Seven Days in Kabul

[Locke]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Perhaps, but you need to read the room and the room wasn't in a mood to accept that turn of phrase.

Yeah......I get that its a Cultural norm, but...they took over a country by force and then started murdering people.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah......I get that its a Cultural norm, but...they took over a country by force and then started murdering people.

Reminds me of Apu apologizing to Homer after getting fired from the Kwik E Mart.

"In my village, this is the traditional pose of apology. Now that I think about it, it may be a little confusing. Many have died needlessly."

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Knightslayer

This is taken out of context. In Islam, a fellow muslim is called a "brother". She was referring to them as that when she was asking them to treat women and minorities fairly and allow safe passage for Afghans who want to leave.

She hates the taliban, and wants them not to be in power.

Though several former Afghan citizens posted that this was incorrect. that the term of Brother is used when talking to another Muslim or Aghanistani that you respect and trust and would basically do anything for. It is not seen as a blanket term in Afghanistan.



She bungled badly on this.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah......I get that its a Cultural norm, but...they took over a country by force and then started murdering people.

So...you don't get that it's a cultural norm then? I'd wager that she doesn't support the Taliban, in fact, she's said as much...

“There are terrorists taking over my beloved ancestral land,” she said. “In terms of the terminology, if you go to masjids across the country, Muslims refer to each other as brothers and sisters, so, you know, rest assured I continue to believe deeply that the Taliban are a terrorist organization.”

But you want to sow doubt don't you? Maybe by saying it SHE DOES support the Taliban. This is conspiracy level stuff Locke, you're better than that.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Though several former Afghan citizens posted that this was incorrect. that the term of Brother is used when talking to another Muslim or Aghanistani that you respect and trust and would basically do anything for. It is not seen as a blanket term in Afghanistan.



She bungled badly on this.

Or you know...nuance.

Mustafa Farooq, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said while he would not personally use the term for the Taliban, there are some segments of the Muslim community who will use the words brother or sister more broadly — including for those they disagree with.

“It’s important to recognize that the Muslim community is not monolithic, and so there are a variety of different folks who have different approaches to how we would conceptualize the term brother or sister,” he said. “I think there’s a way in which many folks think about the term brother and sister, think about brothers and sisters in humanity — whether or not we agree with them.”

[Locke]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

But you want to sow doubt don't you? Maybe by saying it SHE DOES support the Taliban. This is conspiracy level stuff Locke, you're better than that.

Or maybe you're not as good as you think...

As a Canadian who moved to this country as an Afghan refugee, I want to be very clear, there is no cultural context in which calling the Taliban “brothers” is acceptable. Words carry meaning, and meanings imply moral positions.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...n-our-brothers

Zahra Sultani is a native of Afghanistan and Senior Consultant at Loyalist Public Affairs.

Realistically...all she had to say was nothing.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by Locke

Or maybe you're not as good as you think...

https://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...n-our-brothers

Zahra Sultani is a native of Afghanistan and Senior Consultant at Loyalist Public Affairs.

Realistically...all she had to say was nothing.

You're quoting an opinion column from a Right-Wing Group that obviously has an anti-liberal bias?

She has worked as a Project Manager at Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Headquarters and Advisor to Ontario Cabinet Minister Rod Phillips.

C'mon now. Loyalist Public Affairs' Chris Froggatt counselled Doug Ford's Campaign and was Vice Chair of the Ontario PC Party. Dan Mader was Erin O'Toole's Deputy Campaign Manager for the Conservative Leadership. I can't imagine why that group would write such an Op-Ed.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

You're quoting an opinion column from a Right-Wing Group that obviously has an anti-liberal bias?



C'mon now. Loyalist Public Affairs' Chris Froggatt counselled Doug Ford's Campaign and was Vice Chair of the Ontario PC Party. Dan Mader was Erin O'Toole's Deputy Campaign Manager for the Conservative Leadership. I can't imagine why that group would write such an Op-Ed.

So you like your identity politics more than the other side's identity politics? Okay.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by peter12

So you like your identity politics more than the other side's identity politics? Okay.

It was a Global article.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8139879/m...nistan-crisis/

[SebC]

Again, if you're asking someone to do something, you better address them as whatever they want. The scandal is getting ourselves into a position where we have to appeal to the Taliban's morality in the first place. Do we have to rehash this?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by SebC

Again, if you're asking someone to do something, you better address them as whatever they want. The scandal is getting ourselves into a position where we have to appeal to the Taliban's morality in the first place. Do we have to rehash this?

I think the Liberals can manage more than one scandal at a time. They certainly seem to be multitaskers in that regard.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Do you acknowledge people who do unspeakably evil things as co-religionists though?

How does the PM normally address the pope when he has to? I'm guessing your holiness and not king of the pedos, is that wrong?

[RoadGame]

So before this turns into a horrible mashup of the COVID and Federal Politics threads, back to Afghanistan for a second:

Does anyone know anything about what's going on in Mazar-i-Sharif?

https://twitter.com/AishaTaIks/statu...63254368366593

Related, who are your favourite twitter follows for good information coming out of Afghanistan?

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by RoadGame

So before this turns into a horrible mashup of the COVID and Federal Politics threads, back to Afghanistan for a second:

Does anyone know anything about what's going on in Mazar-i-Sharif?

https://twitter.com/AishaTaIks/statu...63254368366593

Related, who are your favourite twitter follows for good information coming out of Afghanistan?

All I know is that one side of the story is that the US State Dept and some US politicians blame the Taliban for holding the flights. The other side of the story is that the private rescue organizations blame the US State Dept for not seeking landing rights in nearby countries. And then there is the Taliban who say they don't have the horsepower to check the manifests and that many of the travellers do not have the proper travel documents and they say they are coordinating with Turkey to get the airport's tower up and running.

I follow:

Bill Roggio, @billroggio
Drexy Baba, @RisboLensky
Tariq Ghazniwal, @TGhazniwal

If you check out who Drexy Bab follows, you will see plenty of accounts that report on Afghanistan.

[Matata]

No one fails their way up quite like war profiteers, they're getting another $25 billion for their efforts: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...ng-2021-09-01/

[CaptainCrunch]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1435717977811337226

[Nyah]

Man, this thread is both enraging and depressing. What an absolute disaster this has been from start to finish.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1436422176425578496

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Man, this thread is both enraging and depressing. What an absolute disaster this has been from start to finish.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1436422176425578496

And this is why nobody in Afghanistan wanted to put their lives on the line to defend the western backed government.

Now that there's no US backed government or US forces in Afghanistan to cover up the travesty that these drone strikes are, stories like this can get proper coverage in the western media, but this is the face the US military has in the Islamic world.

Even if that one person was linked to some radical islamist organization, there's no justifying pre-emptively killing multiple civilians to get this one guy.

I'm guessing this is the same strike.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation...e-strike-kabul

Sitting on a pile of sandbags outside the family compound, Zemari Ahmadi’s other brother, Ramal, could barely speak through the grief of having lost three children in Sunday’s explosion: Binyamin, 5; Arwin, 3; and Aya, just 1½.

He had been in his room when the missile struck. “There was just this big explosion. I was totally in shock. I didn’t understand what happened,” he said, his eyes red from crying.

For two hours after the blast he remained dazed, but then began to understand that his three children had piled into the car with their uncle Zemari and cousin Farzad and had been killed.

The US military murdered 10 people in total with that drone strike, 7 children, five of them age 5 or younger, based very likely on extremely shoddy intelligence, since that has been a bit of a theme with these airstrikes all through their history, even when they were working with special forces who supposedly provided eyes on the ground.

In 2020 they killed 60 civilians in one airstrike to get one guy. The dead included two US soldiers.

This is the stuff we have not talked about enough.

This is just the drone strikes, which is just a part of the reality of what the "war on terror" in Afghanistan has been like for 20 years.

I'm sure the girls who died in this drone strike are happy about the way we here in the west are fighting for their rights. Some freedom they got.

Even if the guy they had been targeting was some Islamist radical, there is no way that can be an excuse to murder children in a pre-emptive strike to get one radical in a country full of radicals.

There's some powerful quotes in that article.

“I want Joe Biden to know about this. Why do you attack these people and say it’s Daesh?” he said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym, which is considered a pejorative by the group.

“America is the killer of Muslims in every place and every time,” said Jamshid Mejrabi, a 35-year-old relative of the family. “I hope that all Islamic countries unite in their view that America is a criminal.”

“We’re now much more afraid of drones than we are of the Taliban,” said a colleague of Ahmadi’s, who did not want his name published for security reasons. He had gotten lost on the way to the funeral but kept on hearing the jets.

[Patek23]

Just came here to post that video. Disgusting. The crimes the USA commits and nobody ever bats an eye or calls them out on is the main reason why so many organizations like ISIS have no problem growing and recruiting. Its a never ending cycle.

[Knightslayer]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah......I get that its a Cultural norm, but...they took over a country by force and then started murdering people.

Are we talking about the Taliban or the United States here