Our New Friends
"Bodies of Taliban fighters lay ignored in a park and hanging from trees in the Afghan capital, young men raced to shave their beards and music played from loudspeakers. Kabul residents were coming to terms with the end of an era Tuesday." Such was the Reuters lead at one point in the morning of November 13th. A scant two months after the terrorist attacks, and the world's superpower has over-thrown the government of the world's most backward nation.
Congratulations to us. A small victory, but one that will have few objectors, at least in the short term. What happens over the coming weeks, months, and years, we can only hope against history will have positive results. In that part of the world, where the culture is so different it strains credulity to speak of we and they as the same species.
For all of the horror of deliberately-perpetrated violent death, there are significant linings in the black clouds, if only on a temporary basis. Music played in the street. Men don't have to wear beards. Women may again be regarded as people, going to school, working, not being capriciously beaten by strange men, essentially for their gender. What psychosis ruled that country, where doctors couldn't deal directly with female patients.
There is concern that the tribes who comprised the Northern Alliance — our side — are kinda wild and crazy guys, and that Kabul is in for some serious blood-letting as they may go off in different and conflicting directions, long knives flailing. Also, if they don't immediately sit down to negotiations with Starbucks and Wal-Mart, that is, get on the same page with us, then it may be even more difficult to find Tali-bin-Laden and the rest of the evil empire.
Indeed to have expectations about the short- or long-term outcome seems pointless. It's even difficult to have hopes. What would probably be best is if the United Nations were able to insert itself, and for some far-out reason would have the respect and adherence of the multitudinous, potentially-warring factions.
There is such an enormous chasm between them and us. It's not like we can just ship in a bunch of Pokemon and Prilosec and all will be hunky-dory. These people have different interests and concerns, probably not wholly in line with our own. We will have to find a meeting place, where we can mitigate their bellicosity and perhaps even situate a few opportunities to raise the dismal levels of sub-species consciousness.
The last time we got involved over there, we did so with such ineptitude that we effectively produced the Taliban regime. Perhaps we'll foist upon ourselves a touch of the vision thang and consider our down-the-road interests. Necessarily, and importantly, this should involve the various abutting -istans, since the Paks and Turks and Uzbeks et al have put a lot on the line to get us to this point. We owe it to them, and to our children's children, to do a better job working toward peace than did our predecessors.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
.