All I Know Is What I See On CNN

Back to Will Rogers. He said, “All I know is what I read in the newspapers.”

I guess most of us get our news via some form of electronic media these days. All I know is what I see on CNN. A CNN story:

Abdul Rahman is a man on trial for his life. This man has committed the crime of converting to Christianity. Apparently, in that enlightened part of the world known as Afghanistan, denying Islam is a capital offense.

"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf.

It was reported that George Bush was “deeply troubled.” Condoleezza Rice telephoned Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai seeking a "favorable resolution" of the case of Abdul Rahman. But in deference to the sovereignty of Afghanistan she did not demand the man’s release. A spokesman for Ms. Rice pointed out that “this is clearly an Afghan decision.”

Good idea, let’s leave it to them, the folks that brought you the Taliban, ancient Buddhist statue demolition (idols!!!), and public beheadings between periods of the soccer game (their equivalent of a halftime show). Not to mention Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist training camps. We wouldn’t want to interfere in the internal politics of a budding democracy, would we?

The article did say that the Afghan government was searching for a way to drop the case, but the article went on to say that conservative clerics claim "The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed." and the country's main Islamic organization, the Afghan Ulama Council, concurred. "The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled."

Aside from the absurdity of demanding a man’s death because of his religious beliefs, how unbelievably difficult it must be to live in a place where cleric Abdul Raoulf is considered a moderate.

CNN article 2:
BATON ROUGE, La. Federal prosecutors in Baton Rouge will take up the misdemeanor case against a Mississippi sheriff accused of commandeering two ice trucks from a federal reservation and sending them to relief centers after Hurricane Katrina.

After watching residents of his county suffer for days while waiting for federal hurricane relief, fed up with the inept bureaucratic bull, Forrest County Sheriff, Billy McGee took a couple of his deputies to National Guard Camp Shelby, and commandeered two tractor trailer trucks loaded with ice. The ice had been there for days while the people of Forrest County sweltered without electricity or refrigeration of any sort.

The sheriff was confronted by army national guardsmen who refused to allow him to take the ice. He ordered his deputies to arrest the guardsmen, and then he took the ice to his townspeople. He did something while the federal government was watching the ice melt while trying to figure out their next move.

By the way, Sheriff McGee agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. He did this to make the case go away. Although he offered a plea bargain, the federal prosecutor wouldn’t accept the deal. Evidently, the US government thought it would be better to spend its (our) time and money to go after a man who tried to help his fellow townspeople. The US government couldn't just accept his guilty plea or (more appropriately) just drop the case. Frankly, a medal, not an indictment should be given to the sheriff. But then the federal government would have to acknowledge that its incompetance drove an obvioulsy dedicated public servant to take matters into his own hands to do the right thing.

Two unrelated stories, right.

How about this:

Afghanistan is one backward place, where the niceties of the rights of an individual has yet to be discovered. Women are still their husband’s property and adultery is punished by death by stoning and thieves lose their hands. We are trying to bring this country into the civilized world. The British couldn’t do it, the USSR couldn’t do it and we won’t succed either. The Afghan culture is still hanging on to social concepts that most of the people of the world abandoned in the 1700’s. The country is really run by warlords and their clans. They finance their activities by selling drugs (opium poppies) and the government consists of the "meanest mother in the valley" and his heavily armed relatives. In American cities we call these guys "gangs", and the government tries to put them behind bars. I'm still trying to figure out where the fundimentalist Mullahs fit into this puzzle, they must be the spiritual advisors to the "Robin Hoods" of these merry bands of Afghani men who really govern their clan's turf, sort of Islamic Friars Tuck.

The US has about 20,000 or so troops in Afghanistan. The Afghan government can’t get across to its people that democracy means that not only the majority rules, but minorities have rights, too. In fact the government only governs a small part of the country. Most of Afghanistan is probably in worse shape than Mississippi and Louisiana right afther Katrina. Some enterprising US major, colonel, or general in Kabul should take a couple of hundred heavily armed troops to the jail and escort Abdul Rahman to a safe place while the two national governments suck up to each other. Do this while Condi and George work their diplomatic magic, but before some enterprising mullah removes Abdul’s infidel head from his infidel body.

Who are we kidding? We can’t do anything because we respect their sovereignty? We've already invaded and occupied the country, what soverignity? Wouldn't want to offend the freedom loving people of Afghanistan now that we have given them democracy, would we?