Eggs Laid by Tigers
Friday, May 01, 2009
Zabol is We; We are Zabol: who'da thunk it
The Washington Post has an article Friday that illustrates, as well any I have seen, Afghanistan's reality and the special difficulty that it presents to America. I recommend it to you.
The article also gives reasons why invading Iraq, with its cost and waste and its continuing demands, is an ongoing problem for us.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, visited Zabol, in Eastern Afghanistan, across from Balochistan territory in Pakistan (as near as I can make out) and was dismayed by what needs to be done before the area is safe from Taliban incursions from Pakistan. Among many other things, citizens of Zabol need their teachers to have ears: the Talib cut off the ears of those teachers who disobey instructions to close schools.
Zabol province is home to some 188,000 Afghans. The government consists of one governor, Gov. Mohammad Ashraf Naseri, picture here with Adm. Mullen, and four deputies.
The Talib blow up roods and buildings and there are no engineers or contractors to fix 'em. There are no cops to stop roving bands of Talib from having their way with the populace. Don't go there unless accompanied by Adm. Mullen. East LA is a picnic by comparison.
President Hussein has pressing responsibilities at home: corrupt and broken financial systems on which we and the rest of the Word depend, crumbling roads, no health care for millions, and so on. Zabol in now part of our homeland, albeit without a vote -- as it should be. We are the World; the World is us. I guess Zabolians get to vote when we tax 'em.
. There is also an on-line newspaper dedicated to Zabol news, from an American perspective. Sorta interesting. You just missed the deadline for applying for jobs in Zabol. Army Lt. Col. James Overbye is organizing football games in Zabol and is soliciting money for more equipment. See here if you want to learn more. Lt. Col. Overbye and his young students are pictured below:
Below are more pics of Zabol.
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I like Gov. Naseri's beard and am jealous of the gentleman pictured above for his thick, white one. Do ye think I'd fit in?
Perhaps I'll move there, in spite of all. I'd guess that I'm older than the governor: the cold, dry climate will age skin, and no dermatologist to preserve ye. I'd guess the governor is a Sunni -- most residents of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are -- and probably Pashtunwali is important to him. I'd guess that women are safe and protected and enslaved. I'd guess that "macho" doesn't even begin to describe the attitude of dominant males of whatever orientation
If Pashtunwali is important to the governor, then it must be to Adm. Mullen, a complex new part of what is now our world, complex to one who lives in a peaceful, tropical land.
Wow! I love it! (At least in the abstract.) O for a Magic Carpet! If I were young, wouldn't I want to be a part of Zabol's reconstruction? [See the UN job application ads, above.]
Bybee at 53 or se
If 9/11 had happened when I was 25 -- if then I clerked for a Wall Street law firm and Bushco was in power -- would I have been tempted to join Bybee's team? Would I have supplied citations for the torture memos? Would I have found the case of the Texas sheriff who got 10 yeas for waterboarding a robbery suspect? Or would I have missed it? Or would it have been ignored? If Ignored, would I have remained silent?
Can't say that I wouldn't 'uv. The young do strange things. I remember traveling to a national convention of my fraternity, to vote against the Brown University chapter, for having the temerity to pledge a Black man. Did it without thought. Where we grow up matters, whether South Texas or Zabol.
But Bybee isn't young. Phooey on him!
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I never grow weary of comparing us to them though, of course, "They" are "We" ["Us", if you speak Pogo]:
Zabol Queen's Beach, Waikiki
There is a difference in attitude. I wonder if a maiden from Zabol were to be transported to Queen's Beach on any holiday, if she would recoil at the blasphemy?
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Lest you think all is grim in Zabol, consider these pics, from the web, under " Zabol".
Senga33 & Nicram24
Żabol (genetycznie zmodyfikowan)
[No fair if you speak Farsi: you may decide that thee pics atr from Zabol in Iran; what do I know?]
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I cannot read maps well enough to tell if Zabol is in Pashtun or Balochistan territory. Both tribes are Sunni and each has traditions different from the other. Can you tell? It'll make a difference. Balochs, I think, are meaner. In an event, the Taliban seem to come from Baloch territory.
The Balochs live in a vast desert in what the English were pleased to split into Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, for reasons that make sense only to Englishmen.
The Iranians have brutally stamped out Balochian language and customs (Iranians are, after all, the much-despised-by Sunni Shiites]; the Pakistanis have been content to enjoy Balchian natural resources without much benefit to the Balochs, and -- as far as I know -- the Afghans and the Balochs live in harmony, except for the Talib followers.
Water is the essential life ingredient in Pakistani Balochistan; and if you want water, you must apply to the dreaded Government Water Master. No one displeases the Government Water Master lightly.
Here he is, in majesty:
The Government Water Master
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