the world about it and accept those who are non-muslims? Has this possibility every crept into your head? Or does the superiority complex that the islamic world is so good at concealing keep you from considering this?
I have no desire to stretch my hand out to someone who is holding a knife and is intent on killing me. That is simply nonsense. The next thing we know, you will be telling us we should embrace Achmenidjhad (Hitler II).
Who you wish to worship is your thing, I cannot keep you from falling off the cliff, anyway, and where you fall is your own business. But leave the proselytising out of this discussion, it is simply gross and disgusting and I have at least 3,000 good reasons to never believe you.
Americans have no right to pass judgement on Afghan culture. It is certainly no worse than Western culture, which is responsible for racism, sexism, and war. I am sure that we will soon admit a couple of million Afghans into this country, where they will make a great contribution to the multicultural salad of American society.
Afghans have strong family values and they will do jobs that Americans will not do. Let us welcome them into our homes and neighborhoods, along with the approximately 100 million other new imigrants who soon will join us in America.
Don't worry, be happy.
Islam is a religion of peace.
Viva El Presidente Jorge bin Jorge al-Bush!
Allahu akbar!
This is not going to happen if we give it to them. We, the civilized, have to colonize these areas that we have freed. It is the only solution. The muslims can NOT run a country. They will always export trouble to our shores. And we have to subsidize them cos they can never sustain an economy. THIS is the beginning of the solution.
Do you know what it means to pakistan to enter afghnistan ? It means escalation of terror 100%. pakistan is the biggenst exporter of terror. And the biggest financier is saudi arabia.
This is getting old... and tiresome
"Naseem"There is one sacrifice that the Infidel world will have to make, but still can't bring itself to come to terms with. That's dar ul Islam. Will have to become dar ul Harb. So to speak.
The Afghanistan success model is starting to sound more like Iraq. Despite all the brutality of the Mullah Omar and company, their memory is fading into the dustbin of time, only to be left with Islam. Screw those clerics who preach violence. Screw our leaders who preach democracy. Screw our misguided leaders who preach nation building abroad, while they leave our borders and infrastructure in tatters. Screw our leaders who spend a half a billion dollars on Iraq and Kabul, money going hand over fist to corrupt people who hate and kills us, who will spit on us when we leave, while telling us illegal aliens will do jobs Americans won't do. This is conservative? How is this conservative govenment? I ask all of W's supporters, "is ANYTHING he has done remotely suggest a conservative philosophy?" About the onlything one can say is, "well, he'd be better than Gore or Kerry." I used to believe that, but, at best, it would have been the same crap than with W.
Many, like I used to, are waiting. Waiting for W to come to his senses on Iraq, on illegal immigration. Can he not see how the daily IDE's are killing are young each day? or maiming them beyond recognition? Is this worth it for his 'War on Terror.' I would caution all who would defend the 'War on Terror,' that even this phrase is a sucker punch of political correctness. The wimp cannot even bring him self to call it 'The War on Militant Islam.' Condi probably wouldn't like that. Just stick to your pathetic bromides and idiot speech. Birds of feathers, looks like the A Gonzalez also talks in W speak. Nice guy, works out, in good shape, idiot with a pc bent. Can somebody with a scientific background clone Lincoln and Churchill?
I *urge* you to turn to Islam....embrace it...to show that the mix of Islam & success go together....it could bring a new meaning to world peace.
Naseem
Just why would we want to do that ?
I mean I have visited Islamic countries and they are all boring with their woman wrapped up in black tents - no beer at the game - hell no game - you could die of boredom - apart from banging ones head on the ground at the local mezquita what the hell is there to do on a friday night .
So its no thanks naseem and thanks for the offer and all I guess we will just have to defeat you all militarily and then set up a hell of a lot of re-education camps to get all that shit out of your brainwashed minds - hows that sound to you then . alright - eh?
He that doesn't learn from history is bound to repeat it. It astounds me that absolutely none of the Great Powers have learnt the lessons of history. when dealing with Afghanistan. I might make a few mistakes as I have none of my books with me at the moment to check the facts, but on the whole what I have to say here is basically correct. Afghanistan has always been the gateway to India, it was so important to the British that they fought three wars all of which were more or less humiliating to that imperial power. The war of 1839-1842 ended in perhaps the most humiliating defeat that any great power has ever suffered. 20,000 British troops entered Afghanistan to institute a change of Government, any bells starting to ring, The British mission was murdered in Kabul and the British army retreated towards the Khyber pass out of the 20,000 only one man a Dr. Brydon reached Jallalabad where where a British Garrison was stationed. The second war of 1878-1879 went a little better for the British but it was still a catalogue of disastrous retreats and bloody battles. The war of 1919 well I will let the readers of this column find out for themselves if they are interested. The British during the inter war period instigated a policy of bombing the tribesmen of the North West frontier with mustard gas the pilots being issued with Goollee chits, these were documents written in Afgan stating that if the aforesaid pilot was returned to British custody with his wedding tackle in situ, the aforesaid person would be paid 100 pound in gold sovereigns. Well we all know what happened to the Russians and now the U.S.A. In a fit of hubris are having a shot. America wise up Afghanistan is a bottomless pit where you are and will pour you wealth and youth into a bottomless pit for which you will get no return and deffinately no thanks. Afghanistan is the Islamic country that most resembles Arabia at the time of the prophet and as such is basically barbaric and most backward in thinking of the moslem countries. Afghanistan will only change when the internal forces of modernisation build up a head of steam sufficient to break the mould, as happened in France in 1789 and Russia in 1917. One of the great misunderstanding of the west is to use the term Islamic revolution when referring the take over of Iran by the Mullahs and Afghanistan by the Taliban. These were not revolutions but counter reformations that were successful. All they did was hammer a cork more firmly into a fermenting bottle, we all know what happens when we do that. We can see the fermenting working away at the foundations of Iran at the moment, with the rising opposition to that regime, It is only a mater now of deciding what comes first the a genuine revolution in Iran or the Mullahs get the bomb. If they get the bomb first then they only delay the process. The result will be when the real revolution comes it will be much more bloody or Tehran begins to glow in the dark. In Afghanistan which is much more backward the process could take decades. The best thing that America can do for Afghanistan and the American taxpayer is to build an electric fence around the place and let it gentle ferment. This might sound cynical, but it is not, it is based on my travels in Afghanistan and my reading of history. America do not be like the man who is getting married for the twentieth time let hope overcome experience, get out while you can. I will recommend for those of you that are interested, Sir Winston Churchill first book written in 1899 called ( The Malakand Field Force), this can be downloaded free from http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
Make that sacrfice ....the Islamic world needs to expand now !....Make Alla your saviour!
save me from what?
Hopeing that my children grow up to be good peaple,and add something to this world?
To see my grandchildren?
To be free to live as a choose?
To be able to go out into my community,withought being affraid of the next homicide bomber?
To be able to think for myself?
To teach my son how to love and treat woman(I would kick his ass,if he ever hit a woman).
Teach my duaghter,that NO man can ever keep her from her potential?
No naseem,allah cant save me from shit,after all look at you.You say you are well educated,and i assume?you actually read the koran.But here you are trying to get people to embrace something like islam.You know what islam,the koran,and islamic laws bring to people,especially woman,and yet you love islam?Maybe you CAN read,but you must not understand what you read,an educated womancould not be so stupid to
embrace islam,and be treated like livestock.
Thank you Holger Dansker for the history lesson. We have tried everything for the third world except this:
Doing nothing.
Lets forget about Bono's Rock and Roll economics, George Bush's 'unleash the forces of freedom' or Europe's 'avoid conflict at any cost'.
None of these work. Let's just do nothing. It's never been tried, it won't work, but at least it won't cost us anything.
Not a penny in aid, not a drop of western blood.
Its the best present we could give them.
The link to the Churchill text referred to above by Holger is here http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/mkdff10.txt
A quick search for terms such as 'jehad' and 'Mahommedanism' shows that we knew everything we needed to know about the enemy 100 years ago.
With all the information we have at our fingertips today, we know precisely nothing about islam.
"It is certainly no worse than Western culture, which is responsible for racism, sexism, and war." from above post.
Well, that is certainly a muslim speaking.
What muslims don't admit to, is , we (of the west ) have evolved into a civilized society with culture, intelligence, ideas and technology. Sure, there is always going to be a difference in the sexes. That's a good thing. Racism, sexism and war was not invented by the west. It's been around for millenia. The difference is , mohammedans still practice all three. Daily.
Another difference in our cultures is, we're willing to work for the betterment of mankind and make the necessary changes. We aren't stuck in a practice 1400 years ago that a madman used to fulfill his selfish desires. We don't need to have a dead criminal telling us how we should wipe, pluck hairs, wash and kill. We educate our young to get along, get a good education and make a good life. Muslims teach their young to hate, subjugate and kill. And be lazy and let others support them.
We're not afraid of statues, women's sexuality (no need for FGM here), cartoons, photos, seeing women without tents and many other things that muslims tend to shy away from.
We have known that the earth revolves around the sun, the earth is round and yet muslims still believe the opposite because it's in the koran.
C'mon. Get with the program. Get over your jihad and come into the civilized world.
Mafia members only respect cops who are serious enough to kill them when they get out of line and start harming those outside of the "family".
Imperialistic Muslims = Islamic mafia.
As long as they only kill one another, more power to them. Once they spill over the borders and harm infidels, time to send them to Allah.
Again and again and again.
Until they calm the hell back down.
Dear Nassem,
Your inablatity to face facts makes me wonder if I am living on this earth or fullers earth. lets take a look at a country that have embraced to glorious faith of Islam Bangladesh for instance. Bangladesh, if anybody is interested now has a population larger than Russia 167 million people and it is still growing at between 2% and 3 %, this will mean that in 20 to 30 year time the population will double to around 300 million which is about the population of the U.S.A. now, living in an area about the size of an average American state. In what conditions will they be living in, that is easy to say Poverty. You need about twice the economic growth rate as the population growth rate to stay still and Bangladesh is not performing that well. These high population growth rates are caused by the Religion of Peace insistence that women are treated as tubes of meat to be masturbated into, and as long as that is insisted upon Islamic birthrates will continue to rise with all its consequence and those consequence will be catastrophic. Now imagine the U.S.A. in thirty year time, its population will be much higher it will be able to feed itself, but will it be able to feed the world. I doubt it, most of the oil will be used up and that will mean that oil prises will stay high and what surplus land America has over after providing food for itself will be used for the production of Biofuels because they will be profitable, that is what is happening now , that is how capitalism works. What is forgotten by Islam is that most of the surplus food in the world is produced by the West Canada Australia America and Europe but all Islamic countries have to import food. Imagine in 30 year time when the worlds fastest growing faith has a world population of 3 billion and there is no surplus of food because all the western lands have been turning what surplus land they have over to producing Biofuels. Imagine a rice blight similar to the potato blight that happen in Ireland in the 1840s, Islam will become the worlds fastest shrinking religion. Don't worry I'll send spoons and plates so you can eat your oil. Get a brain Nassem, Islam is a disaster waiting to happen
"We're tolerating entirely too much crap within and from islam.
And it's gotta come to an end. Otherwise, this crap will continue indefinitely. "
I think the crap will continue indefinitely. I'll write an "I told you so" in the Comments section of a Jihad Watch article in May of 2016, ten years from now, when the West still will have its collective head up its ass (even after several more major terrorist attacks by that time).
Naseem, convert to catholicism, this is the true religion.
A curious phenomena connected with the First Afghan War (1839-1842) was that the women of Kabul were so astonished, on coming into contact with British troops, to find a large body of men who were not misogynistic homosexuals that the resulting liaisons caused widespread uproar among the male population. As Richard Burton put it, in his strange essay on the Sotadic Zone (1885):
“In Afghanistan also a frantic debauchery broke out amongst the women when they found incubi who were not pederasts; and the scandal was not the most insignificant cause of the general rising at Cabul (Nov. 1841), and the slaughter of Macnaghten, Burnes and other British officers.”
The wily Mohammed was wise to forbid Moslem women to marry non-Muslims, on the (to him) self evident assumption that if a woman didn‘t automatically assume the religion of her husband, then the children would be made to, by their father. I’ve a suspicion a remarkably high percentage of them would show what they really thought of their situation by voting with their feet. It’s a pity some way can’t be found of awakening and mobilising this discontent of Muslim women, with their lot. It must be particularly powerful in Afghanistan.
Hey Naseem - Perhaps the West has been successful simply because it is NOT Islamic. Perhaps Islam and a successful society are mutually incompatible. I'm reminded of Communists who maintained the the communism of the Soviet Union and it's slaves, (errr allied states), failed because it was not "real" Communism. Is the Islamic world viewed (apparently by you as well as me) as a failure because it is not practicing true Islam? Pax vobiscum!
Dear Wally,
no I didn't know about the women and the relationship with the British soldiers mind you I can understand it when I was in Afghanistan and that was before the Russian invasion and they didn't go around wearing bin liner, there were some very tasty lasses wandering around, what struck me most was their eyes a lot of Afghans have green greyish eyes, reputedly derived from some of Alexander the Greats troops who settled there, how true that is, I don't know. I travelled through Afghanistan alone, and it has always been my policy to keep my fingers off the local crumpet. I liked the Afghans immensely. I had many working under me when I was working in the Gulf and I got on very well with them but I wouldn't turn my back on or give them an inch. I think that it was because of all the different types of moslems I had working for me they were the most fanatical. When I was out there Ramadan fell in the summer when temperatures outside were hovering between the 45 degrees and 50 degrees you didn't sweat you melted and some of these were collapsing and wouldn't take water. I think it was then that I realised they were mad. Another point that is interesting about that war was that the Afghans didn't mistreat the women captives, but I think that is because they knew they could get a good ransom from the British Government. Lady Sales diary was a big hit when it came out and Queen Vic ended up awarding her a state pension, but then Lady Sale was a tough old bird and was frightened of nothing. Somebody who has a copy of her Diary would do the world a great service if they would scan it in a send it to project Guttenberg so that we could all download it and enjoy it. Apart from the point about the Afghan women and the British soldiers, I had always assumed that there were three basic reason why the war went sodesasterouslyrong for the British, one, the British changed commanders in the Summer General Cotton was superseded by General Elphinstone who was very ill and nearly senile which meant weak leadership. You could at least have counted on a bit of initiative from General Cotton if he had been in charge, it is not many General who can say they been expelled from Rugby school for leading a mutiny and blowing up the Headmasters study. The other was that the cantonment was not fortified and thirdly and most importantly they reduced the subsidy paid to the tribes in the Khyber pass to keep it open, the most stupid thing that they ever did, but then it must be remembered that it was virtually the private army of the East India company and the shareholders were looking for profits and not profets.
from bonncaruso: "Kind of like the Stockholm Syndrome, but for an entire people."
Well said.
The Afghani children are abducted by Islam and fed constant doses of hatred, fear, violence, and oppression until they began to see their abductor as their savior.
"It’s a pity some way can’t be found of awakening and mobilising this discontent of Muslim women, with their lot. It must be particularly powerful in Afghanistan."
WallyUK, they are fighting already - the bavest women of the brave in this world:
http://www.rawa.us/index.htm
"RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . RAWA’s objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women’s human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation. ..."
Mr. Holger Dansker,
You are remarkably informed about the afghans and the history of afghanistan. Yes, I can vouch for that. They have green - grey eyes from the soldiers of Alexander who settled there.