CNN keeps broadcasting a documentary shot by a woman whose parents are from Afghanistan, "Beneath the Veil." It was filmed surreptitiously in various places in Afghanistan, showing how devastated Kabul still is, showing women begging, children starving, people being tortured, shot, hanged, dead bodies piled in stacks, one of them flayed so that the skull has no skin or flesh but still has eyes, three little girls who were raped for days by Taliban soldiers who killed their mother when she tried to protect them - the youngest was aged 9. She was able to film things other people could not because she speaks Pashtu and she wore a burka with a video camera concealed inside. There are other women who live inside Afghanistan who film things for human rights organizations, and some of the footage was shot by them and smuggled out.
It's exactly what I did not want to see but I did not turn it off when it came on. From the reactions of other people, I knew it would make me want us to get rid of the Taliban, and I did not want to feel that. I dreamed about it all night long last night.
I think we have a moral duty to stop the Taliban. I think we have a moral duty to stop the spread of this meme. I do not believe that Islam is evil, but this is evil, and it should be stopped.
I say this with great regret, because I realize the incredible burden we would be taking on, and the moral ambiguity of interfering in the affairs of other states. I don't like the USA acting as the world's policeman. I wish that other countries would shoulder this task along with us.
With respect to US action - there are not very many people from the US on this thread. LLCF is one. He's a good example of why the US did not intervene in WWII until Pearl Harbor. I say that with all respect. He does not want the US to be the world's policeman. He does not want to intervene in the affairs of other states. My perception is that he does not feel that our hands are clean enough to accuse other nations of wrong-doing. Others in the USA do not think about whether our own hands are clean, but focus on whether it is any of our business to poke our noses into the lives of other people and tell them how to live their lives.
I have witnessed quite a bit of outrage on this thread at the USA for poking our nose into the lives of other people and telling them how to live their lives. We are simultaneously guilty of intervening, and failing to intervene. That's why we don't expect cooperation and why we often go it alone, or with our usual allies, Canada, Great Britain, etc.
We expect to be lectured by people like El Mat and Maurice and Yiwu and even our dear friends Jay and DJ, and sometimes it's just time to act.
No nation on earth intervened in Rwanda. Not the USA, not the UN. So if you want to make us feel the burden of failing to save innocent lives, start carrying that load yourself. |
