POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY ANITA INDER SINGH IN THE GUARDIAN
Anita Singh,
Where do you get your stuff? It bubbles up regularly like toxic sludge from some abandoned chemical plant.
There is not even a viable national government in Afghanistan.
No viable civil service.
No viable national taxation.
No viable national education.
The place is in the 14th century, and nothing anyone can do in our lifetime will change that.
And that fact does not suggest Afghanistan’s being a danger to any other people minding their own business. To say otherwise, as you do, is to paraphrase the most ignorant leader on earth, George Bush.
Please remember, it was not the Taleban that attacked America. It was a small group of mainly Saudis.
The Taleban government only demanded reasonable proof of bin Laden's guilt before extraditing him, a behavior that is exactly what you would expect in any advanced country at an extradition request.
The U.S. refused and invaded the place, bombing the crap out of everyone, telling simple souls like you that they were going to change the society for women and other propaganda they haven't in the least succeeded at.
They cannot even get the teachers paid in any part of the country, and new schools close as soon as they open.
Women today almost everywhere still wear the burqa outside Kabul, and even in Kabul more than half wear it.
No amount of money can change the fundamental beliefs and customs of a society in a short time. It is a ridiculous concept, ignorant of the experience of history.
Only gradual economic growth will produce the change you blubber about, and that won't happen in our lifetime.
Meanwhile you advocate squandering money there because George Bush and Dick Cheney say you should.
With such fine gentlemen it is that you keep company.
