We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates. Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians.
— Malala (@Malala) August 15, 2021
That's her first post since July 27th. Just before she managed that, on August 13th, OpIndia published "Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban, turns a blind eye as the terror group steps up atrocities in Afghanistan/Malala has refused to even acknowledge the fact that the Taliban is relentlessly chipping away at the democratically elected Afghan government and establishing their supremacy in the strife-torn country."
Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who is otherwise pretty vocal in voicing her opposition to the Taliban, is conspicuously silent on the escalating offensive by the terror outfit in Afghanistan. There is not even a whimper, let alone a cry of protest by the Nobel Laureate who fashions herself as some sort of teenage activist and had become the face of crusade against the Taliban.
Well, she's 24 now, not a teenager.
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16 comments:
OpIndia? That doesn't hit me as more reliable than Breitbart or Daily Kos. I am particularly suspect of publications in that part of the world that use the English phrase "crusade against the Taliban." Isn't that bad imagery in Muslim-adjacent communities? Bush 43 certainly got in trouble for saying it.
I suspect we have a voice of Hindu nationalism taking cheap shots at a public figure from a safe distance.
The concluding sentence of her tweet (of yesterday) is absurdly naive. “Call for a ceasefire”? The fight is over, and the winners know the outcome. Aid and protection — her and what army?
"I suspect we have a voice of Hindu nationalism taking cheap shots at a public figure from a safe distance."
I can't know. My reason for quoting it is for the fact that it was said at all, that there was at least some pressure on Malala to speak. I thought of the question on my own: Why haven't we heard from Malala? I googled to see if anyone else was talking about that. I am concerned about what will happen to women under the Taliban, and that is the precise issue over which she became a mega-humanitarian-superstar to Westerners.
There will be a lot more Malalas to come. That might be among the shabbiest, most shameful thing we've done, encouraging a generation of Afghan girls to believe that life could be more than what it was for their mothers and grandmothers. Hope is a terrible thing.
It's terrible to see this but it provides clarity. Hoping for some free-ish society outside the west is a fool's errand. Unless there's a substantial number of locals willing to fight and die on their own to establish it, there's nothing we can do. F*** Colin Powel's "if you break it you bought it" BS. The threat of violence is the only thing that cuts through over there. Whenever they send their mercenaries to cause trouble in the West, we should go in, blow shit up and leave. That's the only action they understand or respect
she now "is conspicuously silent " ??
Well, DUH! the War is OVER! They Won! We LOST! if you're a woman (or a man), and you don't want your family and friends shot and killed (and Then raped and tortured), you had Better be "conspicuously silent"
Next up! conspicuous silenence from Taiwan!!!!
Yeah, I have to tell you, it feels a lot like Vietnam to me. We go in, make promises, and then when the fickle Americans get tired of it and go home. Leaving those who believed us, and who worked hard to change their society, behind to face the persecution. We did it to the South Vietnamese, the Montagnards, and now to the Afghans. The lesson I take from this is NEVER ally with the Americans. They will not stay the course.
You can argue all day if we should or should not have been in Afghanistan or even Vietnam (but that more cloudy), but what you cannot argue is that after you send in the military, and they start making local allies and promises, then you owe a debt to those people. Stand back and watch the most honorable of our military start retiring and mustering out. Do not think it does not weaken us, because it does.
Just a note on a comment that did not make it through moderation: Indented material is quotation. If you don't understand that, then this blog is 17 years of incoherence. Not quite as long as the Afghanistan War and nowhere nearly as disastrous, but what the hell? Do people really not understand blocking and indenting?
The only reason that any Westerner leaves is with the permission of the Taliban leaders. They have total control of the land and can overrun the airport at any moment.
The reason they don't do so (and take thousands of hostages) is known only to them, but some suspect the Biden administration is paying them off with hundreds of millions of dollars to allow safe passage.
Great...more hard cash (along with our shiny, new weapons) to people who want to destroy our nation and our culture.
They're playing the long game...
If Westerners don't realize by now that Muslims--even the better ones--do not have the same values as we do, we will continue to suffer from our delusions.
Delusions like Bush-Cheney's, who invented something unseen in the world before--the Crusade for the Benefit of Islam! The only people who have profited from their lunacy are the defense contractors, ambitious politicians and generals, and the most radical Muslims,
and I have no reason to think that's accidental.
The conservatives and right-wingers who admire religion wherever they find it should take a good look at themselves, as well also as the 'secular' lefties who admire non-Western cultures wherever they find them.
We can only hope that the cynical Russians and atheist Chinese, who are more threatened by uppity Muslims than we are, can deal effectively, it being their neighborhood and all.
Afghanistan needed less Malalas and more Kyle Rittenhouses.
Malala may have relatives and colleagues in danger. Amadeus and Gilbert are right, and consider the source.
Sally 327: “hope is a terrible thing.” Yep. If only women’s rights were human rights. I have a hard time caring about those men watching blurry go-go dancers in the still all-male public spaces who suddenly feel the fear they casually inflict on their mothers and sisters and daughters.
I saw enough of those “families” relocated to Clarkston in the early 90’s: eight or nine or 11 boy and adult male adolescents, an old man, and a wizened elderly woman crouching in the corner. Where were the girl children? The teen girls? The wives?
We weren’t allowed to ask. Aborted or left behind or just murdered to make room for some more male “refugees” on the plane. Our tax dollars at work. On mass femicide.
"Do people really not understand blocking and indenting?"
In defense of whomever compelled you to write this, HTML tags do not work for me on your site. Not sure why as they work for me everywhere else. So...
"The conservatives and right-wingers who admire religion wherever they find it"
Name one.
I hear all the time from such folks--often enough, claiming that someone has hijacked a great faith. Admittedly, it's not as widespread as when the Lesser Bush tried to popularize it, but it floats around among people I encounter.
Nothing great about that faith--not for the last 500 years or so, anyway.
It may have been shabbily executed, but getting out of Afghanistan is the right answer. Why would the US want to lose more citizens there for what return?
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