Posts Tagged ‘Taliban’

Dear Taliban Asshats,

You are not wonders of Islam. You are assholes. When you murder people coming to help your own people in the misery that is Afghanistan—doctors and surgeons coming to heal the horrors of war, you are simply assholes. You are so big on talking about “martyrs” of your own faith—those who blow themselves to bits to murder other people.

You are, as they say on the internet, doing it wrong. That word does not mean what you think it does.

The people you murdered THEY are martyrs. And killing them because you demonize them by calling them spies and missionaries just doesn’t cut it. You are assholes who are not only responsible for murdering these innocents, but for everyone of your own citizens who will die because they were not alive to work their medical wonders.

Mohammad weeps. And not for you.

A center in Berlin, Germany has opened showing the lives and facts of the Nazi era. People think the war criminals were dragged to the Nuremberg Trials, but the majority were not. Young men faded into post-war Germany and lived out normal lives, untroubled by punishment for atrocities. A statement in the story leaped off the page at me, about these evil AND banal men:

“….men who didn’t necessarily fit into today’s stereotype of a Nazi war criminal, neither boorish sadists nor bloodless bureaucrats. They were ambitious university-educated men, aged around 30 and more likely to be IDEOLOGUES than technocrats. ” (emphasis mine)

Now see, this is why I feel sure America is in trouble. Ideologies are more popular than real people, real events. Ideologues began the Communist revolution, ideologues ran the day to day Holocaust. Ideologues set the Taliban in motion. Ideologues run modern feminism, telling women how to act just like Islamic clerics dictate ‘proper’ female behavior.

Fight ideological authorities, folks. Even if one is your mother. The curators at the new Berlin center say they like it that visitors leave with more questions than answers. And that is the correct response—keep questioning! Settling for just any answer—or ideology— at all almost always means accepting the wrong answer.

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And in the news for which this blog exists for—an American soldier, Bow Bergdahl, missing since June has been shown on video, in Taliban captivity and reading a statement describing American actions in Afghanistan in negative terms.

Obviously the prisoner is under duress. Obviously, this film will demoralize and depress his family and his military comrades; I hope it also angers them. I hope it spurs efforts for someone finding and rescuing him.

This is not my holy day, but it was for many decades and I understand this release date is calculated for the most bitter effect. My heart is wrung for those worrying about and loving this man, far from home and in Taliban captivity. For other pagans and/or magical practitioners like myself, I urge you to take magical action to protect this man at risk. To those of you who celebrate Christmas? I urge you to pray for this young man and the family that must be worried sick over him. I fear if his use as a propaganda prop is exhausted, he will be murdered.

And if that is not enough, a young Nigerian seems to have been recruited by Al Queda to attempt to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit. He had powdered explosives taped to his leg, and used a syringe to inject a liquid that was meant to activate the explosion. It didn’t work quite that way, his leg caught fire and passengers and staff of the jet put out the fire with extinguishers and water.

Well, it had to come, right? The attack Dick Cheney and his friends kept prophesying? My personal bet is, they are only sad it didn’t work so they could blame the Democrats. And interestingly, although the man was on a terror watch list for a couple years, and his own FATHER reported him to the US Embassy as a religious extremist half a year ago; Homeland InSecurity did NOT have him on the no-fly list. Yeah, but we all know THAT list is reserved for people whose political views the former Administration disliked, right? It isn’t about actually keeping us safe! For that, we have to rely on brave passengers.

…in Afghanistan that is. I hate this war, only slightly less than the one in Iraq. At least this one began for a real reason; but it could last so very much longer. And there might never be a recognizable victory.

If we leave with the country as unstable as it now is, the Taliban will take back over, almost certainly. This is a bad thing. But how long can we stay to prevent it? The question is, will the Taliban be content with merely controlling Afghanistan? Or will it go on to Pakistan? And perhaps Turkey? And start a war with India? Where does the politicized and fanatical version of Islam end?

And really, can the young Americans and others who are dying stop it at all? The hydra…Hercules only thought he rid the world of that monster.