The spirit of Kabul
By Charles A. Morse
web
posted November 19, 2001
Six years of social engineering evaporated with the morning dew as the sunshine of freedom, the natural state of man, dawned on Kabul. Like rabbits, the Taliban hopped to the nearest briar patch. The scene was joyous as radios were turned up, chadors, which gave women the appearance of walking telephone booths, were tossed aside, and men lined city blocks waiting for a shave. After six years of societal transformation at gunpoint, men women and children were dancing in the streets. May the liberating spirit of Kabul reverberate in other capitals of the world where people continue to live in fear.
 Afghan people crowd Kabul, Afghanistan's city market on November 17, four days after the northern alliance forces took control of the capital following the withdrawal of the Taliban rulers to the south of the country |
Kabul was reminiscent of Berlin, 1989, when piece-by-piece; the wall standing between freedom and Communism was torn apart as the left-wing East Germans, with their military-backed "progressive" society, suddenly vanished into the woodwork. Left-wing European Communist regimes subsequently fell like dominoes, which quickly reached the seemingly impenetrable gates of Moscow itself. The mighty Moscow regime, representing the very essence of leftist aspirations with their dreams of molding the new man and the new society, folded under decades of economic putrification and moral decay.
May the spirit of Kabul reach other capitals as well. Social engineers similar to the Taliban, for example, control Teheran where citizens live in a virtual state of house arrest. The Baghdad despots are known to spray unruly citizens with mustard gas. Damascus has mass murdered entire cities that dare stand in opposition as they did in Hama. Most regimes in the Islamic world are tyrannies where public revenues are earmarked either for the luxurious lifestyles of the ruling clique or the development of military might to conduct Jihad against the non-Muslim world. Perhaps Islamic peoples will sniff the intoxicating aroma of freedom emanating out of Kabul today.
Maybe Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus, and Gaza will be next. Palestinian Arabs need look no further than nearby Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa to view magnificent examples of freedom. Perhaps the Palestinian Arab people will rout out the terrorists who seek to kill Jews and the corrupt totalitarian Arafat government of Jihad and embrace a realistic autonomy under the auspices of Israel. Because of their proximity to Israel, the Palestinian Arabs have always had a better opportunity than other Muslim populations to enjoy the fruits of the free market and individual rights. Perhaps the spirit of Kabul will wake them up from the nightmare they are presently slumbering under.
Sub-Saharan African nations continue to strain under decades of Marxist rule. These oppressive regimes have thwarted any attempt toward the development of private property, a middle class, private industry, and limited government. Like their Islamic counterparts, African governments continue the propaganda that abject misery and poverty are not the fault of the Marxist dictators themselves but of the Great Satan America. Perhaps the African people will also be engulfed by the spirit of Kabul and realize that they too are capable of freedom and self rule.
Havana may be rocked by the freedom emanating from Kabul but this is doubtful. Of course, while Castro prides himself on the literacy in his country, and other mantras constantly intoned by his American amen corner such as Cuba's wonderful health care, it is not likely that the benighted slave island where the noble leader decides what is read will be free anytime soon. Havana, and other left-wing capitals such as Pyongyang, Beijing, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh, will most likely remain well beyond the reach of the corrupting scent of Kabul today. We can only pray that the hateful yoke of leftist oppression will ease and freedom will be grasped some fine day.
Washington D.C. had better take heed of the spirit of Kabul. Americans
need to be aware of the dangers posed by our own homegrown change-agents
who have politicized our public education, promoted class and race conflict,
and sought to tax and regulate our capital and creativity. Our Congress
just passed an anti-terrorism act that compromises several articles of
our bill of rights. Environmentalists seek to nationalize our property
and interest groups seek to deprive us of our rights to keep and bear
arms. American freedoms are under siege today by those who embody much
of the same outlook as those who dominated Kabul before the freedom. They
need to know that we are watching and that their artificial impositions
on our freedom also may evaporate overnight if they go too far. 
Chuck Morse is the author of the recently released Why I'm a Right-Wing Extremist which is available at http://www.1stbooks.com/bookview/7510.
 Printer friendly version |
|