And the beat goes on in Afghanistan in the wake of the Koran
burnings by American troops.
At least four Americans have been murdered by Muslim
fanatics--and one of those fanatics was an Afghan cop on duty to protect
American advisors posted to the Interior Ministry in Kabul.
Now the protests and violence have spread to
Pakistan--another nation not worth the life of one American soldier.
Enough is enough.
I spent time in both countries when the Russians were still fighting
in Afghanistan back in the late 1980s.
Even then I saw that trying to bring Afghanistan into what
was then the 20th Century was an exercise in futility. Trying to bring it into
the 21st Century is even more daunting.
This is a primitive, squalid land ruled by boorish religious
fanatics who, to paraphrase our wonderful apology-prone president: "cling
to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."
Of course, Obama made those comments about small town
Americans in Pennsylvania and the Midwest--not the religious zealots who are
running around the streets of Afghan cities shouting Anti-American epithets.
"Death to America!" That's Gratitude for you. |
My question when I see scenes like this: what the hell are
we doing in this God-forsaken place?
The Afghan people don't want us there--no matter how many
schools and hospitals we build or infrastructure investments we make.
I recall going into Afghanistan with Mujahideen rebels who
were fighting the Russians in 1987. During one conversation with the guerillas
I was with the conversation turned to Russians.
'We will kill them all if they don't leave,' one rebel named
Ghorzang told me. 'We want no foreigners in our country.'
'What about Americans?' I asked, figuring he might be less
hostile to Uncle Sam because of the hundreds of Stinger missiles and other
weaponry Washington had covertly provided to the Mujahideen to use against the
Russians.
'If Americans come, we will kill them also,' he said.
'That is not a very grateful attitude,' I responded.
'We owe no gratitude to infidels,' he said. The Koran says: "Fight
and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass
them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war."
I was not willing to let the conversation end there.
'So, if America helps the Mujahideen defeat the Russians,
you feel no sense of indebtedness at all?' I asked.
'Not if they are unbelievers,' he replied.
At that point I had serious reservations about what we were
doing to help the Afghanis defeat the Russians. Today I am convinced that this
wretched land with its religious intolerance, its inept political leadership
and a population that cares little about the blood spilled by Americans in the
cause of freedom should be left to its own devices.
Allowing it to sink deeper into its own cesspit of 8th
Century values would be doing the world a favor.
Death to the Koran Burners! |
As the week was ending last week Afghan President Hamid
Karzai's office demanded that NATO put on public trial those who burned copies
of the Koran at a NATO base.
What about the
Afghani cop who killed those two American officers in the Interior Ministry? I
suspect he is being hailed as a hero and no doubt is being protected by someone--possibly
"peace-loving" mullahs and imams or perhaps someone in Karzai's
government.
Those soldiers need not be put on trial. In the first place
the books they burned had already been defiled by secret messages written in
them by Taliban captives. Secondly, since when did book burning become a
capital crime? And why is the Koran any more sacred than the Old Testament or
the writings of Buddha?
I have to think that in the Status of Forces agreement
between the U.S. and Afghanistan burning the Koran is not listed as a felony.
If President Obama, the Great Apologizer, wanted to show any
leadership at all in this issue, which he apparently doesn't, he would bring not only those soldiers home who
burned the Koran, but all of our troops who continue to be in harm's way in a fetid
land where they are neither wanted nor appreciated.
The Pentagon might even consider giving the Koran burners a
medal--along with all of the soldiers, who have risked their lives for a
people, who: "owe no gratitude to infidels."
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