Posted on 11/21/2009 3:12:08 PM PST by neverdem
The lodge where I stay in Kabul was badly damaged on Oct. 8 when a suicide car bomb exploded 80 meters down the road near the Indian Embassy. Seventeen Afghans working in photocopy shops near the embassy were killed and another 60 wounded. The Indian diplomats were unharmed.
No apologies were offered by the perpetrators for the killings.
Nobody was hurt at my lodge, but 75 windows were blown out. The next day I was talking with the owner, who, for the third time in three years, had to fork out $3,000 to fix his windows. I asked him what would happen if NATO pulls out of Afghanistan? He replied without hesitation, looking me straight in the eyes and obviously referring to the Taliban and their allies: “They will kill us all.”
His comment struck a still-raw nerve. Thirty-five years ago, in November, 1974, I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As a young backpacker I was foolhardy enough to spend six weeks poking around a country at war. At the time, the U.S. Congress was debating whether to cut off aid to the beleaguered and corrupt Lon Nol government. After more than four years of civil war and the disaster in Vietnam, Congress and the American people were fed up with everything to do with both countries.
In Siem Reap I met a Cambodian man who spoke English. He graciously offered to show me around the few parts of the town still under government control. The Khmer Rouge controlled the Angkor temples and the surrounding countryside. There were intense firefights at night.
At one point my host turned to me and said: “I hope America doesn’t abandon us. If they do, the Communists will kill us all.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I'll bet very few expected to find this in the NY Times.
Guess Mr. Hayes just got a cold, hard look at reality and probably pooped his pants. Mr. Hayes....welcome to the REAL world. These people don’t ‘play’....and they don’t want ‘love’. Dumbasses.
God help them. We are going to abandon them. Damnit, we will do it. I can see it already. Ann Coulter was right when she said liberals should never be allowed near the Oval Office, especially when we are at war.
BUMP
“No apologies were offered by the perpetrators for the killings.”
Wow! No porogy???
Liberalism is a form of arrested development.
To their credit, the New York Times has published a number of “dissenting” viewpoints, in contrast to their editorial page, notably the reports by John F. Burns from Afghanistan and Iraq over the years.
The ones who will really kill us are busy debating health-care/insurance legislation.
The writer of this piecein ths Times is aanother educated idiot. The citizens of Afghanistan are Afghanis. An afghan is a type of cover or blanket.
No apologies were offered by the perpetrators for the killings.
The first thing I thought when I read this was, "well, lets kill them first". The problem, I guess, is who is causing this crap.
Are they known to these people?
Screw the New York Times. They are the ones who have done their best to undermine the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They even paid off Taliban kidnappers for other “journalists” they’ve put over there.
Screw them all to heck. Commie libs.
Agree and you have to wonder if this is a propaganda piece to win support because the anti-war left is howling.
If you’re a Christian,...if you’re a Jew, Muslims want you dead! Get the message???
"At one point my host turned to me and said: “I hope America doesn’t abandon us. If they do, the Communists will kill us all.”"
This is not really a terror attack. I think we should meet with the photocopy people who survived and ask them what they have done to stir up people against them.
1raider1: not so. Currently US military and policy convention is to use “Afghan” as the person and the adjective, and “Afghani” only for the currency.
In Dari “Afghan” is the noun and “Afghani” is the adjective, but in current American usage “Afghan” is used. I can’t think of any good reason to call the person an “Afghani”, unless by some weird conflation with “Israel —> Israeli.”
Regarding Afghan VS Afghani -——English majors who can’t handle the stress of Joyce Carol Oates switch into Communications/Journalism...and become reporters.
Don’t expect much from them... this faux pas is the least of the problem compared to the vast vacuum of knowledge most possess.
The citizens of Pakistan are called Pakis.
“I’ll bet very few expected to find this in the NY Times.”
Yes. I had to follow the link to make sure it wasn’t a hoax. Amazing. Truthful. Not so leftist. May they want to get some subscribers and advertising back.
NAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
It’s not a weird conflation. What little I learned of Arabic while in Iraq made me believe that the “e” sound is added to the end of words to denote belonging. For instance someone from Iraq is “Iraqi”, someone from Iran is “Irani” (NOT Iranian, as Americans typically say), and the Iraqis even called us “Ameriki” instead of American. Although, in this situation, I guess you would say “Afghanistani” (even though they don’t really speak Arabic in Afghanistan).
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