Taliban Thoughts

I haven't gone back to serious reading yet.

The main thing I felt saddened by a little was that the wiki page equates "hypocrisy" with the thermo-imagining of a couple of soldiers "gratifying themselves" with animals.

First of all, I think this is a small percentage of the people in the group and I didn't think it made those who used thermo-imagining to capture this look very good.

I suppose in war, the point is to "demoralize" the enemy, but I thought it was very sad. Sad for the men who were captured in this way, for the desperation or whatever there, and also sad at the idea surveillance has come down to thermo imagining of, basically, whatever any government or military group might want to image.

I also thought that the UN woman who whoever it was, who refused to speak with the Taliban because they asked her face to be covered, put pride above humanitarian good. It is one thing to refuse to go along with something that is spiritually adverse to your conscience but if the request was one which would have been made of any woman they talked to, I think the great cultural bridge over the divide could have been made.

Especially if you're knowingly working with this group whose beliefs you've researched. You could oppose the beliefs or values but still be respectful of their own wishes.

It sounds like the origins of the Taliban were really good. Which is maybe why they got support from possibly even the U.S. at first. They defended a couple of teenage girls who were kidnapped and raped. Morally, they were defending the rights of these women and were heroes, not to just these girls but I would think, from anyone's perspective.