| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| "Flirting with Afghanistan" 4 |
| 2010-02-22 |
| Observations on gender apartheid in Afghanistan by an American soldier. Here's an adage I made up: Afghan women are nothing more than the bearers. They bear the children, they bear the water from the wells or streams, they bear the firewood, they bear the crops from the fields and they bear the burden of raising their children. Hidden, away, non-existent. During my Green Beret days in the country, a teammate of mine said it even better, stating so simply a profound truth that, were this in a war of truths, his thrust would be the fatal blow struck to the heart--"I'd rather be a dog in America than a woman in Afghanistan." Conclusion: It's not Afghan TV, but it's a television set on nonetheless, tuned to either American Forces Network or a satellite channel, here in the dining facility at this comfortable U.S. forward operating base, and it's playing Jeopardy. It's back from a commercial now, and real or imaginary, "Final Jeopardy category is," says Alex, "Crazy Uncles in the Attic. Answer: Seventh century repressive apartheid country where America is spending three billion dollars and about ten soldiers' lives a month with no honestly declared purpose, no clearly reasoned strategy, no moral conditions of sacrifice, and no end defined or even remotely imagined. Contestants, you have thirty seconds to write your answer in the form of a question." Da da da da, da da da, da da da da dit di dididit... |
| Posted by:Joper Throque1297 |
| #17 I'm all for India liberating Kashmir. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2010-02-22 19:46 |
| #16 Afghanistan borders both Uzbeckistan and Tadjikistan, with Uzbecks and Tadjiks being a large majority of the population in Northern Afghanistan. Then India should 'liberate' Pak occupied Kashmir, which gives a land corridor to Northern Afghistan. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-02-22 17:26 |
| #15 No, it's a reference to the fact that they're land-locked and surrounded by hostiles. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-22 16:42 |
| #14 The Northern Afghans have a locational obsolescence problem I assume thats a reference to their proximity to Pushtunistan. The answer is arm them and let them deal with it. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-02-22 15:58 |
| #13 The Northern Afghans have a locational obsolescence problem that seems unlikely to be overcome and makes trying to do anything of permanence there impossible. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-22 15:20 |
| #12 The irony is that the prospects for something remotely resembling a modern society are much better in the north of Afghanistan than in Pushtunistan. Yet blood and treasure are wasted on the Pushtuns. At root the problem is, federalising Afganistan is an anathema to that club for despots called the United Nations because it would result in pressure for federal solutions for every third world dictatorship from China downwards. So we continue with the lunacy of trying to create a unitary Afghan state. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-02-22 15:09 |
| #11 One of the benefits of reading the Burg is identifying the inconsistencies between the story line and data points that we've seen or read about. That's what sustained us as skeptics as we rode through the AGW gig. A data point here, a data point there, it just didn't fit nicely in to the party line. While I read the 'nothing changes' story, I just keep remembering a data point that has been repeated on the WOT in Afghanistan. That data point that keeps coming up is how AQ and the Taliban actions are alienating the locals. One of those actions is the destruction of schools, girl schools. There's a inconsistency here. Do we simply validate our own preconceived notions or do we note that something doesn't fit the model? Is the data point false? Why worry about schools for girls if women are only treated as dogs? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-02-22 13:25 |
| #10 everything will be ok You left out the 21st century plague of Islamofascism. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-02-22 13:11 |
| #9 As long as we prevent other 7th century wonders like Typhus, Cholera, Plague, E-bola and Small Pox from returning to Afghanistan everything will be ok. |
| Posted by: Rob06 2010-02-22 13:09 |
| #8 Bravo! The 'tribal default' solution. It's what they really desire anyway. How soon can we begin? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-22 10:46 |
| #7 I know! Eliminate all government from Afghanistan, then withdraw our forces. Simple, cheap, straightforward, and according to Holy Writ. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-02-22 10:43 |
| #6 I agree Hupomosing. Better it were a holy commandment than a cliche. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-22 10:34 |
| #5 Government is not the answer. This cliche has long outlived its usefulness, time to retire it. (hunkering down in bunker). |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-02-22 10:30 |
| #4 One can just look at Mogadishu to see what life can be like without government. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-02-22 10:27 |
| #3 The African American colonels were dead on target P2k, ie, "things have always been the same there and aren't likely to change." Societal change through the governmental legislation of so-called..."rights" only establishes the incubation of power transfer to a new class of elitists who will then shamelessly assume the role of masters, oppressors, and agents of change. The poor, helpless, and downtrodden will always be among us, awaiting exploitation. Government is not the answer. We must be quite cautious about what we both desire and for whom we vote. We might just get it! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-22 10:17 |
| #2 Technically the same meme could have been said by our fathers and grandfathers about why we should die for the Europeans who maintain colonies throughout the world with little concern about their colonial subjects' rights. Why in the hell are we doing this? /rhet question. A few months back I was in at the VA for a blood draw. One of my old Colonels was there too for tests, across from him was a young LTC from the NG for tests as well. Both got talking about the LTC's tour in Afghanistan. The LTC made a similar comment about how thing have always been the same there and aren't likely to change. What was interesting to me was that both were black. The older Colonel and I grew up in a time of legal segregation, before the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. We were living witnesses to a time when for nearly a hundred years, things hadn't really changed for people. Always was and always will be could have been utter in 1958 in America as well. You don't know if you never try. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-02-22 09:55 |
| #1 In war, truth is the first casualty. - Aeschylus Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC) |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-22 09:42 |