Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Salaam Alaikum. Wa Alaikum Salaam.

I thought I'd just let the people speak for themselves this time.













posted by Terry Glavin at 5:17 PM

9 Comments:

Blogger cyirush said...

Dear Terry,

Enjoying the posts and the pics.

I linked to you at the Shotgun:
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2008/11/memo-to-jack-la.html

What's your take on the security situation. All I hear in the western press is bad news.

Craig

5:40 PM  
Blogger Terry Glavin said...

Thanks Craig.

I'll have a piece in the National Post and the Vancouver Sun, both this week I expect.

As for the security situation, I think the "as dangerous as Baghdad at its worst" assessment is outrageously overblown.

Be sensible, don't keep routines, don't make ransom bait of yourself, and the Afghans will take care of the rest. Despite its savage poverty, Kabul is as warm and welcoming and hospitable a city as I've ever been in.

A beautiful country altogether, and a great people. Definitely worth fighting for.

5:49 PM  
Blogger Mark, Ottawa said...

Terry: Same feeling I had just over 30 years ago. Yet our media insist/persist on being "even-handed":

'A girl was blinded Wednesday morning when six teenagers were doused with acid on their way to school.

In hospital, the girl shook with pain when medicine was dripped into her eyes in a vain attempt to save her sight.

The Taliban have denied involvement in the 8 a.m. attack, but claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bombing here later that killed six people.

Two men on motorcycles targeted the girls as they walked to school on the western outskirts of the city, said one of the victims, Bibi Atifa, 16.

"They stopped their motorbikes and took some kind of acid from their pockets," said Bibi, a Grade 8 student. "They sprayed it in our faces."

Eighteen-year-old Shamia was blinded by the acid, which the girls first thought was water until their eyes began to hurt...

Ahmadi said the Taliban did carry out the suicide bombing in the city at 12:40 p.m. that killed six, including a woman, a child and two intelligence agents.

"It's just overwhelming," said Canadian Lt.-Col. Bruno Plourde of the Black Watch Canadian Highland Regiment of Montreal, after surveying the damage. "As a soldier, I can understand soldier-versus-soldier. But using civilians, it just doesn't add up. It just baffles me that people can't put their mind and intelligence to better use than that."

The massive blast, from a truck that sped down a street then stopped in an intersection between the Kandahar provincial council building and the Kandahar department of commerce office, left a crater three metres deep in the roadway, destroyed five houses, and caused heavy damage to the government buildings.

"The aim was provincial council and the [nearby] national security office," the Taliban's Ahmadi said, naming the bomber as Mullah Noor Muhammad.

More than 40 others were wounded by the blast, the force of which destroyed cars along the street for a distance of 70 metres.'

Hurl. Woodstein actually have much to answer for in terms of their influence. Along with, sadly, David Halberstam and, not so sadly, Edward Greenspon.

Mark
Ottawa

6:38 PM  
Blogger kellie said...

Terry, your pictures of these people smiling seem more powerful to me than any number of photos of suffering and devastation.

7:22 PM  
Blogger SP said...

I heard the "Acid attack" story Mark refers to on the radio yesterday to which the girls in school picture is a welcome antidote. Seems to me that that alone is worth fighting for.

2:31 AM  
Blogger Fabián said...

Nice pictures, Terry.

5:46 AM  
Blogger Peter said...

not sure what you are saying about security.arent these countinued barbaric attacks central to reason for staying .dont see value in minimizing the safety issue.. the afghans are great people..

6:03 AM  
Blogger Terry Glavin said...

Peter: See my essay in the National Post (most recent post, this page).

9:29 AM  
Blogger Graeme said...

This is a brilliant post, Terry.

10:20 AM  

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