Thank you Jim, that was wonderful.
Peace, liberty and food for EVERYONE (not just Americans),
Chris
Lee,
I think you are absolutely right. The Taliban not only outlawed playing music, but also smashed TV sets and cassette recorders and other communication equipment. I heard an interview with someone who had been there and he said that they would sometimes string up these sets from trees or posts as a warning to people, somewhat like despots in history would string up bodies to terrorize the population. They apparently see modern technology as an evil influence from western culture although they don’t seem to have any trouble using modern weapons! And their treatment of women is absolutely barbaric. Who can forget the pictures of the Taliban morality police beating women and for what? Because they showed part of their faces in public or perhaps laughed out loud? You wonder if the Taliban are not really men but mutants who never had mothers! And they showed their respect for other religions by blowing up priceless ancient statues of Buddha and locking up aid workers for supposedly preaching Christianity.
I don’t like to be pessimistic but we know how hard it is for just two sides to come together such as in Northern Ireland, between the Israelis and Palestinians, and between India and Pakistan. As you have noted in Afghanistan there are many different tribes with no love for each other and there are neighboring countries like Pakistan and India ready to supply arms to opposing sides. Even among the Northern Alliance there are different groups vying for power. I think a strong UN peace keeping force is going to be needed in that troubled country for a long time to bring some kind of stability. Maybe only then can music be heard again in the land!
Best wishes, Tom
You know, a friend of mine made a really interesting comment when we first became involved in this conflict.
“If we really want to get rid of the Taliban,” he said, “we should quit dropping bombs and start dropping magazines.”
In other words, let the Afghan people look at Cabelas catalogs, Lady’s Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, American Horseman, Dirty Linnen, Men’s Health…you get the idea. Let them see pictures of how good things are in the free world. Let them see that things are different here–not always better in every way, but certainly different. Let them see that freedom, religious, artistic, economic, or otherwise, is a powerful thing.
Of course, it’s hard to argue against the effectiveness of well-placed explosives–the results are speaking for themselves, as the Taliban gradually loses power. There are even some preliminary, optomistic indications that maybe, just MAYBE, common sense might finally break out in Afghanistan after this conflict ends.
But one wonders how many whistles (perhaps fitted with small parachutes?) would fit in a B-52, and what the result would be…