Why We Fight?
How apt that Mr. Holbrooke, in a recent Washington conclave, would compare the conditions for a U.S. exit from Afghanistan to pornography: "We'll know it when we see it." That knowing, presumably, includes approval of the latest Afghan medieval law-making which turns women into chattel. Among its many retrograde provisions the law permits a husband to withhold food from his wife if she refuses his sexual demands. So, again, why exactly are we fighting in Afghanistan?!
Posted by George Kenney on August 15, 2009 1:52 PM 
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Comments
Re: "Afghan medieval law-making"
I am so tired of ignorant references to the much maligned Middle Ages. Please read Those Terrible Middle Ages! by Regine Pernoud.
[Point taken. Perhaps I should've referred to pre-CE standards... g.]
Posted by: Henry | August 15, 2009 4:19 PM
I agree that there is an "appropriateness" to Holbrooke's associating the Afghan mess (which we own) to obscenity. As to why we fight, or more specifically, why we are in Afghanistan, I think it is at this point a "because it is there" condition. Fear of political fallout and being accused of being a chicken and not protecting us. That's where I put it. Not at all good or right.
And what a mess it is.
Posted by: Peter | August 16, 2009 8:03 AM