Afghanistan's Problem? Taliban... No, Oppressive Religion... No, What Then?

It’s official, most Afghans view poverty, unemployment and government corruption as the main causes of war in their country, not the Taliban.  This according to a report by a leading aid group released on Wednesday.

After three decades of war, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world.  It is also one of the most corrupt... unlike the rest of the “Middle East” and other Islamic countries.  Unemployment stands at 40 percent and more than half the country live below the poverty line.  This also makes no sense because there are surely plenty of companies are beating down the door to set up shop where Ak-47s are a fashion statement and a women’s skulls can be crushed with a stone for showing too much ankle.

On top of that, violence is at its highest levels since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.  This also has nothing at all to do with religious zealotry.

The report, mostly based on a survey of more than 700 ordinary Afghans by British charity Oxfam, several local aid groups, and The Dillinger Foundation for Afghan Research found that: 70 percent of people questioned viewed poverty and unemployment as the main drivers of the conflict.  90 percent of people questioned, viewed livestock as acceptable sex partners as long as you marry them first.  Only 15 percent of those questioned were actually literate.  20 percent of of those questioned were actually high on opium at the time.

Nearly half of those surveyed said corruption and the ineffectiveness of their government were the main reasons for the continued fighting, while 36 percent said the Taliban insurgency was to blame.  When asked how government officials might focus their attentions more on being effective at governing and less on being brutally assassinated by the Taliban (without actually being brutally assassinated by the Taliban) nobody was quite sure.

The 704 respondents from around the country were allowed to give multiple answers on reasons for the conflict.

When asked for her opinion on the matter, a hippie director for Oxfam made several cliche and typical leftist excuses.  You know the ones, "The people of Afghanistan have suffered 30 years of unrelenting horror. Afghan society has been devastated.”

The man has been keepin’ them down!  You cain’t just rise up and learn to read when the man be keepin’ you down!

"Repairing this damage can't be done overnight. It will take a long time for the economic, social and psychological scars to heal ... Afghanistan needs more than military solutions," she said in statement.  The part she did not include in the statement was about how Afghanistan needs less religious solutions.  A 7-11 with some nudie mags might also loosen them up a bit. 

There are some 110,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, 68,000 of them American, trying to quell a strengthening Taliban insurgency that has spread to previously peaceful areas.

U.S. President Barack Obama is in the final stages of being an incompetent turd who does nothing while military officials continue to request 40,000 more U.S. troops in order to attempt to save the war effort that Obama has allowed to fall into disrepair.. 

Ordinary Afghans are frustrated at the slow pace of development, endemic corruption and the inability of Afghan and international security forces to stop the violence.  Which is actually very similar to when a child becomes frustrated that he/she cannot stop going wee-wee in his/her pantaloons.  I would become frustrated too if you demanded my opinion on a question of astrophysics while the only training I had in it was watching others fail at the same question.

Despite the billions of dollars in aid poured into the country, most Afghans have seen few changes to their lives.  Which again has nothing to do with the fact that the majority of them don’t do anything except sit around, follow goats through mountains, and sit around some more.  ½ of them still refuse to report shady activities.  Afghanistan is an entire country of welfare recipients, they rely on aid for around 90 percent of spending.

After the Taliban, the reason most people gave for the continued fighting in their country was foreign interference, 25 percent of respondents saying other countries were to blame.  This is probably true, if you know anything about history, you’ll quickly see that Afghanistan has been a bastion of peace for hundreds of years.  Many different tribes and many different sects of the peaceful religion of Islam, all getting along perfectly.  Had the U.S. not stepped in, there would be an Ikea in every town and a Shariaburger on every street.  Oh the utopia that was lost because of those meddling infidel.