Fundamentalism has become the Marxism of the 21st century. They rely on the poor and hopeless to drive their numbers and, much like Marxism did in the 50's-80's, created fanatics willing to die for the cause. Attack poverty and you defeat this.
-----Original Message----- From: G Money [mailto:gm0n3...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2011 11:10 AM To: cf-community Subject: Re: One example of why Afghanistan is hopeless On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Bruce Sorge <sor...@gmail.com> wrote: > > So here in Afghanistan it is the squad leader that does all of the > same things that a platoon leader does in Iraq. I lead the shurah's > (meetings between us and village elders, local police and ANA), I > manage the projects that we pay for here and so on. Anyway, the Malik > (village leader) in the town I am responsible for pretty much said > during a shurah that as long as the US provides money for projects in > his town, he can assure security by way of keeping the INS forces away > from us. In not so many words he basically said that he has no problem > siding wiht the taliban unless we give them money. So basically we are > paying for our security. Money is the ONLY motivating factor for these > people. Yeah, they are poor, they live in mud huts as the pictures I > posted on FB show, they have no electricity, no running water and so > on, but why is it that these guys have no problem siding with the same > oppressive regime that we ousted 10 years ago. I am reading the book > Talaban and for the life of me I cannot figure why they want this type > of life back. Beards have to be a certain length, hair cut short or > shaved heads, have to wear a turbin at all times, kids are required to > attend the madrasa or they are beaten with a stick, women not allowed > outside unless accompanied by a male family member, women have to > cover themselves from head to toe, etc... > Anyway, I feel that this country is pretty much hopeless. The GIROA > has absolutely no interest in helping the people of afghanistan unless > they belong to specific tribes. After being here for only a little > more than a month I have now wondered if we should really be here. > Yeah the original idea of getting the people who got us was a nifty > one at first, but after seeing first hand that little to nothing has > been accomplished I wonder now if staying here a day longer is even > worth it. I fully believe that when we leave here the TB are going to > take over again and all of the time, money and lives spent/lost here were all for nothing. > Fascinating insight from the front lines, thank you for sharing this Bruce. As to some of the questions you posit in the middle of your post.....could Maslow's hierarchy of needs come into play here? If our most basic needs are not met...food, shelter, etc....we can't progress much beyond that level of thinking. Why would they want to put up with the Taliban's ridiculous rules....because at least they'd have food and shelter and a sense of security. Conversely, i'm sure they'd much rather get those things from the US troops. But if you don't provide it...they will go elsewhere to get it...no matter the cost. Just sort of thinking out loud, but it seems to make sense to me. Taliban and every other cult of it's kind, breeds on poverty and hopelessness. I think Maslow's simple theory tells us why. As to your lament that the country is pretty much hopeless...i have felt that way since the beginning. Though, it's probably more accurate to say that it's hopeless for any OTHER country to save Afghanistan...they would have to save themselves. At this point, I don't see any indication they are ready to do so. We should leave. Immediately. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:339962 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
