There are plenty of problems in today’s world if you exclude the global economic slump. There are some people that are so far off mainstream society, that even their nearest group finds them repulsive. When you add in that they are being aggressive and looking to expand, you suddenly find yourself in a war that nobody wants.
The Taliban are a wonderful bunch of folks that are extremists who are not shy about using gruesome force to get what they want. Public executions and crimes against women is about as nice as you can word it. Unfortunate as it is, once again religion comes into play as the driving force.
At the moment it is Muslims fighting Muslims in Pakistan. The extreme views of Muslim Taliban is even too much for other Muslims. So much so that shooting and killing a Taliban fighter if preferred to taking him prisoner. After all do you remove cancer and put it in a jar waiting for it to behave like normal cells or destroy it is the question.
In northern Pakistan in the Swat valley the Pakistani army is fighting the Taliban insurgents, but that leaves the question as to why they are there. Are they being chased out of Afghanistan by the American military, or are they just looking to expand? Connecting the Dots does not know the answer, but we are fairly comfortable in saying it is probably a little of both.
When the Americans first went into Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks in the US, many Afghan men were happy to see them and the first place they went was to the barber to hack off their beard and long hair the Taliban insisted on. So even in Afghanistan they are not liked and only exist by force. But being that far off main stream force is needed. That also leaves a question as to how many Taliban fighters do not want to be a Taliban fighter. To simply walk away invites a gruesome death. That is why the Afghan men let their hair grow, to simply stay alive.
The Taliban are also not shy about using human shields as they seem to have no respect for life and can only accept their very narrow view of Islamic law. The Taliban also play a significant roll on shaping global opinion about Muslims as a whole. Only bad news seems to find it’s way to press, and after a while one or two bad apples can make the rest look bad or at the very least questionable. After you chop off their hair and give them a bath, they are hard to spot in a crowd if they are not running bullets through women’s heads for not doing exactly as demanded.
Even the online encyclopedia Wikipedia provides disclaimers on some of the entries about the Taliban as they seem bias. However Connecting the Dots feels the entries are accurate, it is just that the Taliban are so far off mainstream, any accurate description can and does sound bias.
So when it comes to dealing with the Taliban, we must first consider that they are the effect of something. Perhaps smoking a bit too much opium comes to mind as a possibility. So to deal with the Taliban, the cause or causes must be identified and dealt with. If that does not happen it will be like trying to keep your garden free of weeds.
