What's at Stake in Aghanistan

It is to the everlasting shame of the American Left that they can become incensed enough about domestic violence against women here in the West to artificially inflate the reality of it, yet remain silent about the rampant and systemic abuse (including FGM), mistreatment, rape, flogging, and second-class citizenship (at best!) of their sisters in the Islamic world. I'd like to think that it's their multi-culti "different strokes for different folks" worldview which blinds them to their plight rather than racism against brown women, yet the silence of the Gloria Steinems and Maureen Dowds of the world is pretty deafening (to say nothing of their European cousins, who ran Ayaan Hirsi Ali out of Holland even though she was a Dutch MP at the time).

So I was greatly cheered by Time magazine's upcoming, August 9, 2010 cover. The woman in the picture is named Aisha (the same as Mohammed's 9-year-old "wife"), and she was sentenced by the Taliban to have her nose and ears cut off for the "crime" of fleeing her in-laws' abuse. As the photo makes clear, this is what is at stake in Afghanistan-the return of people who think that this photo represents divine justice. So credit where it's due: Kudos to Time for running a worthy story about what we're really trying to accomplish in The Long War.

Here's Jim Geraghty, from his excellent Morning Jolt, who expresses my thoughts on the matter pretty succinctly:

I see that image and think, "Tell me we've killed a lot of these guys. Tell me we're going to kill a lot of Taliban today, and a lot of Taliban tomorrow, and a lot more before we leave, even if we don't leave this country in the state we originally desired." I realize that the problem in Afghanistan is not a lack of firepower or enemy casualties and that the difficulties there are complicated by a mess of local corruption, shifting tribal alliances, consistent suspicions of Pakistani assistance, and some of the toughest terrain on this earth. But clearly the foundation for a better tomorrow for all of our children is built upon a high stack of Taliban corpses. I don't know if God will look into the eyes of a man who disfigures a woman like that and forgive him; I just know that we ought to help arrange that meeting as quickly as possible.