Roots of Peace is dedicated to “turning battlefields into bountiful orchards” by “implementing our demine-replant-rebuild model.” This jihad action shows that their enlightened-beyond-war postmodernism may, in the context of jihad-ridden Afghanistan, be a trifle premature. But it is unlikely that Leftists committed enough to go to Afghanistan to plant orchards will learn any lesson from this about the nature of the conflict raging all around them.
“Taliban attacks US NGO ‘Roots of Peace’ guesthouse in Kabul; all 5 militants killed,” by Nina Rai for AllVoices.com, March 28 (thanks to Stephen):
Five Taliban gunmen stormed a US charity group’s guesthouse in Kabul Friday, killing two civilians and wounding four guards before being killed by security forces.
The Taliban militants barricaded themselves inside the guesthouse run by San Francisco-based NGO group Roots of Peace and managed to hold four foreigners hostage.
Dozens of security vehicles, including Kabul’s Rapid Reaction Force, quickly arrived at the scene and surrounded the walled compound.
The siege of the compound lasted several hours, with gunfire and explosions heard throughout the city before Afghan security forces succeeded in killing the insurgents.
“The fight is over. The five attackers are dead,” Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of 111 Military Corps Kabul, told Reuters.
Many of the residents managed to escape, while more than a dozen foreign nationals, including many children, were escorted to safety by the security forces.
Around 20 foreign and local workers escaped the attack, said Interior Ministry officials. Three Americans, a Peruvian, a Malaysian, an Australian and one African were among the survivors.
Gen. Ayoub Salangi, deputy Afghan interior minister, confirmed the attack was carried out by five suicide bombers.
One of the militants detonated his car laden with explosives to allow his comrades to gain entry into the guesthouse compound. A small girl was killed and a guard was injured during the explosion, said Salangi.
The other three militants once inside the building detonated explosives attached to their bodies, while one of them was killed during clashes with security forces
Kabul Police Chief Mohammad Zaher said the attack first started around 4 p.m. local time.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assault. The foreign guesthouse was the target, they said, which they alleged was also used as a church.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the guesthouse “was actually a church used to convert Muslims to Christianity.”
The US Embassy in Kabul released a statement condemning the attack and highlighting the work done by Roots of Peace with US aid funding in Afghanistan.
According to the statement, the $40 million worth of funding had helped Afghan farmers increase crop yields for various fruits like pomegranates.
The latest assault is the fourth significant attack this year in the Afghan capital targeting foreigners or places where foreigners congregate.
It comes just a week before the Afghan presidential election, which is being held to choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai, who has completed his term in office.
The Taliban has vowed to derail the ballot process. Its leaders have ordered the fighters to disrupt the elections by attacking polling staff, voters and security forces….
Joeb says
What on earth are those five children doing there? What sort of a brain dead moron would bring their children to Afghanistan?
WVinMN says
Leftist, moron…what’s the difference?
cranky.white.woman says
You read my mind. What in the world were they thinking? This article is proof that liberalism is a mental illness.
Stephen Poole says
… Y’all are missin’ The Point … Four of The Five Jihadists detonated themselves … It took the Afghans HOURS to subdue the last one … Just sayin’ … SP OX …
Al Kaffir says
Joeb, The answer is obvious! In their naive, politically correct world-view, the do-gooders simply wanted their children to experience what they themselves already ‘knew’. They probably believed that Islam is ‘just another religion’ like Judaism, Christianity or Buddhism; and that Muslims are people ‘just like them’, who only need a little tender love and care, and they all will quickly become fine upstanding citizens, reciprocating that TLC – and yearning for democracy and secularism.
But the world doesn’t quite work that way. Unfortunately these people haven’t learned the old psychology principle of ‘longitudinal consistency’: “The longer someone behaves in a particular way, the more likely it is that they will continue to behave that way.” It’s like trying to teach old dogs new tricks, or change the basic nature of a person, or any other creature – it’s very difficult, if not impossible.
When you are dealing with people who have been indoctrinated from birth with the hatred, deception and violence inherent in the Quran, your chances of redeeming them are like a snowball’s chance in hell. I’m also reminded of the tale of the ‘scorpion and the fox’, and that leopards don’t change their spots.
John Stefan Obeda says
Yes, that’s the way it is in the vast majority of cases. Yes. But with the true God, the Holy Trinity, all things are possible and that includes the conversion of Saul – the one that changed his name to Paul – and it even includes some Islamists when they hear the good news that God loves them in Christ Jesus and for His sake forgives them all of their sins and freely gives them eternal life. And in great joy and peace they are believers in Christ Jesus to be their Saviour. May God bless many in such manner.
JEB says
Please do not assume that these people are unknowledgeable leftists. The people whom I know who are doing this type of work have an excellent understanding of Islam and the extremist threat. Nevertheless they have a deep love for Muslim people. I have known people who have been kidnapped or killed by the Taliban. They know the risks but are not deterred.
Terry says
Thank you for saying that. God Bless them, and you! Amen and AMEN
joeb says
Leftists have a death wish. They are willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of their utopian ideals, like Rachel Corrie and that Italian bloke who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the very people he went to the gaza strip to help. And these idiots are not only willing to sacrifice themselves, but their children as well.
Mirren10 says
”They know the risks but are not deterred”
**They** are adults. If they deliberately choose to set themselves up to be murdered by mohammedans, that’s their business.
They have **no** right to put their innocent children in danger. That is **gross dereliction of the duty of a parent*.
They are despicable.
Tom Halvey says
You cannot reason with these people anymore than you could reason with a rabid dog. Unless we take the gloves off and deal with them in the necessary way where ever they are. Until we do so, this war that is being waged by them, will get worse. They, and all others who have their disease need to be dealt with in the same way as you would a rabid dog.
bill says
The Taliban has vowed to derail the ballot process. Its leaders have ordered the fighters to disrupt the elections by attacking polling staff, voters and security forces
These are the people that some think they should ‘negotiate’ with. How can they be negotiated with when their whole aim is to reverse every improvement and success that has been made so far? They are not interested in the future of the country only returning it to the past, All you can do with mad dogs is to kill them.
Johnny Canuck says
What sort of twisted cranks would love Muslims more than their own children? Do-gooders are just as fanatic as the people they purport to help. At the end of the day, officious leftists do more harm than good.
Kelby says
Jeb the point was not that they knew the dangers but that they brought five children into that environment which is made worse because as you say they were well aware of the risks but that’s the idiocy of a true liberal that they think everyone is like them if just given the chance that they are poor victims of their circumstances when the reality is there are bad people in the world and there is real evil here too.
Walter Sieruk says
With this above article this is a good time to repeat the important message. Which is that Karzai is a fool if he still feels,in spite of all the facts, that some kind of good solid “peace alliance” might be able to be worked out between the current government in Afghanistan the the fiends who compose the Taliban. For the Taliban have worked very hard to prove, time after time, that they are a group of vicious ruthless thugs with no honor and would keep any promise that they might happen to make in any so called “negotiations” with the Afghanistan government officials only as long as it would suit them and no longer. In any “dialogue” the Taliban would be very disingenuous. In other words they would speak the truth only when it fits their agenda. The rest of the time they will be lying and saying half-truths. Before even trying to engage in the folly of trying to make a”peace alliance” with the Taliban, Karzai and the government officials of Afghanistan would do good to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu in THE ART OF WAR . Which teaches “We cannot enter into an alliance with neighboring princes until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more current and updated way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into an alliance with the Taliban until we are acquainted with their designs.” With the Taliban we all may be sure that their intentions are evil.
JEB says
It is a mistake to think of the Taliban as a monolithic group of evil Jihadi’s. Here are some types of Taliban.
1. Sociopaths. The Taliban has more than their share of men who use an ideology to legitimize their depravity. Only God can declare someone is hopeless but these are certainly close.
2. Thugs. These people use the Taliban as cover for their own enrichment engaging in drug dealing, kidnapping for ransom and other forms of corruption. Nearly hopeless.
3. True believers. These people really believe that dying while waging jihad for Allah is a direct path to heaven. They make useful suicide bombers for the leadership who are not quite ready to meet Allah themselves. Some of these people abandon Islam and jihad. Rare but it happens.
4. Cultural Jihadis. Most of the population in Afghanistan lives in rural areas. Some clans/tribes have been waging jihad for generations. It is all they know. Often their primary loyalty is to their local tribal leaders. Given more opportunities they might choose another path. I once interviewed someone who had been abducted by the Taliban. He was well treated and stated the lead captor fit this description.
5. Coerced. These people support the Taliban out of fear for themselves or their families. They are victims of radical Islam.
The Taliban are minority of the population. Their willingness to use violence gives them more influence than they deserve.
Mirrem10 says
JEB:
Yuur delusional witterings are of no consequence.
Would you be saying this if those *children* had been murdered? If these little boys and girls had been raped first, then murdered ? If the babies had been raped, kidnapped, or murdered ?
The fact remains; no *responsible* parent would, could or should, deliberately make the choice to put innocent, helpless children in terrible danger.
I will reiterate, these ‘parents’ are **despicable**, and so are you, if you think what they did in any way, shape or form acceptable.
The fact remains, no *responsible* parent would, could, or should, deliberately put their innocent children into harms way.
I will
nacazo says
What if Karzai IS a disguised taliban?
citycat says
But still they dance to the devil’s tune.