It has been widely reported, most recently by Al-Jazeera, that the Obama administration and the British government have been contemplating paying off “moderate” elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan – to the tune of perhaps one billion dollars – as a means of pacifying resistance in that troubled nation. That proudly defiant American slogan, “millions for defense, but not one penny for tribute,” which traces its roots to the eighteenth century, would fall to the wayside if this attempt at appeasement turns into public policy.
The idea that “moderate” Islamic terrorists exist and that their loyalties can be bought are central concepts to the philosophical construct that Obama has brings to the war on terror. The President naively believes that the majority of Muslim terrorists are misunderstood, disenfranchised freedom fighters who want nothing more than to take control of their lives and prosper. A billion dollars or so will go a long way, in Obama’s view, toward helping them organize their communities in a peaceful, loving way.
The reality behind the fanatic, ultra-fundamentalist mindset that guides the Taliban has been revealed time and time again. This disturbing BBC interview of a thirteen year old Pakistani girl named Meena is another reminder of the true nature of the Taliban, and the way that fundamentalist Muslims treat women in general.
At one point, Meena described how her family turned her nine-year-old sister Nahida into a suicide bomber:
“They attached a bomb to my sister Nahida. They tied rectangular pieces to both her arms, and a black strip was wrapped around both her legs. Then they connected the whole thing. She told my brother the bomb was heavy and she could not walk. He said she would be comfortable once she was sitting down in the car. They gave her medicine. But she was crying very loud for my mother. She kept going to her and hugging her. When my sister looked down at the bomb, she shivered. Then my brother and my father started beating my mother, and they were shouting: ‘Why you are distracting the girl from her mission?’ I heard my sister saying: ‘Where is Meena? I want to see her.’ But I didn’t have the strength. My heart couldn’t take it.
My mother fainted when they put her in the car. My brother said my sister’s attack was in Afghanistan.
I always think about my sister. She was healthy and a very nice girl. She was younger than me, but she was wiser. My mother used to tell me that I was an idiot, but she was very wise.”
No doubt that someone, probably claiming to be an American who has lived in the Arab world for at least a decade, will deny that this sort of thing could ever happen. We see that all of the time, at Front Page and other sites that dare to point out the horrors that accompany strict adherence to Islamic teachings.
These sorts of denials should come as no surprise. The Quran expressly allows Muslims to lie to non-Muslims whenever they can advance the teachings of the prophet Muhammad through the use of such deceptions. Muslim apologists can lie through their teeth about this sort of evil, but there are far too many examples of it for people who cherish liberty to ignore.
Which brings us back to the Taliban. You can’t pay someone off to abandon an ideology this evil and deluded. Does anyone believe that we can purchase the loyalties of people who think that they are fulfilling the “will of God” by strapping high-explosives to a nine-year-old girl, drugging her and sending her on a mission to blow herself up? Why on earth would anyone want to? The west is at war with an ideology, not impoverished, deluded freedom fighters who would abandon their evil ideas if only they could afford a big screen TV.
From painful experience, we know what happens when you try to appease evil fanatics. The fanatics make promises that they don’t intend to keep, wait a while, and then go back to work on their agenda. Dropping a billion dollars on the “moderate Taliban” in Afghanistan would amount to nothing more than providing terrorists with a grant that will cheerfully put to the worst use possible.
Ideas like this are an insult to our men and women in uniform on the front lines in Afghanistan and will ultimately place them in greater danger. Worse, trying to pay off terrorists makes it more likely, not less, that more fanatic Muslim fathers are going to be able to get their hands on enough C-4 to turn nine year old girls into bombs.
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