Taliban rule out of control

Are there any moral absolutes? Are some things always right and others always wrong? Or can we not pass judgment on other cultures that look at things differently?

Take, for example, the Taliban of Afghanistan. Last week, it set out on a campaign to demolish every religious icon in Afghanistan considered to be "un-Islamic."

For the most part, this means smashing statues of Buddha. This included two fifth-century statues that are thought to be the largest depictions of a standing Buddha. According to witnesses, the statues were pounded with anti-aircraft rockets and tank shells. Taliban officials ignored offers from other Islamic nations and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to take the statues and preserve them. According to statements it's made, the Taliban feels it is fully capable of preserving its heritage in its own museums. Anything non-Islamic is something they consider worth erasing from history.

It's not the first time the world has realized that this group is utterly insane. Its ultra-strict interpretation of Islam is considered appalling in countries that chop off people's heads on a regular basis. Among the most well-known of its human rights abuses is the systematic discrimination toward women.

Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to leave their houses unless they are covered from head to toe in a garment called a "burqua." Women who have dared to show an inch of their ankle in public have been stoned to death by angry mobs. They cannot go out in public unless a male relative accompanies them. Women may not work; Afghani women with Ph.D.s are begging on the streets today.

In addition, few medical facilities cater to women. Depression rates among women have skyrocketed since the Taliban imposed its restrictions in the mid-1990s. Houses with women in them are required to paint over the windows so the women cannot be seen. Just in case, women are also required to wear soft shoes so that their footsteps cannot be heard.

Until 1996, Afghanistan was a nation where many women were educators, doctors and business professionals. Among Islamic nations, it was considered to be progressive and rational, with a fair human rights record and decent living conditions. Now it has become a nightmare of religious fundamentalism. The United States and the United Nations have imposed various economic sanctions, which do little but hurt the population even more.

Thanks to Taliban rule, Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer of opium poppy. The illegal drug trade is one of its chief sources of income, although it ruthlessly exterminates its own users. Osama bin Laden, known terrorist and hater of the United States, is living safely in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban government. It claims that it does not allow him to contact foreigners and that it will watch him at all times to ensure he does not engage in terrorist activities.

Conveniently, this also makes it impossible for anyone else to know where he is or what he is doing. The State Department has a Web site describing Afghanistan's human rights violations in detail that provides several hours of gruesome reading at www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/sa/index.cfm?docid=721.

What this boils down to is a nation ruled by fanatics, actively engaging in widespread oppression of women on a scale heretofore unknown in history, demolishing millennia of artwork and culture that can never be recovered, producing enormous amounts of illegal drugs and shielding known terrorists from international justice. Why are they allowed to exist?

Plenty of arguments can be made about the futility of "peacekeeping missions" and "police actions" that have failed dismally in the past. It is hard to justify going to war with a force that has not done anything but oppress the people under its power. Yet, the argument also could be made that everyone could see in 1936 what the Nazis were, and no one did anything about it.

But beyond the practical consideration of taking out a potential enemy before it can mount an attack, why is it taboo to consider liberating a nation like Afghanistan out of simple decency? If we have the power to stop the kind of atrocities happening there, why don't we? It comes back to the question, who decides what is right and wrong? Should we refrain from "interfering" with Taliban "culture"? Is it wrong to think that all human beings possess basic rights, and that those with power should protect those without?

Or is it easier to just cover our eyes and pretend that things are all right? If that is your attitude, then the Web site to check out is http://www.taleban.com, the official Taliban Web site. It does a great job of explaining that everything is just fine and dandy in Afghanistan these days.