Know Thine Enemy
According to Mirajuddin Pathan, governor of Ghazni province in Afghanistan, the Taliban who have kidnapped and are holding for ransom (release of a parallel number of Taliban prisoners) South Korean missionaries, "Keeping women as captives has not happened in Afghanistan's history. They should release the women". It's anyone guess now what will happen to this group comprised mostly of women who sought to offer their services to needy Afghan citizens.Their leader, Bae Hyung-kyo, and founder of their church was murdered, his bullet-spattered lifeless body discarded with contempt. Faith in the goodness of humanity, faith in their mission to help others suffering miserable duress, faith in their faith to overcome any and all obstacles in their need to appear before their god as willing sacrifices to the needs of others led them to travel to that ravaged countryside, heedless of the danger they were placing themselves in.
Afghanistan has a long and storied past. The country has been invaded incessantly and brutally over the centuries, over millennia. Its people are warriors and farmers, and proud of their heritage. They have good reason to distrust and fear interlopers for no good has ever come to them from the interest evinced in their geography on the part of foreigners. Yet those of their own, fundamentalist Islamists, forced a rigid servitude upon them also.
Another invasion, the latest to uproot the Taliban has brought Afghanistan to a neither-here not-there position. A tenuous and frail attempt to install a democratic government, infiltrated by former war lords and oppressors, all struggling to manage their governing duties, and to install an infrastructure of peace and security, delivering needed civic measures approximating a normally-functioning society.
What has puzzled the governor of Ghazni province, where the South Korean abductees are being held and their lives threatened, is the lack of compassion on the part of the Taliban. He has characterized their behaviour as un-Afghan-like, not of the tradition and the culture he knows and values. But in their own words, the Taliban make quick work of such delusionary fantasies.
Their new leader, Mansour Dadullah, informs all those who would listen that the Taliban plan to use children to behead hostages. The kidnapping of foreigners for the purpose of trading them for Taliban captives is, according to this man the way to go: "Of course, kidnapping is a very successful policy, and I order all my mujahedeen to kidnap foreigners of any nationality wherever they find them, and then we should do the same kind of deal."
The Taliban, he explained further, is interested in the opportunity to "give children a military education - we want to train them against cruel invaders and infidels, so when we need them, they will join this struggle. We want to use children to behead infidels and spies so that they will become brave." How's that for an expression of traditional values?
Kind of reminds one of Hamas structuring educational materials for primary grade Palestinians children, teaching vile hatred of their neighbours, and featuring the glories of martyrdom.
This same man informs that he is in close contact with Osama bin Laden, that the Taliban and al-Qaeda have much in common: "we don't keep count of weapons, money or anything. Our aim is the same. We help them and they help us."
Get the picture?
Labels: Terrorism, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 27, 2007
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