Hunger In Dark Places (Part Two.)

Freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave, for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner 'Freedom Now', they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. ~George W. Bush

I no sooner posted my last post...than I saw this.
 

White supremacist Nick Fuentes, saying he's perfectly fine with standing up with the enemies of everything America stands for as long as he gets to have his bigotry and culture war priorities.

Fuck that guy.

Seriously, let's get a few things straight here:

While there's some differing schools of thought, to my knowledge most Islamic countries allow abortion. Not because of liberalism or anything like that, but simply because Islam has differing beliefs about the soul and about whether or not a person is considered alive before they're actually born. 

Before Roe vs. Wade turned it into a culture war issue, American Christianity was very much the same way and with the exception of Catholicism (which has always been opposed to abortion unless there's mitigating circumstances such as incest or rape) Christianity on a global scale is STILL that way, and influenced by all manner of issues from cultural to legal as in most places religion must defer to secular laws.

Also...and this should surprise absolutely no one...homosexuality (at least between consenting adults) is illegal in Afghanistan with harsh prison terms for it. It's always been that way, but it bears keeping in mind here that the country's current outgoing Constitutional system was put in place primarily by a Republican US administration at a time when the country as a whole was much more hostile to LGBT rights and on that they were perfectly fine with deferring to local culture. In point of fact, if anything the Bush administration improved the situation because it became a matter of de jure law rather than the previous prevailing de facto standard of gay people simply being killed in the street for being gay. 

No, that's not an improvement, but it at least allowed for the possibility of something other than automatic death.

That said, in Afghan culture there are strong...and largely tolerated within limits...currents of situational bisexuality because of the strict separation of the sexes under the harsh Islamic doctrines that have existed for centuries even without the Taliban...and in some cultures these predated Islam and were simply folded into its local forms. Older men very frequently use boys and young men for sex, offering them gifts and money in exchange. Women tend to be more discreet and egalitarian with each other.

Yes, these people are fundamentalist and patriarchal enough as a general rule that they've mapped out all the things they see as loopholes and using them is an open secret but part of their culture. It's particularly a thing with gangs, militia forces and soldiers who often don't have access to women at all.

And actual pious Muslims make considerable efforts to keep their children (of both sexes) away from such people.

One such situation in Kandahar in 1994...where two Afghan warlords were quite literally fighting over a boy that each wanted to rape and their respective bands were shooting it out...was where the nascent Taliban first made their bones with the people, ambushing both warlords forces, defeating them and hanging both men...and freeing the people of that part of the city from their reign of terror.

That, of course, was before the Taliban instituted their own murderous reign.

And Afghan men's sexual habits have in point of fact led to conflict with US and NATO soldiers who see their sexual abuse of teenage boys as wrong and to Afghan troops being assaulted. I know of several cases where Airmen and Soldiers were sent back Stateside because of these kinds of incidents, though I never heard of anybody being prosecuted.

That goes hand in hand with another issue, drug use is rampant in Afghanistan, particularly among militias, soldiers, and Taliban fighters. Hashish, Heroin, Opium...I've been told by multiple people I know...some of whom were people I served with...that the US and NATO troops were the *Only* ones who weren't fucked up on drugs all the goddamn time.

And the Taliban are absolutely the worst for this sort of stuff. They are absolutely the primary movers and shakers in the drug trade, human trafficking...and most other kinds of crimes especially anything organized. In point of fact, they'll either help other criminals or kill them, depending on whether or not they get a cut of the profits...and this is in addition to the fact that throughout much of the war the Taliban have maintained a sophisticated shadow government and their own tax system in areas that they control.

And as regards health outcomes in general and vaccines in particular...it's not so much that anything is de jure illegal so much as...just like American religious nuts...the Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan see vaccination campaigns and other public health initiatives (sourced from NGO's or the State) as a threat to their power...citing "Allah's Will" as nothing more than a shitty rationalization.

In short, Afghanistan is probably not the conservative paradise that Nick Fuentes imagines it is.

But it says one hell of a lot that he thinks it might be, and was actually willing to say that shit where somebody could see him. I can remember when John Walker Lindh...an American kid who had joined the Taliban and had even fought in a few battles...was captured and people wanted the little fucker to be executed.

I can remember when publicly aligning oneself with America's enemies would get somebody beat up, possibly even arrested or shot in the street by some angry conservative, and I remember some history lessons about when we interned whole people groups on the off chance that a few of them might be enemy agents.

And now members of the American racist far-right openly align themselves with the Taliban?

What in the hell?

Like I said, when it's our time...

When we hunger in dark places...

Who will be there for us?

Especially when so many of our own would gladly join with our enemies.

Think about that for a second.

Part One.