Afghanistan Update

 

Well, I blogged last week (Saturday 14th) about my fears for the takeover of the country by the Taliban. And here I am, having checked out the news this morning, only to learn that Kabul has now fallen to the terrorist group. This is in the light of the statement from America that it would take anything up to about three weeks before the Taliban would descend on Kabul. Today I was watching what I can only describe as a brutal, medieval bunch of anarchists who are now in Kabul and who preach an extreme version of Sharia Law; all this in the name of Islam!

I am not going to waste my breath on the recent history of this war-torn country other than to say that we followed in the footsteps of the United States and spent 10 years and billions of pounds trying to ‘normalise’ Afghanistan. We failed. If we go back to, say, 40, 50, 60 years ago, Afghanistan and Britain had no significant connections with that country: economic, business, cultural - you name it. Yes, we had an embassy in Kabul but that was about it.

Sharia Law. The Taliban has a thwarted view on the Islamic code although the original Sharia Law wasn’t that complimentary to normal human rights and behaviours. Here is a shortlist of, what for me, is extremism in every form of human life:

•  Theft is punishable by amputation of the hands.

•  A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death.

•  A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punishable by death.

•  A woman or girl who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).

•  Muslim men have sexual rights to any woman/girl not wearing the Hijab.

•  A man can unilaterally divorce his wife but a wife needs her husband's consent to divorce.

•  Of course, if you are caught being gay, you can face the death penalty!

And it is from some of this that the Taliban exercise such depraved practices. Going forward my only fear is this. The Taliban, by taking control of the whole country, I think will invigorate the likes of Al-Qaeda and its henchmen to once more instigate terrorist acts in countries opposed to Taliban rule in Afghanistan. I mean, let’s face it, the West has lost to an anarchist bunch of guerrillas and we cannot stop them from maybe taking things further.

Because it will be seen as a drubbing of the West (particularly the United States and Great Britain) I am sure the despotic rulers of Russia and China: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping shall be laughing up their sleeves - hah hah hah!! I’ll tell you what, let’s see how long it takes for Russia and China to officially recognise the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.