An Afghan policeman inspects the site of a suicide car bomb attack in Khost province February 18, 2011. A suicide car bomb attack on a police checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan on Friday killed at least nine people and injured dozens, health and police officials said. The majority of the dead were civilians, among them three women, said Abdul Hakim Esaaqzai, chief of police for Khost province. Health official Amir Badshah said 30 people had been wounded and many taken to hospitals. Credit: Reuters/ StringerSuicide Bombings: Why Afghans Don't Take the Taliban to Task -- Time Magazine
It was carnage. There was a momentary crackle of gunfire and then, as a powerful car bomb detonated in Khost, a city in southeastern Afghanistan, a shock wave splintered trees and scattered body parts across 50 m of parkland and marketplace. Rags from what looked like children's clothes lay caught on the twisted metal of an axle; nearby, shops' windows were blown in, and the dirt road was slicked with blood. The iron strut supporting a giant billboard was bent like a paper clip.
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My Comment: Why are Afghans not taking the Taliban to task for the carnage that their suicide bombings have inflicted on the general population was answered once by my father and from his own experience. The general population will never like innocent casualties as a result of a botched or catastrophic bombing done by a fellow countryman, but the foreigner is the one who will ultimately be blamed for the carnage. From their point of view, the foreigner does not belong there, hence, the focus becomes on what the local population must do to expel them out because they cannot expel their own countrymen who are fighting them.
My father`s experience came from the Second World War, and from what he learned about the Nazi occupation of Russia. Originally, many in the outlying Soviet states opened their arms to the Germans, but partisan activity, retaliation by the Germans .... all that good will was destroyed within a year. Within two years, it was wide open warfare. The mindset that the Russians had is the same mindset that many Pashtuns in Southern Afghanistan have today .... as bad as the Communists or Taliban may be .... they are our people. Foreigners are not.
In Afghanistan today .... let`s face it .... we are a 21rst century society mingling with a 8th century culture .... we are definitely the foreigner.