The 12-year old executioner

If anyone has any doubts about why the Taliban must be destroyed once and for all, it's this story about a 12 year old boy kidnapped by the group of thugs on and using his services as an executioner.

For my edification, I've been working my way through a copy of the Koran, a gift from a Muslim friend of my father's to him. Nothing in there -- absolutely nothing -- justifies the so-called jihad that some of these self-styled "holy warriors" has been on for decades. This has nothing to do with Islam. No mainline religion is a religion of peace, not even Christianity. But all religions call among other things to honour our children. Trying to persuade a kid it's his or her duty to become a murderer is the most devious perversion.

At the same time, it's also the duty of these countries we're trying to help to take on a somewhat bigger burden. We must keep our current military commitment in Afghanistan because we made our word we would do so; but if what's left when we leave in 2009 is a vacuum where terrorists just move in and do whatever they damn well please then the whole point will have been lost. Musharraf hasn't done nearly enough in Pakistan to stop the seedlings of terrorism, but Karzai really hasn't done much in Afghanistan either and I'm becoming increasingly exasperated by that as are most Canadians.

The longer those countries dither in their responsibilities the more unstable they will become. There's only so much NATO can do. It's time for them to pull up their bootstraps and stop extremists from getting away with atrocities like this one. The longer they take, the harder it'll be for our troops to sort out friend from foe. We can clear some battlefields for them, but the ultimate job of bringing Al Qaeda and the Taliban to justice (or finishing them off) lies with those countries, not the West.

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.