Remember once upon a time, when we could recognize actual “badguys”? Before we were all so afraid of Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and John Ascroft, and “the media elite”, we were all pretty much able to agree that some people were unequivocally … “bad”. Sure, there were always upstanding American citizens on the far left or the far right willing to vouch that the Soviet communists or the Nazis were just misunderstood (hell, Michael Moore was flying people to Cuba just a couple of years ago) but on balance the rest of us could at least unite on some moral playing field:
* Nazis=bad.
* Khmer Rouge=bad
* North Korea=bad (even despite W’s “axis of evil” comments – yes they can be bad even that means you agree with W)
* Taliban= F’ng BAD
In the wave of politics and apologistics that has consumed us in the recent years, we’ve seemed to lose site of that last one. Yes, they can actually be gruesome horrendous monsters, even if that violates the spirit of multiculturalism. Even if that means you and Donald Rumsfeld agree on something.
NYT has a nice little article about the full-scale war now being waged in Pakistan’s “tribal” areas (link here). By “nice” I mean terrifying; here’s a little sample:
“Reports of Taliban terrorism are widespread.
In one case, scores of Taliban fighters confronted Iqbal Ahmed Khan, the brother of Waqar Khan, a member of the provincial assembly. The fighters ordered Mr. Khan, who was with two of his sons, to choose the son he wanted killed, said the president of the Awami National Party, Senator Asfandyar Wali.
After Mr. Khan was humiliated into choosing one son, the Taliban killed both boys, Mr. Khan and seven servants, Mr. Wali said.”
Like I keep saying, keep your eyes on the prize. I can’t wait for the slew of inane comments like “Oh yeah, well they only hate us because Bush cut taxes on Halliburton!” and “There’d be no Taliban if Bush signed the Kyoto treaty!” and “They’re just misunderstood – if we convert them to Jesus they’ll be fine!”.
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