Taliban Seizes and Burns PCs, Cell Phones To Stop Obscenity 294
retroworks writes "As translated from Central Asia Online, Cellular News reports that militants from South Waziristan set ablaze about 300 cellular phones and a number of computers in Wana because the devices were allegedly used to spread obscene materials. Prior to taking the action, they gave everyone fair warning with 'leaflets.' 300 cell phones down, 5 or 6 billion to go.
hmm.. (Score:2, Insightful)
I know association that would be happy to do the same here in the US.
Objective Hide their actual Activities (Score:5, Insightful)
First objective is to hide what they are doing. This is accomplished by no one able to photograph their brutal actions and so the Leaders will not be photographed for later intervention by NATO.
Second is to control the media and what the people are told. Hopefully create more little zealots to continue the cause.
But you know... (Score:3, Insightful)
ACTA (Score:1, Insightful)
Why the USA is against the Taliban is beyond me. They are in favor of ACTA and SOPA by their actions here. We're all in this together.
Lesser of many evils (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget about this...
Compared to throwing acid on a young girl's face because she wants what we consider an elementary education - now that's worth some outrage.
Children are to be cherished and encouraged to reach for their full potential. Any society that fails to do this is failing, period - USA included.
Extingush the Taliban (Score:1, Insightful)
The Taliban is one organization I would not mind if we used a Neutron Bomb or some sort of method of extinguishing all organic life in an area to eliminate. They are probably the lowest vermin on the face of the Earth.
Queue... (Score:1, Insightful)
All the Anti-US, pro-Taliban posts in 3, 2, 1....
Re:Extingush the Taliban (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm with you with the following proviso:
You must GUARANTEE, BEYOND ANY DOUBT WHATSOEVER that EVERY SINGLE LIVING BEING within the AoE is a willing follower, enabler, adherent, and/or card-carrying member thereof.
Once you've done that, Bombs Away!
-AC
Re:Oh noes (Score:5, Insightful)
If they were smart they would burn the internet ...
We' ll take care of that with SOPA.
Re:Jokes on them... (Score:5, Insightful)
The toxic chemicals released from burning all that hardware gave them all cancer.
"Why are you worried about something that will kill you in 7 years when there are so many things that can kill you tomorrow?" -- Lord of War
Hard to preach long term thinking when most people in the community die in their thirties...
Is this about blocking porn or... (Score:5, Insightful)
About the militia maintaining a monopoly on electronic communication to prevent a rebellion or infiltration by the government or other tribal leaders?
Remember, these villagers are mostly Muslim, and they pray five times a day. And somehow I doubt the people in the militia will be burning their own phones and computers.
Sounds more like a power move (Score:2, Insightful)
The motive is (IMHO) most likely to express and increase their power over the people affected rather than the stated one. Eliminate something that gives those people power, and show them how weak they are against their new rulers.
Re:Extingush the Taliban (Score:3, Insightful)
Or maybe instead of resorting to violence to achieve your goal (like the tailban does) we could try and teach them to think for themselves so they arent so easily brainwashed by religion.
Re:Lesser of many evils (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget about this...
Compared to throwing acid on a young girl's face because she wants what we consider an elementary education - now that's worth some outrage.
Children are to be cherished and encouraged to reach for their full potential. Any society that fails to do this is failing, period - USA included.
I think this is a perfect thing to get outraged at since it's just a different side of the same problem, "where you burn books, you will ultimately burn people also".
Re:Objective Hide their actual Activities (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:5, Insightful)
Or how about a third option:
c) do nothing
The Taliban didn't need our help. Our psychopathic drive to jump into every conflict on earth (ok, maybe we largely ignore Africa) is a big part of why America is bankrupt and widely despised.
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:3, Insightful)
So given that there were 2 sides fighting, which side do you suggest America should have supported ?
Neither, because it's none of our business?
Re:Idiots. (Score:4, Insightful)
Blowing up those ridiculously old and big statues was also the right thing to do.
Re:Extingush the Taliban (Score:5, Insightful)
How do you logic with that? The answer is you can't. I don't really expect you to understand because you're in a Westernized, modern, industrial world. You follow laws, understand technology and very likely had an education. None of these are done here, in Afghanistan where I write these words, nor have they been done in thousands of years. You know, you can drive a donkey down the middle of the road here, put a family of 4 (no eye, head or other protection) on a motorized scooter, or drive the wrong way down the road here in their capital (Kabul), right past a cop, and he won't do a thing? Mind blowing but that's how it is. After we leave, that's how it'll still be...
Re:Close... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why contrast between two unrelated things?
The USA arrested and jailed a man for directing obscene pornography between consenting parties. [boingboing.net]
Now I'm sure some would argue what he did was manipulative and destroyed the lives of several people and liken his abuse to rape. Well the USA also arrested and jailed a man for possessing obscene comics, where no adults or children were harmed in the making. [wired.com]
Let's discuss related facts shall we?
Re:Close... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Close... (Score:1, Insightful)
"Taliban Seizes and Burns PCs, Cell Phones To Stop Obscenity"
Contrast with:
US Government Seizes and Burns DNS domains, To Stop Copyright Infringement.
Not even close.
The U.S. Govt. does not carry out capital and corporal punishment in public - all at one convenient location on a regular weekly basis.
The U.S. Govt. does not mandate the stoning of women for failure to adhere to a dress code.
The U.S. Govt. does not make employment of women - in any capacity what so ever - a crime.
The U.S. Govt. does not demolish archaeological sites on the grounds that they depict religious beliefs other than Christianity.
You might be able to make a comparison with Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, but certainly not with the U.S.
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They took mine. (Score:2, Insightful)
I know I'll probably get modded -1 for pointing this out, but you're a fucking moron.
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:2, Insightful)
How many people did capitalism kill 'directly or indirectly'?
Quick answer: not nearly as many.
Note: The figures above deal primarily with those of its own citizens communist countries have killed, through policy induced famines and political repression. Although the book does address those killed in communist initiated wars, that isn't the point here. Usually those who follow up with your retort would cite all those who died in all the wars of aggression initiated by capitalist countries in order to draw some kind of equivalency, but it is not equivalent. Let's leave war casualties off the table for both sides.
The issue is perhaps somewhat complicated by one's definition of capitalism, because while those who effected communist policies leading to mass death proudly waved the communist banner, conscious of their ideology, their supposed counterparts (Custer? English landlords?) were not consciously waving some "capitalist" flag. More likely they were motivated by a sense of strong nationalism, or outright robbery, which is not a necessary attribute of a conscious "capitalist" ideology at all (which is much more compatible with liberal internationalism).
Further, by "capitalist" do we mean only modern industrial capitalist countries? Usually bona fide Capitalism is not considered to have begun until some time in the Middle Ages, with the movement away from feudal institutions. If we want to call any market economy capitalist, including, for example, that of ancient Rome, then perhaps we can lay the many deaths brought about by the dysfunctional economic policies of the late emperors at the feet of "capitalism", but this is a stretch and rather nonsensical. Even very primitive tribal cultures often have rudimentary markets--shall they too be labelled capitalistic for the sake of consistency? All the deaths resulting from slavery too are difficult to pin on "capitalism" precisely for this reason. Slavery is an institution that predates capitalism, and has existed under a wide variety of both primitive and more "modern" economic circumstances. It has been practiced in some capitalist countries, but it is certainly not a defining attribute of capitalism or a necessary consequence of it (though a Marxist cynic may disagree, he'd be wrong--and just being spiteful), and was first driven out institutionally in England under an explicitly liberal/capitalist banner (if you don't believe me check the history yourself).
If we're talking about a country that is capitalist in the full sense (an industrialized market economy, i.e. one that has accumulated much capital), what are the episodes during which many died from following a capitalist policy rather than some superior "socialist" (or other) alternative? I'm prepared to accept that there may be such an example, but I doubt it approaches anything close to the massive and tragic waste of life that resulted in the last century's pursuit of communism.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
War on Terror (Score:4, Insightful)
So, let me get this straight:
The USA spent years, trillions of $$$ - amounts where the interest on it could pay for the entire financial crisis - and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives (a few of them US soldiers) on this war thing... ...and here we are, essentially where we started with the Taliban, just with more of a mess?
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:4, Insightful)
You do realize that USSR did not have "extermination camps" in 1979 for like 25 years already, right?
Soviets in Afghanistan were teaching the locals - building schools and universities - and also country infrastructure like roads and power plants. They were supported by a considerable chunk of the population, too, the more secular part. It wasn't Soviets vs Afghans - it was a civil war, Afghan secularists with Soviet backing vs Afghan Islamists with US/Pakistani backing.
The end result is that you sacrificed the quality of life of several million people for your convenience - every madrasah built instead of a school, every mosque built instead of a factory in the last 30 years. Worse yet, you didn't even gain anything for yourself as your support for Islamists came to bite you in the ass today, and unlike Soviets, they have no hesitation about striking first, hitting your territory directly, and targeting civilians. Karma's a bitch.
Re:Okay, let's examine that decision (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, OP referred to a) the holocaust (which was specifically the 6 million figure you cited)
The holocaust was one of the worst times in human history.
But for whatever reason, people seem to often neglect mentioning the other half. Yes, 6,000,000 jews were killed. But the 5,000,000 mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, Poles, Russians, Roma, intellectuals, actors, thinkers, teachers, etc. who were just as "undesirable" nearly always fall by the wayside.
I'm in no way trying to diminish the suffering of the Jewish people, but I think that it's not only absurd but outright insulting and revolting that everyone else who was killed in the holocaust is so often ignored and forgotten.