« The Obama Debacle | Main | My Chinese Spy »
October 19, 2009
Prisoner of the Taliban
The Taliban publicly executing a woman. Her husband and
children were forced to watch.
David Rohde, a Pulitzer prize winning reporter for The New York Times, has to spend seven hellish months as a prisoner of the fanatic Taliban to finally understand that these Islamists are murderous barbarians intent on creating a world wide Muslim Caliphate.
Look, I'm glad Mr. Rohde wrote this article and I'm sorry that he and his Afghan translators endured such torment, but really, this just goes to illustrate the naivete of the western elite regarding the nature and intentions of the radical Muslim world.
These are the same elite who downplay the threat of a nuclear armed Iran, the very same sophisticates who tell us that Hamas, Hizbullah and Fatah are just political organizations, when in fact they are Muslim—Sunni and Shia—terrorists dedicated to the annihilation of the western world.
Over those months, I came to a simple realization. After seven years of reporting in the region, I did not fully understand how extreme many of the Taliban had become. Before the kidnapping, I viewed the organization as a form of “Al Qaeda lite,” a religiously motivated movement primarily focused on controlling Afghanistan.
Living side by side with the Haqqanis’ followers, I learned that the goal of the hard-line Taliban was far more ambitious. Contact with foreign militants in the tribal areas appeared to have deeply affected many young Taliban fighters. They wanted to create a fundamentalist Islamic emirate with Al Qaeda that spanned the Muslim world.
Full story here.
And gee what a shock, The New York Times is cutting 100 jobs from their newsroom. Yup, Obama's PR firm is strangling on its own irrelevance.
Once again time to remind my readers that for years I have been buying Apple—stock and products— and strongly suggest that you do too. Today, Apple's earnings went through the roof, and their after-hours trading price is above $200.00.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at October 19, 2009 11:57 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
The Taliban are pretty scary. A great and disturbing book about how the West has failed to target the all-important poppy trade that fuels the Taliban's coffers is Gretchen Peters's "Seeds of Terror".
Posted by: Davo at October 19, 2009 01:02 PM
Davo:
Thanks so much for the tip. On order, now.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 19, 2009 02:01 PM
Ralph Peters: "One of the most consistently disheartening experiences an adult can have today is to listen to the endless attempts by our intellectuals and intelligence professionals to explain religious terrorism in clinical terms, assigning rational motives to men who have moved irrevocably beyond reason. We suffer under layers of intellectual asymmetries that hinder us from an intuititive recognition of our enemies."
Paul Reynaud (who became Prime Minister of France shortly before the German attack of 1940):
"People think Hitler is like Kaiser Wilhelm. The old gentleman only wanted to take Alsace-Lorraine from us. But Hitler is Genghis Khan." (approximate quote)
Posted by: david foster at October 19, 2009 03:22 PM
David:
As always, I can count on you to provide a pitch perfect commentary to my posts. Thanks so much.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at October 19, 2009 03:34 PM
Rohde only discovered the truth about the Taliban because he was kidnapped. How dense do you have to be to not understand the taliban does not consist of a bunch of Mother Theresas?
Liberals in the U.S. are more than happy to abandon the people of the ME to muslim fanatics whether ii is in Gaza or Iraq or Saudi Arabia. They decry the 100,000 innocent deaths in Iraq from the war while not giving a fig about the millions killed by Sadaam or the sanctions.
And wouldn't San Fransisco be the perfect place to start cleaning up should muslims ever get their way in the U.S.?
I'm sorry it took his ordeal for Rohde to have the scales fall from his eyes. What will it take for others in this country?
Posted by: Johnny at October 19, 2009 04:27 PM
Robert, you've been saying this for months. Just thought I'd forward an article to you I read tonight with interest.
http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/
Posted by: robyn at October 19, 2009 08:38 PM
Robert:
Perhaps Apple stock has gone through the roof but to us in Israel it really doesn't mean much.
Apple has put major restrictions on the Cellular companies here in Israel which makes it almost impossible for them to purchase the phones for distribution.
Actually their limitations on the Israeli cell phone companies are draconian. Apple will only allow repairs of the Iphone to be made in England, so if your phone needs fixing it has to be shipped from in Israel to England and then shipped back. That's not so bad, the real problem is that Apple is requiring Israeli Cell phone distribuors to purchase 2 phones for every one that they sell so a replacement can be given to the customer if his phone needs to be repaired in England.
Apple is being very very hard on the tiny Israel market(one wonders why only Israel?).
I for one won't have anything to do with Apple or its stock.
Posted by: Gregg at October 20, 2009 06:34 AM
The Times cluelessness about the Taliban is off the charts ridiculous. Thankfully, they seem to get it now.
But it's not the Talibans and the Hamas' out there that they are really wrong about... it's the rank and file "Arab Street" or whatever they're calling it now.
The fact that the overwhelming majority of the Arab and Muslim world wishes us serious harm is basically being supressed by the news media and even our president.
This is not a racist remark, this is a cultural and religious issue as most Muslims are brought up this way and it is the way of death for both them and us.
But, terrified of being called racists or politically incorrect, our "news" outlets and politicians go out of their way to talk about how Islam is a beautiful religion and culture and there are just a few bad apples.
If free elections were held in every Muslim country, the candidates espousing the most violence against the West and the Jews in particular would win every time. Every time.
Just like Hamas overwhelming won.
In reality, Islam is broken ethically, religiously, economomically, and in every other way that matters. It has been since 1492, maybe earlier.
The Times may one day come around to portraying all the blatantly murderous organizations for what they truly are, but I hold out no hope for that paper or most others to depict the morally depraved state of the vast majority of the Muslim world. They will literally try to keep that "secret" with their lives.
Posted by: Jake at October 20, 2009 06:42 AM