Like anyone with any kind of beating heart, the Hanoi-ization of Kabul in Afghanistan has been devastating, as we watch desperate people climbing on top of
a plane - as if it was a giant overcrowded bus - and then falling to their deaths after takeoff. There are thousands of women and thinking people trying desperately to get to Pakistan or any other place that will allow them to be themselves - and live. For now, the Taliban is holding back for the most part and not interfering with the exodus. Perhaps they're trying to show the world they're not as bad as people say. Color me unconvinced.
The question on everyone's lips seems to be: who is to blame for this?
Not that finding blame will help anything... we've certainly not learned the lessons of the past (Viet Nam), but Afghanistan has always been a forbidding country, populated with hardy men of the land who have little to lose, and aren't afraid to fight to the death. In that regard, underestimating them (the religious extremists) seems to be a common thread over the last 40 years.
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