The recent shooting of a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan by the Taliban is enough to make one sick. To the western mind, there is absolutely no justification for this deadly act.
That’s the rub. It’s not the western minds we have to convince that the Taliban is what they appear to be … killers and bandits who want to control the entire area. And they do this by intimidating everybody else. Their ethnic background in Afghanistan is Pashtun. These people, hundreds of years ago, came from Persia about the same time the Mullahs invaded and conquered parts of India. In a nation that is tribal, the Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. They represent about two-fifths of the population. So, it is no wonder, with more people than any other tribe, the Pashtuns feel they should rule. They have fought nearly every invader that one can conjure up. In the 1840s, they sent the British running with their tails between their legs back to India, and more recently they fought the Russians, and now they’re fighting us. And that’s one of our biggest problems. With the largest ethnic population in Afghanistan, you can certainly see how tribal loyalty is not helping our cause at all. They have the majority of the population in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, and Kandahar, one of the largest cities. They don’t especially want to kill Americans, but since we’re trying to turn them into a democratic people, they certainly will kill us. In truth, the Afghans are like everyone else, that is, they would rather not be at war. But if their tribal Pashtun leaders say war it is, then war it will be. And, frankly, to defeat the tribe where the Taliban began, we will simply have to kill all of them.
During the Russian conflict, the Taliban took in people of other cultures and countries who would fight the infidel Russians and now there are many factions of the Taliban who do not have any Pashtun affiliations. I suspect some of these men may be responsible for the shooting of this brave, Pakistani girl. Her biggest crime to these people was being female and speaking out. Secondly, she spoke out for female education, which is something these radical idiots do not want to have anywhere near them.
As I write this, I do not know whether she lives or dies. This lovely little girl is only 14. May Allah curse the killers, may he salt their land, and may their bodies be picked apart by vultures.
Now there’s a curse that even the Taliban will understand.
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
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RONN MOTT: Afghanistan
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