Posted on 01/26/2007 5:57:36 AM PST by lunarbicep
A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff.
Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief.
Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.
After he was elected, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.
``It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people,'' Mohammadi told The Associated Press at the time. ``Even though I was governor, I had no power.''
International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues - and are considering rebuilding them.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I remember reading about that in the spring of 01 before 9-11 and thinking: those Taliban people are crazy...
Well, I guess it really isn't 'instant' - it did take a few years.
And I'm not sure if Buddha people do the 'karma' thing or not, now that I think of it.
Still, it's great news!
Boy, gonna be a long Friday now that I morphed into this guy....
Don't messwith the Buddha...he'll get you.
With a name like that, I'll bet he's swarthy.
Good news!
Good, that was a despicable act.
Buddha 1, Mohammad 0
Don't pull on supermans cape , don't spit in the wind....don't blow the bhuddah off the wall or it will be your end...lol
Buddha sends his love. President Bush sends his greetings.
Mark and Danny in the Greek Hotel
Bold as badgers on a one-take Mission
Got their equipment from a dwarf outside
On the trail of any suspect wisdom
Pond-Life beneath a Southern sky
(They make their move then they head off to the border)
They don't care as long as you can pay -
Whatever - whatever they say
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot - to blow him away...
Now's the time to have some big ideas
Now's the time to make some firm decisions
We saw the Buddha in a bar down south
Talking politics and nuclear fission
We see him and he's all washed up -
Moving on into the body of a beetle
Getting ready for a long long crawl
He ain't nothing - he ain't nothing at all...
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot - to blow him away...
Death and Money make their point once more
In the shape of Philosophical assassins
Mark and Danny take the bus uptown
Deadly angels for reality and passion
Have the courage of the here and now
Don't take nothing from these ½-baked buddhas
When you think you got it paid in full
You got nothing - you got nothing at all...
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
We know his name and he mustn't get away
We're on the road and we're gunning for the Buddha
It would take one shot...
...
I'm tempted to believe Mohammadi. The Afghans had been living with the statues for centuries; the impetus to destroy them probably came from Kandahar. Mullah Omar and his foreign friends were crazy people, even by Southwest Asian standards. If Prince Turki and his alim couldn't convince Omar to leave the statues alone, no Afghan official could, either.
Even the name for the Hindu Kush mountains means "Hindu Slayers."
They do.
Bush? The article doesn't say Bush killed him. Gunning down elected legislators in democratizing countries doesn't seem like his style.
That is a good song and a good band. Whatever happened to them?
I didn't say Bush killed him either. I only said he sent his greetings.
I'm not really feeling the joy. According to the guy himself, he was just a paper pusher who had few options under the ruling Taliban --- a group he publicly stated were crazy. Since then, he got involved in the nascent democracy we're trying to create in Afghanistan and was lawfully elected to office.
Now he's a victim of political violence.
Just how is terrorists gunning down officials in the democratically-elected Afghan government a good thing? I was kind of hoping Afghanistan wouldn't go down Iraq's path.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.