Afghanistan

The big news this week seems to be Afghanistan.  I have no desire to give opinions on policy.  It is the people I feel for.  It seems a wolf is in the guise of a shepherd.  No wonder there is such a scramble.  The people know.  It is hard to believe this leopard will change it’s spots.
No one seems surprised the Taliban has taken back control.  The surprise seems to be how quick it was.  The Taliban see the country as theirs and do not think in short term cycles but long term.  Any foreign power that enters needs to be willing to stay there forever.  There are militant locals always waiting in the wings.
I have always been big on what is produced indicating the way something is or a people are.  To me, the fact that China has already embraced the Taliban leadership and Russia is likely to, says more about them than the Taliban.
I do not think Afghanistan is a failed state.  I think Lebanon is.  I do not know much about Haiti but it seems very close.  What is happening in Lebanon reminds me of what Henry Spaak the secretary general of the United Nations in the late 1950’s said.  ““What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the alliances of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”
The trouble there seems to be allegiances.  It was once known as “the Paris of the East.”  It was a beautiful country, yet hopes are continually dashed.  It is so divided that when one rises, they are cut down and a void is created.  The opposite of control is chaos, and that nation is in chaos.  The people that suffer while groups fight for control.
Leadership in Afghanistan is not the problem.  It is there.  It is the type of leadership that is the problem.  They rule the people by fear.  They have the power to do it.  Sort of reminds me of other states.  North Korea has made it an art.  I saw footage of the people weeping at the death of the previous leader.  It was not construed.  They were genuine because they had been brain washed and did not know there was an alternative out there.
It seems to be a case of believe as I do or end of story for you and your loved ones.  No debate is countenanced.  It is my way or the highway.
The west prides itself on being different.  Yet such thinking seems to be creeping in.  So much these days seems to be you can say what you like as long as it is the accepted line.  Trouble is it sort of reminds me of when I am fishing.  The prawn I use looks juicy but inside is a hook.
I do not like what I see.  Thankfully though this is not the end of the story.  It does have a good ending.