Article

2006-05-22 Afghanistan

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Posted by Steve 2006-05-22 07:51|| || Front Page|| [11134 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Destruction of a madrassa? A religious school?? Expect choregraphed mass-seething from the Islamic world in 5.. 4.. 3..

Posted by Howard UK 2006-05-22 08:45|| 2006-05-22 08:45|| Front Page Top

#2 I guess the real lesson here is that you don't want Taliban living anywhere near your house and kids. 500 meters away at least.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2006-05-22 09:07|| 2006-05-22 09:07|| Front Page Top

#3 If they are giving sanctuary to the Taliban then they are collaborators, not civilians, plain and simple. We are fighting an insurgency, not a declaird military. The support structure for the insurgency, the sanctuary, comes from the villages that side with the insurgents. This makes them a fair target.

Posted by 49 Pan">49 Pan 2006-05-22 09:22|| 2006-05-22 09:22|| Front Page Top

#4 In Afghanland many of the people who give the Taliban shelter do so because of coersion and in some cases the Taliban just take the shelter and essentially make the former tenants into hostages.

The death of such people is unfortunate. However, their death is not our fault -- it is the fault of the Taliban who, in no way, are operating under the laws of war.

Posted by mhw 2006-05-22 09:35|| 2006-05-22 09:35|| Front Page Top

#5 mhw is right, often these civilians have no choice but to accept the Taliban, but their lives have to be weighed against the lives of other Afghan civilians who are being murdered by the Talib goons. Every Talib killed means civilians lived saved and future reconstruction projects secured.

Posted by Apostate 2006-05-22 09:55|| 2006-05-22 09:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Forgive my nosiness, Apostate, and you needn't answer of course, but are you truly a Muslim apostate, or did you choose that nym (nic? I still am not sure of the appropriate terminology, sorry) for another reason? I ask only because if you are coming from a Muslim perpective, that puts a different colour on your comments than otherwise, just as anonymous5089's and JFM's comments about the situation in France weigh more because they are Frenchmen living there, or liberalhawk's, mhw's and Frank G's about Israel because they actually understand Israeli politics.

Posted by trailing wife 2006-05-22 11:49|| 2006-05-22 11:49|| Front Page Top

#7 Trailing wife, I was born into a muslim family living in the West. I have never practised the muslim faith (or believed in Islam), but that doesn't stop me from being an apostate under Islamic law. I reckon there are many like me in the West, i.e. muslims who do not believe in the religion of their birth but don't shout about it so as not to upset their families. This is worth bearing in mind when you hear people mention "the fasting-growing religion" and similar phrases.

Posted by Apostate 2006-05-22 17:46|| 2006-05-22 17:46|| Front Page Top

#8 Thank you, Apostate. Yours is an important voice here at Rantburg, to counter the fear that all those born Muslim are an active or supportive threat to our hard fought-for freedoms. Especially as we are deeply aware that the sentence for apostasy is not merely parental disappointment, but death.

Posted by trailing wife 2006-05-22 22:00|| 2006-05-22 22:00|| Front Page Top

#9 Welcome from me too.

Posted by lotp 2006-05-22 22:15|| 2006-05-22 22:15|| Front Page Top

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