Tag Archives: Taliban

The Taliban Vs. Civilization

July 4, 2013 Wayne K. Spear Leave a comment

Taliban

THE NEWS from Afghanistan has been nothing but bad, and every indication is of worse to come. By the end of 2014, the Afghan people will be on their own, as they were in 2001 before the arrival — at local invitation — of British and American forces. Recall that twelve years ago the Islamist dirtbags who constituted the Taliban held Kabul, where they supervised a fanatical program of demodernization and terror punctuated by regularly scheduled mass executions. Imagine trying to re-engineer a nation of the twenty-first century along bronze age specifications, and you’ve got the idea — or, rather, don’t imagine it: the experiment was there before the eyes of anyone who cared to look. Now that the war-weary West has thrown its arms around the convenient fiction that the Taliban are ready for a negotiated re-entry (or is it entry?) to the twenty-first century, let’s review a sample of the bad tidings.

World

The War in Mali

January 28, 2013 Wayne K. Spear 1 Comment

Mali

EVEN IF THE contemporary account of al-Umari is greatly exaggerated, the 1324 transit of the Malian emperor Mansa Musa’s vast entourage on a Mecca pilgrimage must have been an unforgettable sight. So rich was this King of Kings said to be that the amount of gold which his slaves dispensed to the onlookers of Cairo reduced the value of this metal within Egypt for a decade.

Religion, World

The flame of intolerance rises from Koran burnings

February 22, 2012 Wayne K. Spear 1 Comment

NEWS OF THE Bagram Air Base Quran burnings, and the riots which have followed, reproduced the usual concern that perhaps no amount of evident contrition would prevent a violent response. Here is an illustration of the root of this anxiety, from a Reuters article of February 22: “Critics say Western troops often fail to grasp the country’s religious and cultural sensitivities. Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.”

World

The Conservative Party’s courting of China is shameful

February 5, 2012 Wayne K. Spear 4 Comments

I KNOW FROM experience the most efficient way to start a fist-fight in some circles is to use, without irony, the word evil. As in the phrase Axis of Evil. On this principle, George W. Bush was mocked for years by lefties who noted condescendingly (though correctly) that the President’s eyes were just a bit too close together for the nation’s good. One afternoon in the mid 90s, the man who would memorably link Iran, Iraq and North Korea — Bush Jr’s speechwriter, David Frum — passed in front of my car while I was at a red light. I confess repressing an urge to step on the gas. Some years on, however, I’ve a greater respect for Mr. Frum, and in part it’s due to the fact that I think there really is such a thing as evil, perhaps even in axis form.