Children’s Secret Toys: Afghanistan’s Beloved Country After the Taliban Deal
“No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.” – Shakespeare
At about the age of five, climbing “my tree” had been what I saw as my life-long challenge, each time hoping to reach the top. Stretching as far as I could reach for the branch that would pull me closer, but no not today.
Walking in my neighborhood, I came across the stumps of what were once beautiful fruit trees. Seeing its circles, I later learned these were its year rings. Saddened by what I thought was a short life I learned to value my beautiful fruit tree. Realizing that a tree’s life is not endless, I took a more heartened approach in pushing myself to reach the top.
Victory came! Reaching the top, my heart beating, I recall saying, today I reached the top at the age of six. Soon after, my parents decided to move. That’s when I learned that timing matters. As to the tree, I learned that life is short.
I was glad to climb it before it was cut down and became a stump. Learning the stump was overlooked and not disturbed, I found a perfect hiding place for my secret toys.
As a child I caught a glimpse of life’s uncertainties- brutality and mendacity of man. As an adult, I learned of governments and man and his “state of nature.” It is in my nature to intelligently deal with the instabilities of life. It is in my nature to bestow no mercy upon the beasts of past and present.
The old adage, “US does not negotiate with terrorists” is as old as the old men who proclaimed it. But, on beloved countries, will on Olympus’ Command ↓ Release the Kraken! Tyrant’s New Planned Targets
Rabbi Mark Golub, President of Jewish Broadcasting System (JBS) points out that “classical Arabic does not have the word compromise.” Prof. Mordechai Kedar explains that “Language reflects culture. Compromise is a modern word… Alah does not compromise, negotiate, he commands you.”
As we have seen, Taliban commanded the West to get out. In their haste, US left their toys and Afghanistan’s beloved country to the Taliban.
The West and the Middle East have long been known for cutting deals. Abraham Accords between Middle Eastern countries are no exception.
My Great Grandmother would tell me of the inspiring words of Prime Minister Golda Meir, a brilliant woman she said. But by her description, there were some things not even Meir would compromise or negotiate.
Sure, these are different times. Yes, but no matter how many decades or centuries pass, there are people and events one never forgets, right Israel.
Israel, did you overlook your neighbor to the Far East, Afghanistan? Terrorists you say? Oh tomatoe, tomato. If your biggest ally made a deal with them, why not you? Clearly, the Taliban does not miss opportunities.
US hunt for the man behind the 9/11 attacks began with Iraq’s leader. The taste for blood led them to the mastermind. US, you got your man years ago. Yes, but the fight was still in you, so you stayed the course in Afghanistan, awaiting a new fight, but none came. So now you seek it elsewhere.
Israel, you may relate. Allies’ fight with the German Führer ended almost a century ago. Still, you cannot seem to forget. And so you seek an adversary worthy of the last one.
British author Frederick Forsyth understands this incessant taste for blood. “In his African assignments for the BBC during the Biafran war, Mr. Forsyth came to know intimately mercenaries from many nations.” Forsyth’s books paint a vivid picture of the bestiality of war.
In his 1974 book, “The Dogs of War,” Forsyth warns:
“The World as we know it goes into a kind of mad dissolve, and beyond it we see a chillingly ordered antiworld of conspiracy, greed, and ferocity. From first inkling to final (and shockingly surprising) climax, there is hot havoc indeed when these dogs of war are let slip.”
As my mentors note, “Americans, where winning at any cost is pathologically more valued than good sense or concern for humanity.”
Listen, A Country is Crying
The story of “Cry, the Beloved Country” is not a story of a country in the Middle East, but of a remote agricultural village in South Africa. It is about family, community division, facing deep loss, looking to faith and their beloved land and country.
It seems every country has a story to tell of their beloved country. In the social unrest, if one truly listens, one can almost hear the land crying for the next generation:
“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”
Will the West again cry for its beloved country? If the objective of the West was to breed a new generation to despise and seek revenge, they’ve accomplished it. No, they do not to hate you for your freedom, but for taking theirs.
U.S. having presence around the world needs to be reminded that they need to “sleep in the same bed they made,” unstable and bloody.
History appears to run in circular motion like the rings of a tree. And like a tree, people in a community are subject to the elements. Man ultimately inherits, rightfully or not, the land and environment he creates or takes possession of, and the people he affects.
Afghanistan’s beautiful tree no longer gives fruit. It has been cut down to a stump. Yes, but it leaves the children a place to hide their secret toys.