Remember Afghanistan? The other, other war zone? Well, it's
growing worse:
Afghanistan is witnessing its deadliest spate of violence since the U.S.-led invasion. More than 800 people, mainly Afghans, have been killed since May, according to an Associated Press tally of coalition and Afghan figures.
But it's not simply the violence in Afghanistan that's noteworthy. The political effect of the re-emergence of the Taliban is equally dismaying.
More in extended.
The Independent reports in today's edition,
"Fury as Karzai plans return of Taliban's religious police":
The Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.
The proposal, which came from the country's Ulema council of clerics, has been passed by the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai and will now go before the Afghan parliament.
Why would such a notorious department (previously known for beatings, kidnappings, public amputations, brutal public executions, etc.) even be considered to be re-launched? Mainly in order to give the Afghanistan government a less western appearance. An appearance which plays into the hands of the Taliban. But, one wonders, how far does the Afghanistan government go in order to negate the rise of the Taliban and their opposition?
It's said that the department (if approved by the Afghan parliament) won't have the policing powers which functioned under the Taliban's rule, operating mainly in an informative and normative sense. Less certain is the Department's future ramifications upon the nation's legal system, however.
Whatever the program's dimensions, rest assured that the Taliban will not accept it as pure enough or going far enough. In that respect, this is a proposition which is doomed to be met with moral condemnation and anger by the Taliban. But, at the same time, this proposed move is a sign of the Taliban's current ability to influence the actions of the Afghan government in order to legitimize itself.
Just last month, President Karzai advised the West of "the need...to reassess the manner in which this war against terror is conducted". But, that's easier said than done when your nation is considered the other, other war zone.