Taliban War Crimes - Human Rights Groups Finally Notice. - by Christopher Hitchens

F -X C h a n ge F -X C h a n ge
PD PD
2/16/2011 Taliban war crimes: Human rights groups fin…
!
W
W
O
O
N
N
y
y
bu
bu
to
to
k
k
lic
lic
C
C
w
w
m
m
w w
w
w
o
o
.d o .c .d o .c
c u -tr a c k c u -tr a c k
BRIEFING NEWS & POLITICS ARTS LIFE BUSINESS & TECH SCIENCE PODCASTS & VIDEO BLOGS Search
ALSO IN SLATE
HOME / FIGHTING WORDS : A WARTIME LEXICON.
News Flash: The Taliban Violate

Human Rights Dickerson: Neither Obama Nor Why Modern Apostasy—
the Republicans Have Like Paul Haggis' Split w ith
The human rights community finally notices the Taliban's war crimes. Explained Why Cutting the Scientology—Is So Unusual
Def icit Matters
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, Feb. 14, 2011, at 11:06 AM ET
Even in a w eek that concentrated all eyes on the magnificent

courage and maturity of the people of Cairo, a report from Kabul
began w ith what must surely be the most jaw-dropping P RIN T
opening paragraph of the year. Under the byline of the How LCD Soundsystem Is Why Did CBS Go Public With
DISCUSS Trying To Foil Ticket Scalpers New s of Lara Logan's Sexual
excellent Rod Nordland, the New York Times reported:
Assault?
E-MA IL
International and local human rights groups w orking in R SS

Afghanistan have shifted their focus tow ard condemning GET TODAY IN SLATE
R ECOMMEN D...
abuses committed by the Taliban insurgents, rather than
R EP RIN TS
Sign up for Slate's daily newsletter.
those attributed to the American military and its allies.
Enter your e-mail address.
SIN GLE PA GE
The story went on to point out that the Taliban was culpable for
"more than three-fourths of all civilian casualties" and informed us that some human- RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
rights groups are now so concerned that they are thinking of indicting the Taliban for w ar
crimes. "The activists' concern," Nordland went on, "w ould have been unheard-of a year Is Queen Rania the Next Target of Middle
ago," w hen all the outcry was directed at casualties inflicted by NATO contingents. Eastern Violence? (The Stir by CafeMom)
Kirstie Alley Letter to Carrie Fisher: Don't Do
Jenny Craig! (The Stir By CafeMom)
Counterfeit Combat: Hardest Notes to Fake
(CNBC)
Cantor: Spending debate could cut into

planned recess (TheHill.com)
The Best Paid Jobs Without a Degree (eHow)
[what's this]
The story became more mind-boggling as it

unfolded. One had to ask oneself w hat had
taken the human-rights "community" so long.
After all, there are w ar crimes and there is the
crime (established at Nuremburg) of planning to
w age aggressive w ar. The Taliban seized pow er
in Afghanistan in the first place by indiscriminate
violence, played host to al-Qaida forces that
murdered several thousand civilians in one day
on American soil, and for almost a decade has
been employing systematic cruelty against
civilians and fighting an undeclared w ar, without
View My Network on Slate »
uniforms or formal command structure, against a MOST MOST
force that is upholding a U.N. mandate for the READ E-MAILED
rebuilding of the country. Moreover, during its
period in power, it ran the country as a vast 1. The Girl Who Wanted Revenge
concentration camp, enslaving the female In a new memoir, Stieg Larsson's longtime partner settles
scores and positions herself as the Millennium saga's rightful
T al i ban co mm ander Mul l ah Mo ham m ed population and conducting a campaign of guardian.
O m ar
extermination against the Hazara minority. How By Sasha Watson | Feb 14, 2011
is it possible to mention this enormity in the
2. The Right To Remain Silent
same breath as the forces that are opposed to it? Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court silences are less
w orrisome than his private speeches.
http://www.slate.com/id/2285025/ 1/6
PD PD
!
W
W
O
O
By Dahlia Lithw ick | Feb 15, 2011
N
N
y
The turning point, in the mind of the human rights "activists," appears to have occurred in
y
bu
bu
to
to
late January, w hen a Taliban suicide-murderer killed at least 14 civilians in the Finest 3. Hipsters v. Scalpers
k
k
lic
lic
C
C
w
w
m
Supermarket in Kabul. Among the slain was a w ell-known local campaigner named
m
w How LCD Soundsystem is trying to foil professional ticket
w
w
w
o
o
.d o .c .d o .c
c u -tr a k
c resellers. c u -tr a c k
Hamida Barmaki, w hose husband and four small children w ere also killed. One w onders in
By Annie Low re y | Feb 15, 2011
w hat sense this was the Taliban going too far—women are killed and mutilated by them
every single day in Afghanistan. Yet let the terror reach one of the upscale markets or 4. On a Mission
hotels that cater to the NGO constituency in Kabul, and suddenly there is an abrupt The new Broadw ay musical by the creators of South Park
isn't anti-Mormon. Like all of their w ork, it's anti-stupidity.
change from moral neutrality. By Christophe r Beam | Feb 15, 2011
5. Frank Gehry Is Back

Perhaps it is fortunate for the Taliban that they take few, if any, prisoners and maintain The architect's New World Center in Miami is his best w ork in
no places of detention—at least they don't have to face the righteous scrutiny of those years.
w ho (like Amnesty International and Julian Assange) have seriously compared By Witold Rybczyns ki | Feb 16, 2011
Guantanamo to the Gulag. Moreover, their refusal of any military discipline makes it hard if
not impossible to distinguish their corpses from others w ho may have been killed in an
airstrike. And can you imagine a Taliban fighter being disciplined by his "superiors" for
murder, or demoted for lack of care toward the local population, as has happened several
times w ith U.S. officers and soldiers? In a striking instance of the compliment that vice Inside Newt
pays to virtue, sadistic Mullah Mohammed Omar, former dictator of Afghanistan and now Gingrich's financial
Taliban commander, attempted to issue a "code of conduct" to his supporters in 2009. empire
This w as supposed to w arn against the killing of innocents but seems only to have incited
further brutality and the use of ever-more-random methods.
How ever, is it possible to imagine Mullah Omar going even that far if the NATO forces Would this dog be your Westmins ter winner? (Vi...
w ere not in the country to begin w ith? Plainly, he must have heard at least indirectly from WikiLeaks, Twitter, free speech at is sue in Va...
elements of the local population (he appears to have his base across the Pakistani CBS details 'brutal' attack on Lara Logan
border in Quetta) that there is some perceptible difference betw een opening a clinic and
destroying it; betw een starting a village school for girls and setting it on fire or hurling
TODAY'S TODAY'S TODAY'S TODAY'S
acid in the faces of the pupils; betw een guarding polling booths and visiting villagers at PICTURES CARTOONS DOONESBURY VIDEO
night to intimidate them not to vote.
Cartoonists' take on Egypt.
I'll concede that something remotely like the same is true of NATO's previous over-
reliance on airstrikes and infliction of consequent damage. After representations from the
Afghan authorities, those rules of engagement have been amended. And indeed,
American soldiers are under instructions to risk their ow n lives rather than to err on the
side of anything resembling indiscriminate ground fire. (One sometimes w ishes those
same Afghan authorities were more deserving of the sacrifices that are made on their
behalf.) But learning from previous misapplied tactics is altogether different from
persisting with random suicide-murder, roadside bombs aimed at the most vulnerable,
deliberate targeting of females, and the other elements of the Taliban armory.
I can only too well remember attending some press conferences in Pakistan in the winter
of 2001 and seeing the unbearably smug expressions on the faces of various human
rights and "relief" spokesmen who w ere concerned lest the military operation against the MORE FIGHTING WORDS COLUMNS
Taliban should disrupt their relatively modest efforts. They failed or refused to see that
the removal of the Taliban w as a necessary precondition of any serious relief and
News Flash: The Taliban Violate Human Rights
reconstruction. It's heartening to learn that, almost a decade later, they are at least open
The human rights community finally notices the
to the aw areness that the Taliban is the w orst offender. The next stage—may it come Taliban's war crim es.
soon—w ill be the realization that the Taliban does not "violate" human rights, but entirely Christopher Hitchens | Feb. 14, 2011
lacks the concept of their existence.
Would America Have Been Better Off Without a
Reagan Presidency?
Like Slate on Facebook. Follow Slate and the Slate Foreign Desk on Twitter. His s im ple-mindednes s had a touch of genius to it.
Christopher Hitchens | Feb. 5, 2011
Or join the discussion
165 Comments Add Yours The Shame Factor
on the Fray
When will dictators learn not to treat their people like
fools?
Like This Story Christopher Hitchens | Jan. 31, 2011
Search for more Fighting Words articles

Follow Sla te's Fighting Words Subscribe to the Fighting Words RSS feed
View our complete Fighting Words archive
MORE FROM SLATE MORE FROM THE WEB
Less counterinsurgency, more killing Is Jennifer Aniston a Drunk? (from The Stir
and capturing. By CafeMom) L.A. county em ployee dies at de sk, nobody notices .
Katie Holmes Offers World's Worst http://bit.ly/h6Xk yd
As we digest the WikiLeaks
revelations, a new book offers the Reason For Pregnancy (from The Stir By Worst ambush ever? Or just the w ors t of CPAC?
CafeMom) WATCH: http://s late.m e/dYv8GX
soldiers' perspective.
IBM's Watson Routs Humans on Kim Jong-il's birthday pre sents : Tw o $50,000 Ste inw ay
Tom Little and Dan Terry, aid grand pianos and a $16 m illion yacht. WATCH:
workers killed in Afghanistan last Jeopardy! (from TheStreet) http://slate.m e/gilRhg
PD PD
!
W
W
O
O
August, spent decades helping needy What Content Marketers Can Learn from
N
N
y
Oprah Winfrey to Interview Michael Vick
y
bu
bu
Afghans. the Agricultural Industry (from Content
to
to
Fantasia Skipped Grammys Over Aretha Franklin Tribute
k
k
lic
lic
Marketing Institute)
Candid Queue: Jeremy Stahl
C
C
w
w
m
m
w Snub w
w
w
o
o
.d o .c . do .c
c u -tr a c k Yearly Salary of an Anesthesiologist c u -tr a c k
New York Times Editor Bill Keller President Obama Wins Battle Over Fighter Jet
(from eHow)
Thinks He Is a Magnificent
Rhinoceros [what's Rumsfeld Was the Worst Defense Secretary Ever
this]
Why Do the World's Fattest People Live on Islands?
Photo Essay: The Path to Revolution Is Not Always
Glorious
FEATURED ADVERTISER LINKS
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair and the Roger S. Mertz media fellow at the
Hoover Institution.
updates and a correction
SPONSORED CONTENT
Photograph of Mullah Omar by Getty I mages .
Login Login required, click here to begin
Share This Page
Follow Cancel Post
Inigo Smith
The job of human rights organisations is not only to prevent human rights abuses in the immediate
short term but also to draw impartial attention to breaches and to secure human rights in the long
term. I don't feel that the behaviour of organisations like AI are always compatible with that
obligation, and Jim Flamming's claim that "it would be silly to demand that human rights groups spend
80% of their time and effort in criticizing the Taliban and only 20% on PGFs." is certainly not
compatible. To argue that it's better for HROs to highlight the abuses by coalition forces simply
because it's easier for them to do so is, as RedWell rightly said, like a drunk looking for his keys under
the street light because that's where the light is. As for the argument that coalition forces should be
held to a different standard of human rights, this is patently absurd. Do the people advocating this
even understand the concept of human rights?
Today, 16:19:52 – Flag – Reply
Chris Harris
Sounds like a child whining "but they did the same thing and didn't get caught for it!" I for one am glad
we are held to higher standards than the Taliban and would hope that we wouldn't judge our actions
by the yardstick of theirs.
Inigo Smith
You obviously don't understand the concept of universal human rights then. If you
actually bothered to extrapolate the logic of what you have just said, you would
realise that you have essentially just implied that the Taliban should legally be
considered as sub-human. You wouldn't be the only one though. Sarah Palin has
implicated this in pretty unsubtle terms on numerous occasions now.
Failix
If you search for the keyword "Taliban" on the AI website, you will find that the overwhelming
majority of search results has something to do with the condemnation of coalition forces; looking at
these results, you'd almost think that the overwhelming majority of human rights violations was
caused by coalition forces, yet we know this is certainly not the case.
Organizations like AI misrepresent reality; when they say they're fighting human rights violations in
Afghanistan but then accuse the US and its allies 8 times out of 10 of violating human rights, one gets
the impression that the US and its allies are the major source of human rights violations in
Afghanistan.
Liked by Inigo Smith
Mujokan
When I did that, result number 4 was "Taleban should be prosecuted for war crimes in
Afghanistan". Result 7 was "Pakistan: 'As if Hell fell on me': The human rights crisis in
northwest Pakistan". But there's not much point Amnesty spending half its effort on
PD PD
!
W
W
O
O
N
N
each side. Amnesty is mostly concerned with political prisoners and unfair trials. Their
y
y
bu
bu
technique is public pressure through the media, letter-writing campaigns, and so on.
to
to
k
k
lic
lic
The Taliban doesn't tend to take prisoners and they don't respond to media pressure,
C
C
w
w
m
m
w w
w
w
o
o
.c .c
.d o
c u -tr a c k being extremist religious fanatics. .d o
c u -tr a c k
There could be a rule I suppose... "Every AI statement about misdirected airstrikes or

Bagram abuses should end with the line 'But the Taliban are worse'". The thing is that
almost everyone knows that already, and it becomes a kind of political correctness to
always have to repeat it.
Inigo Smith
I'm not sure about the legalities, but to me, a misdirected airstrike is not so much a
breach of human rights, as a terrible cockup due to bad intelligence, for which 'heads
should roll' as they say. A husband hacking his young wife's nose and ears off with a
knife, on the other hand, is the most grotesque mockery of human rights, and one
might argue that it is cases like this that Amnesty International should be more
concerned with. AI should at least be aware of what sort of portrayal of the situation
they are depicting through their actions, and whether this portrayal is accurate. The
Western public's perception of the situation in Afghanistan plays a vital role in the
future of the country, and therefore the securing of human rights.
Also, I wouldn't be so naive to say that 'everybody knows already' that the Taliban is
infinitely worse than the coalition troops. I think there are a great deal of people who
simply lap up what is fed to them without ever thinking critically about it.
Ashton Webb
News flash: Those NGO's (of which I was recently a part) were calling out the horrors of the Taliban
regime back when the outside world still prefered to look away. When a new player came on to the
scene the human rights campaigners, as is thier mandate, focused their attention on the coalition
forces, who surely need to be held to a different standard than beasts like Mullah Omar. Under closer
scrutiny the american forces, as Mr. Hitchens describes, have made some important policy
adlustments to reduce the number of civilian casualties. This acomplished, the NGO's are now shifting
the attention back onto the Taliban. Sounds like a plan to me.
Liked by Jim Flammang
lifeboatb
Human rights groups have been fighting the Taliban since they came to power--back when U.S. oil
companies were trying to make deals with them. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and
the United Nations have all been reporting on Taliban atrocities ever since the group came into being.
RAWA, Eve Ensler, Women for Women, and many other groups have been working to help local
Afghans assert themselves against Taliban warlords. I don't know what Hitch is talking about here.
Maybe he needs to expand his knowledge of human rights organizations.
Yesterday, 23:14:33 – Flag – Reply
Liked by Jim Flammang
Michael M Clarke
It is a travesty that the entire world does not rise up and march in the streets, demanding the
extermination of the Muslim Extremists, in order to show these thugs they are the minority, to show
them how evil they are.
Josh
we in the Galactic Federation just don't understand or appreciate the Klingon ways of relating to
women. From the Klingon Love Manual:
"Lesson One: tIhIngan maH! We are Klingons! Sons and daughters of Qo'noS exclaim this in times of
great joy, such as in battle or in the throes of passion.
To the Klingon, battle and lovemaking have much in common. No Klingon life is complete without both
experiences, and they invest themselves fully in those experiences."
Burning with acid, stoning, beheading with a rusty saw tooth blade--in the West some of these
activities shared between men and the women who love them might be considered "abusive";
however there is a very long, rich tradition of afghani and muslim culture which we, as westerners
and outsiders, have no right to question. The fact that many of these activities, including marrying
girls as young as 6 ( or 9! as some would righteously object ) are religiously sanctified and proscribed
just makes it more clear that UN intervention in the name of human rights in these regions is a gross
hypocrisy that is just a flimsy mask for colonialism and profiteering.
CL
Its this way in many situations. But Mr. Hitchens you are as culpable as the rest of them. You highlight
any bad thing an Israeli (whether acting on his/her own or as a member of the government) long
before you'd rail against the Arab on Arab (Palestinian on Palestinian) violence that occurs with far
more frequency.
That being said I think its great that you are spending time and energy focusing on the atrocities that
groups like the Taliban are inflicting on their own brethren.
PD PD
!
W
W
O
O
N
N
The sad fact of the matter is that women are the all too frequent victims at the hands of their families
y
y
bu
bu
and those in power. Women, whether they be Palestinian, Afghani, Saudi or whatever are often at
to
to
k
k
lic
lic
risk of murder for being too outspoken, sexual, or whatever. Its not safe to be gay, or different in
C
C
w
w
m
m
w w
w
w
o
o
.c .c
.d o
c u -tr a c k any way in these countries. Voices are silenced with violence. .d o
c u -tr a c k
I once thought that our invasion of Afghanistan would bring peace to a people that had long suffered
under the Taliban (most likely b/c of our arming the Taliban against the Russians). But that dream
seems so far from being realized. Women are routinely tortured and young boys are conscripted into
armies and must fight or be killed. Human life is no more valuable than that of cattle under the regimes
that populate the Arab world. The masses are only there for the aggrandizement of the leaders,
whether they be "legitimately" elected or terrorist war lords who seize power without a rigged
election.
People in many of these countries are being subjected to crimes against humanity and the
perpetrators need to be brought to justice. And we here in the US need to be aware of these crimes.
But the evening news would rather cover that Kate Middleton had lunch with Camilla Parker Bowles
(seriously, this was on two news channels simultaneously last week) instead of informing the public
about what's happening in our supposedly modern world.
Liked by Suzie Queue
Nasochkas
Regarding Amnesty International (AI). I generally applaud human rights workers and those that
expose human rights violations, but AI is extremely hypocritical. Their mission seems to be to discredit
anything that the U.S. does while at times glossing over much more heinous crimes.
I was visiting Berlin in 2004, right around the time of the elections. Iraq was invaded just over a year
ago. An AI staff person stopped me on the street and asked me if I was British. I said in a very
friendly tone "no sir, I am American". Immediately he said "Well I have nothing to say to you then". I
was a bit shocked and asked him why as a representative of AI he thought it fitting to judge me
based on my nationality. He gave a sheepish smile and walked away.
They sure train their staff well...
CL
Yikes!
Let's see, the British controlled half the world through their efficient war machine and
only gave up when the peoples they controlled started to rise up against them and
overpowered them. While I don't agree with our war effort in Iraq or Afghanistan, I
also don't feel like I'm responsible for it nor are people like yourself. I wonder, does
the AI worker treat Germans the same way too? Afterall they were complacent in the
murder of millions of people? The person you encountered certainly didn't see the Brits
as Imperialist tea drinking dictactors? I'll never cease to be amazed by the short term
memory of the public at large.
I'm sure many of those Berliners have items passed down from grandparents that
were taken from their neighbor's homes after they were taken to ghettos and camps.
But they wouldn't consider themselves as bad as us awful Americans?
And here's the difficult part for them to swallow when directing their hate towards us.
Half of us (or more) didn't vote in the government that started teh war. We protested
it and railed against it but we had no say in the matter. But we're still culpable for it?
I'd love for these people who hate us to tell us what they want. Let's see if its a
reasonable request (I'm sure its not).
Ashoka Mukpo
you shouldnt blame AI for what sounds like the social graces (or lack thereof) of what
was probably a 24 year old administrative assistant
Mujokan
More likely an unpaid volunteer trawling for donations...
Fessha
Crimes committed by one entity if not canceled out by crimes committed by the other entity could be
absolved. What the war apologist Hitchins does not seem to understand is that,what higher crime is
there than one invading a country and a people with impunity.
More
Social Networking by Echo
Dickers on: Neither Obama Why Modern Apostas y— How LCD Soundsyste m Is Natalie Portm an's Black Why Did CBS Go Public With Be thany McLean: Freddie
PD PD
!
W
W
O
O
Nor the Re publicans Have Like Paul Haggis' Split w ith Trying To Foil Ticke t Swan Perform ance Was New s of Lara Logan's and Fannie Are n't Going
N
N
y
y
bu
bu
Explaine d Why Cutting the Scientology—Is So Unus ual Scalpers Am azing, but It Wasn't Sexual Assault? Anyw here, No Matter What
to
to
Deficit Matters Acting Obam a Says
k
k
lic
lic
C
C
w
w
m
m
w w
w
w
o
o
.d o .c .d o .c
c u -tr a c k c u -tr a c k
site map | build your own Slate | the fray | about us | contact us | Slate on Facebook | search | ad choices
feedback | help | advertise | newsletters | mobile | make Slate your homepage
© Co pyright 2011 W ashing ton Po st.Newsweek Intera ctive C o. LLC

User Agreem ent a nd Privacy Po licy | All rights reserved

Taliban War Crimes - Human Rights Groups Finally Notice. - by Christopher Hitchens

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Taliban War Crimes - Human Rights Groups Finally Notice. - by Christopher Hitchens

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

F -X C h a n ge F -X C h a n ge

HOME / FIGHTING WORDS : A WARTIME LEXICON.

News Flash: The Taliban Violate

Even in a w eek that concentrated all eyes on the magnificent

International and local human rights groups w orking in R SS

Cantor: Spending debate could cut into

The story became more mind-boggling as it

5. Frank Gehry Is Back

Search for more Fighting Words articles

View our complete Fighting Words archive

MORE FROM SLATE MORE FROM THE WEB

FEATURED ADVERTISER LINKS

Login Login required, click here to begin

Share This Page

Follow Cancel Post

There could be a rule I suppose... "Every AI statement about misdirected airstrikes or

Social Networking by Echo

© Co pyright 2011 W ashing ton Po st.Newsweek Intera ctive C o. LLC

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen