A few observations about the resistance fighters' motives - Think of Pat Tillman.

[ConsAreLiars]

(Mike Malloy read this on his program tonight, so I thought a few here might want to read it. It mostly repeats some of what is already in my journal.)

Look at Pat Tillman if you want to understand the ideals and motives of the resistance fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pat Tillman was proud of and loyal to his tribe/nation, and when he saw the unjust murder of thousands he, like many others, felt obligated to contribute in whatever way possible to bring the criminals to account. So he gave up his personal goals and career track to sign up with an organization that proclaimed its intent to do just that. He was a hero.

So he joined up, and then was ordered into fighting a war against the Afghan people with a goal of setting up a puppet regime and establishing a strategic military base to challenge Russia and China and control an oil route. But no Afghans were among those who had committed that crime he sought to avenge. It turns out those who gave the orders had other objectives than those he had expected.

Every Afghan killed unjustly by the US forces - and every killing there is unjust - motivates another Afghan or several more who have the same sense of honor, pride and decency as Pat Tillman to join in the resistance.

And others with similar motives were ordered to commit mass murder against the people of Iraq. Again, no Iraqis were involved in that crime. And every one murdered by US forces there likely experiences the same sense of moral outrage that motivated Pat Tillman. And many, and with every additional murder, many more, experience the same sort of brutal, vicious brutality that led Pat Tillman to risk his life to seek vengeance or justice. And they, too, sign up with whatever organization promises to fight back.


In Peshawar, Pakistan in 1970 I was able to to talk at length with an Afghan youth who was returning from an education in England (long story) and helped me get some sense of what ethics, justice, morality meant to people who were raised in that extraordinarily harsh environment. His family had been murdered by bandits and a British diplomat had taken him into their family. Having reached adulthood, he was returning to his the land of his birth and his people. We talked for an afternoon, and a lot of discussion involved him patiently explaining that it was just a matter of fact that he would seek out and kill those who had killed his family.

Not some movie vendetta or bloody rampage. He would seek work and all that, but every day he would be alert for and seek any information that would help him find the killers. Not out of anger or for vengeance, but simply because he would not be able to regard himself as even human if he were to abandon that obligation.

The short version is that for family, village, tribe, and ethnic group, in that order, the rule of "an eye for an eye" is absolute. Not vengeance or even honor. Just the difference between being human and being less than swine.

The lesson -- brute force power, as the US invaders have attempted, earns neither respect nor submission.

If you want to understand why they fight back, think simply of Pat Tillman and his response to the murders done in our country, and think of my Afghan friend.

(edit typo)

[ConsAreLiars]

1. kick for a few more readers (nt)

[Uzybone]

2. I don't think anyone is confused as to why people fight invaders

we would do the same.