Taliban execute boy, 7, as spy

I'm so glad there are no political discussions on this board.

In before the lock ...

 

But they're Muslims!

 

This wasn't started as a political thread, it wasn't meant to be a political thread, and there's no reason it has to be a political thread.

Oh, and btw, Moddy has specifically asked people not to make snotty "in before the lock" comments. They add nothing and only serve to antagonize.

 

Sorry, didn't see it. I'll make sure to refrain from now on.

 

I didn't get the impression from some of the replies that everyone agrees with us.

There was universal condemnation, global condemnation when the Taliban blew up the Buddha statues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan

As horrible as that was, they were statues.

This was a 7-year old boy -- convicted as a spy! If this story is to be believed, it wasn't the act of one lone madman, it was a group decision to execute a prepubescent boy.

I'm sorry, but I think that needs to be highlighted. Maybe it needs to be verified, but this story should be on the front page of the New York Times, the lead story on ABC's World News Tonight and featured on 60 Minutes if true.

 

I can only assume/hope this thread is the product of politically charged posters hanging on to their rivalries.

Mostly because, if that's not the reason, I fear what it would say about anyone who would make a point to post in a thread like this about a story like this and essentially tell the original poster to get over it.

 

Honestly, it's kind of a dog bites man story. The Taliban have done lots and lots and lots of terrible things. As sad as it is, it's not shocking when they go and do another in a long line of terrible things. Horrifically sad and inexcusable, yes, but not shocking.

Because of that, I don't get necessarily why it would be a front-page story even if verified. We already know these guys are insane extremists who use religion as a front for ethnic cleansing and a search for power (much like the conflict in, say, Bosnia where the Serbs [Orthodox Christians] massacred Bosniaks [Muslims] or whatever).

Take like... the Mexican drug cartels. These guys are organized groups that have done things like raided birthday parties and tried to kill everyone there because they believed (without proof) someone there had a tie to a rival gang. http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_14308360

When groups like the cartels or the Taliban stoop to those lows, it just... doesn't surprise me anymore. Honestly, I suspect both groups have done a lot more of these things and we just don't know about it yet. We might never find out how ruthless and bloodthirsty they have been.

 

Guess what? The Taliban did stuff like this -- or at least very similar -- for YEARS before 9/11, and we -- the Western world -- did exactly fuck-all about it. Maybe it wasn't a public hanging, but there were plenty of women and children who got, say, shot in raids of their houses or beaten on the streets for perceived violations of made-up religious laws.

Meanwhile, kids get raped every day in the Congo or worked to death in sweatshops in China, and we do exactly fuck-all for them as well. And a little closer to home, there are plenty of people in America who have no problem making nasty comments about children of illegal immigrants -- send them all back, they don't deserve citizenship, why should I pay their medical bills, etc.

There are plenty of opportunities right on all of our doorsteps to make the world a better place for kids -- if not this specific, particular kid who can help make a point -- and we don't do it. (Nor, for that matter, does the originator of this thread seem to have any actual ideas for what we should do in this particular case. More bombs? More troops? Because, you know, that won't result in more children dying.)

So to portray ourselves as some kind of moral world superpower is pretty damn disingenuous, to say the very least.