Afghan Rage and Burning Korans

The public rage now on full display in Afghanistan is ostensibly over what is termed by the PC police as the “inadvertent” burning of a number of Korans by several brain-dead American military personnel. But I believe it is a sign of something far more serious and fundamental that promises the future lack of any kind or amount of American presence or influence in Afghanistan. In my eyes, that rage is in general a repudiation of Western culture and values and specifically of American interference in their country that had been simmering just under the surface and has now boiled over.

Although I do not wish to offend anyone, I believe that, basically, Afghanistan consists of loosely knit tribes of individuals who for the most part are only a few steps removed from the Stone Age. Those few steps include a patina of Islam covering a core of primitivism so profound most Americans can scarcely comprehend it.

That primitive core includes deep seated suspicion of and hostility toward everyone not of their clan or tribe; a conception of honor that requires revenge attacks and killings, including the killing of women who have shamed the family; unquestioned and absolutist patriarchal rule; female subordination to men; lack of higher education for most females, except children of the elite; arranged marriages; individual social status conferred by birth, etc.

It is a culture where asking the name of a man’s wife may be considered a fairly serious insult. Many rural Pashtun men have never known the real names of their mothers, aunts, or even their younger sisters. It is a country where "liberal" judges (meaning ones that are non-fundamentalist) are killed and schools for girls blown up. We're talking about a country where if a man speaks directly to a woman in a social context, he is dishonoring her. Where women are advised to avoid looking men in the eyes and to keep their eyes lowered when they walk down the street to maintain their reputations as pure and submissive. Where, outside the home, men and women must never touch one another under any circumstances. Where women are told to always dress properly to avoid unwanted attention by wearing loose fitting pants under their skirts so their legs are indistinguishable and they do not tempt men to rape them. Seriously.

Although the Taliban practice a severe, fundamentalist form of Islam, they are native Afghanis and not godless Americans. When push comes to shove, as it has today, Afghanis would much prefer to have the Taliban in charge of their country than the Americans.

Centuries of conflict between ethnic groups, tribes, clans, and families has made competition and violence an integral part of Afghan culture, a culture now turned against Americans. It's time for us to get out. Not next year, not in six months, but get out now. They do not want us there and, since Bin Laden and most of his colleagues are dead, we have no business being there. Time to pack up and skedaddle back home.

We have no business trying to act as if we were the world's police force. It's their country. Let them run it the way they want, primitive tribalists or not.