What Did They Fight For?
Our ruling class is as hostile to the American way of life as it is to Afghanistan.
By Pedro Gonzalez
September 11, 2021
It is all but forgotten now that the Taliban publicly condemned the September 11 terrorist attacks. And just as the United States flicked on the war machine to invade Afghanistan, they offered up Osama bin Laden in exchange for evidence of his guilt. According to Pashtunwali, which provides the traditional Pashtun laws of hospitality, the Afghans were compelled to protect him.
Americans are more familiar with this culture than they might realize. The same custom of hospitality that shielded bin Laden was what tribesmen invoked to protect Marcus Luttrell after militants wiped out his SEAL team in the Kunar Province. As the lone survivor of Operation Red Wings in 2005, Afghan villagers refused to surrender Luttrell, a stranger, to enemy fighters despite death threats. They would rather die before that dishonor. “Life among the Pashtuns is demanding—it depends on the respect of your peers, relatives, and allies,” the former SEAL wrote in his memoir. “Only the tribe’s principles of honor stand in the way of anarchy.”
Now, in the strange course of history, Middle Americans are standing in the shoes that those Afghans were then, confronting a totalizing regime intent on remaking all in its image. The security state that exploded during the War on Terror has turned fully on domestic political dissidents. Capitol Police are fanning out across the country, deploying domestically the same surveillance technology first used by troops to monitor insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s secretary of education, has likened those who choose not to wear masks or take the COVID-19 vaccine to suicide bombers. Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt and political analyst Matthew Dowd, two Bushies, agree: the January 6 Capitol riot was worse than 9/11.
How did we get here?
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https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/11/what-did-they-fight-for/
