Word: talibanizing
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...name Taliban means "seekers of knowledge." Since they seized control of most of Afghanistan in 1996, the clique of fundamentalist zealots who go by that name have eliminated virtually all human rights within their reach. Their proscriptions run from the hideous to the farcically pious--though farce itself, in today's Afghanistan, can and does kill. At one extreme, most girls are denied any education: Afghanistan is the most misogynistic country in the world. At another, a man who trims his beard commits a jailable crime...
Civil war, drought, famine, invasion and tyranny have been tramping back and forth across the weary soil of this miserable nation for so long that the prospects of its recovery, even if the Taliban were to vanish tomorrow, are distant at best. And now the Taliban have outraged world opinion with yet another bizarre and fanatic provocation. The leading Taliban mullah, Mohammed Omar, declared that since the Koran forbade the worship of idols, all idols in the country (meaning, for the most part, Buddhist sculpture made before the arrival of the Muslims in the 8th century) were to be destroyed...
...United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced that it would continue efforts to salvage other Afghan relics targeted for destruction, while museums offered the Taliban funds to transport the remaining objects of historical interest out of the country. But this policy demonstrates the absurd double standard of allocating resources to save art instead of lives. Our willingness to overlook the Taliban's illegitimate control of the statues in the first place is a glaring demonstration of our misplaced priorities in that we would negotiate for art but not for the betterment of living conditions...
...case, UNESCO policy is misconceived, because it is predicated on the assumption that the Taliban legitimately controls the statues. We would not be willing to bargain with terrorists for the release of a person; it is inconceivable that we would be willing to make a deal over a carved piece of stone, however rich in historical significance. In both cases, the aggressor possesses power because they have control over what is not theirs...
...inappropriate to bargain with the Taliban over the statues, then what may we do? Any physical retaliation would be a disproportionate response--although the statues are precious, they certainly do not warrant the loss of human life. Instead, we should redirect our energies toward helping those people who already bear the burden of living under an oppressive regime. The senseless barbarisms that the Taliban may perpetrate should not distract from our obligation to render humanitarian assistance to the people who live under...