Old Blue – you misunderstood my comment. I agree that we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard, but I also think that the Afghans have got to get used to the idea that they MUST change if they want our aid and assistance. And that includes being wanded by a female American soldier if the situation calls for it. If they want to remain proud misogynistic dirt farmers scrabbling for subsistance and being invaded every decade or so by a different bunch of warriors, fine. We can take our toys and leave them in peace to do that.
It appears to me at this point that we really don’t need their assistance to look for Bin Laden and it would be just as easy to kill Taliban in Pakistan and leave the other civilians to their own devices in Afghanistan.
If, however, the Afghan police and army want American help in becoming more competent and proficient (including giving them Big Boy Toys) then I want to see some changes coming from their side, too. I want the burka to disappear entirely. I want mandatory schooling for their girl children. I want forced marriages of young girls stopped. And if there’s ever a gang rape sentenced by some village elder sort of nonsense, I want Very Bad Things Indeed to happen to both the elders of said village and the participants. Castration sounds about right.
Not holding them to any standards at all is much too multi-culti kumbaya equivalency that their society is just as good as ours, and how dare we try to change them from being noble savages. They want to remain noble savages? Fine — just don’t expect me to pay for the privilege of being around it.
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Comment on the musings of Wretchard and Alexis — excellent excellent excellent. Every once in a while Wretchard busts loose with something so crystal clear and enlightening I have to wonder how long he’s been chewing on it that it springs fully formed from his fingertips. Interesting that he’s included our good ally Egypt in his line-up of terrorist states to be dealt with.
I like Alexis’ comments re: the Sandbox, too. I had wondered the same things. Very sneaky thinking about the Hajj. I’ve sort of decided that what has saved the House of Saud is the personal relationship between Bush Senior and those 3 or 4 highest ranking Princes (and maybe the demented-at-that-point King). That sort of emotional playing from the heart will trump logistics and statistics every time; and I think Bush Jr. would bow to the wishes of Bush Sr. in this particular matter.
Hopefully with Bush Senior and Bush Junior out of the WH, the next President will be reluctant to get to the hand-holding stage with the King of Saudi Arabia and we can at least start messing with their minds. Although the drastic reduction in visas for Saudi’s to come to the U.S. is already doing that … yum.
