Thoughts on Afghanistan

We got talking about Afghanistan. It's easy to see why this perverse place became the birthplace of al Quada. A couple of years ago, the novel A Red Kite was all the rage, on the must read reading list. Someone gave me the book and I made it about half-way through before the subject matter, the rape of a young boy, turned my stomach. I could not go on. The images in my mind were too horrifying to continue. Apparently, I missed the thrill the market loved about the author's style and a peak inside the Afghan culture. The novel was a NY Times best-seller.

We've been bogged down with an another unwinnable war in this harsh part of the world for too many years now. Afghanistan has little to recommend it and its culture is sexually exploitative. The rape, the taking of young boys, dressing them as girls and then ravenging them by a group of adult men leaves me wondering why are we are there in the first place. I seriously doubt we are going to influence or change their world or attitudes. Supposedly, we are there to root out evil but at what cost to ourselves?

PBS' Frontline has quietly exposed this little known but pervasive practice of sexual slavery of boys. Not surprisingly, women are totally enslaved with no voice or power of their own. Illiteracy is rampant and is considered the norm. Their only viable export is poppies for heroin derivatives. They are masters of the double-double-cross. Who do you trust?  The media for squashing stories like these? The politicians for 'placing' an Afghan-in-America, as the leadership of primitive tribes whose lust for power grows? The military chiefs for their unending need for war and for expensive high-tech toys? The Afghan people? The American people?

There is very little to recommend this war as defensible. Even the President knows that. But we are still there. Today 16 people were killed in the capital of Kabel by an IED bomb. None of them were Americans, it will barely be a blip on the evening news tonight.

So how are we doing as the self-proclaimed rooters of evil on the planet?

Mother Earth is hemorrhaging her blood, oil, into the Gulf of Mexico threatening life in the oceans and delicate places where the land meets the sea. She is bleeding out in medical jargon. Entire regional economies and life are about to become extinct because of the carelessness of a few. Does any of this rile you up?

Four months and counting since the earthquake in Haiti. Millions displaced and homeless as hurricane season looms ahead. What more must these people endure while we spread ourselves thin? Our own economic news is dismal despite every attempt to spin it positively. Is your world being rocked by any of this?

Speaking for myself, this hardly seems like an earthly paradise. I imagine that it will take eternity to straighten itself out. The Daily Word is Free. "I am free and unlimited."

I want to be free of such thoughts and concerns. Gloria is coming for tea. I imagine her presence will stop such nonsense spinning through my head. Sometimes, all we need is companionship with another who gets it.