A comment that got me thinking about the reality of a situation rather than the perceived reality imposed upon us by mainstream media was this one. It was a fair comment. I completely understand why it was made. I’ve personally believed that Taliban were intolerant for a very long time. But there’s more to this than meets the eye. Let me explain. And welcome to another of my takes on China. But really, this is not my take on China. It’s might take on Afghanistan and really a take on media and how it informs us, or perhaps I should say how it misinforms us and it creates perceptions that are not real.
First of all, who tells us that Taliban are intolerant? It’s all US backed, supported, funded. It comes from think tanks. It comes from academics. It comes from media. And it definitely comes from politicians. And all of them seem to be outside of Afghanistan. And all of them seem to have the same opinion, that the Taliban are some kind of evil, unwanted group that need to be replaced. But this is based on their own culture.
Now, I’ve never been to Afghanistan, so I’m not gonna offer an opinion on them. But I do want to give some food for thought. The Taliban were in charge of Afghanistan after the Russian public government was removed and before the US public government was installed. Now, apparently the Taliban needed to be removed because they were evil and the local people didn’t want them.
But let’s consider for a moment where the Taliban came from. They came from local people. Every member of the Taliban government is in Afghan. Then let’s consider where they were for over 20 years while the US government tried to annihilate them. They were living among the local people. So I have to ask myself if enough local people supported them, shouted them, and then after 20 years of US occupation, it took them just a few days to retake almost the entire country. What kind of support must they have had from the communities where they were living? The US and allies flooded the region with troops, intelligence gathering apparatus. They paid money to informants. And despite all of this, they were never able to overcome, let alone subjugate the Taliban. Honestly, if the Taliban were that widely despised by the Afghan population, why didn’t the Afghan population inform on them, expose them and help the US remove them?
And if we can answer that question, we might just for a moment start to think there’s more to this story than we’re being told. So I understand when people say the Taliban are intolerant or that Chinese Muslims are more tolerant than Muslims in Afghanistan. But I’m highly dubious about how bad the Taliban actually are. Now, I know there will be some people watching this and asking how a white Christian can condone the behavior or actions of a secular Muslim government that wasn’t elected but came to power through force. And I get that. But if a government comes to power through force and that force has the support of the overall majority of the population, then surely there’s something to be said for that, too. If we haven’t been to Afghanistan, we shouldn’t be judging it based on the information we’re seeing in media, almost 100% of which is written by others who haven’t been to Afghanistan. Those who have been there with western media anyway, were there under the Protection of a military force that was designated to destroying them as an enemy of the USA. Now, what kind of unbiased media are we going to see from them? Think about that. So here’s the most important question to ask ourselves. When did anybody ask a citizen of Afghanistan who still lives there what they want? I don’t remember seeing a single news report that covered that point knowing no one is asking or if they are, they’re certainly not reporting it.
Now. Exactly the same happens in Xinjiang. Here in China, media goes there and reports. They can’t see any problems, but they still think, they have this feeling there might be problems, there might be some oppression. Just the other day, I caught the Australian ABC in a very big lie, a long report about how Xinjiang Uyghur language is being eroded with the comment that it was difficult to assess due to or due to lack of access. And yet, just seven months ago, at the invitation of the Chinese government, the ABC was actually in Xinjiang reporting from there. They sent the Washington bureau chief, not an Australian reporter. So if Australia’s most trusted news source is going to lie to us so blatantly as well, what else are they not telling us?
Because I know for a fact that some Afghan female students are studying in China and I wonder how that aligns with the narrative that girls aren’t allowed to go to school under the Taliban. Here’s a link to Maria from Afghanistan, a medical student studying in Hebei. Here’s another link to a Chinese information service explaining how thousands of students, many of them girls, are being helped to learn enough Mandarin to study in China. How does that tie in with this western narrative, girls can’t be educated in Afghanistan?
Now, we have to remember that almost everything we ever read about the adversaries of the USA is wrong. The Taliban might be as bad as they say, but I suspect they’re not any group of people that completely eradicates the opium industry, which is confirmed in another link, and then places thousands of addicts created by that industry into rehabilitation. Can’t be all that bad. After all, it took Chairman Mao three years to eradicate an industry and rehabilitate every opium addict in China between 1949,1952.
And that’s exactly what the Taliban did just a couple of years ago. They were widely criticized by the US for doing it because it would harm their own economy. You really can’t make this stuff up. So for me, unless I can go to Afghanistan and see for myself, I’ll continue to keep an open mind on the Taliban and whether they’re good or bad. And when I hear Afghans in Afghanistan complaining, then I’ll speak. Up until then, I support what Afghanistan is now doing because eradicating an illicit drug industry that was started by the British, perpetuated by the Americans and ended by the Taliban makes the Taliban look like the good guys to me. And thanks once again for watching my take on not quite China, but a little China link in there. I’ll see you all next time. Bye for now.