I will address several recent posts in one sitting, so as not to clutter the board too much with multiple messages: "Will these nations accept reconstructive aid, given that many of them come from a different cultural viewpoint toward economics?" I think it is possible, so long as we don't try to make them just like the West. Islam is not contrary to making money. My own personal idea is to make them a post-industrial nation, buy them computers, and teach them how to program. I figure that they do to Microsoft what the Japanese did to the American car industry, since the average Afghan is easily more intelligent than an inbred money. (Don't get me wrong. This is intended as a slam against Microsoft, not Afghans.) "Too late. According to media reports, the Taliban is forcibly kidnapping civilian Afghan men to be in the military." In the U.S. we call that a draft. "On another, hopefully unrelated note, does anyone know anything about the foreign service written exam?" I believe Hayden once mentioned that knowledge of the Spice Girls came up on the test. "No, of course not. We are trying to apply rational rules to an irrational society in a foreign land that's already sent the one-finger salute to the world and pretty much hoper Uncle Sam chokes on his pork chops." This train of thought will fail if accepted by military and intelligence agencies. Terrorism is a rational act, carried out by rational men. To call it rational is not to call it moral or good or just. Rational people will disagree when given access to the same information. Often, the reaction is to call someone you disagree with irrational, unintelligent, ignorant, or inherently evil. "I personally think that we should force the Taliban to watch Britney Spears videos -- I mean, given their attitudes towards music, women, and skimpy clothes, it would be torture. :-)" Well, they don't have TV anymore, although, if they did, I think I'd give them Fox News.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:45 AM EST EST