The seamy South Side, Chicago, enclave in which President Obama polished his political chops is no match for the planet’s crummiest ghetto: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
An old Kashmiri proverb clarifies as much by revealing that after God made the world, he tossed all the rubble into a pile which then morphed itself into the beleagured nation we know of today.
A handful of years ago, few had even heard of the desolate, landlocked South-Central Asian country, which American author James Albert Michener keenly profiled in his 1962 novel, “Caravans,” and where a profusion of poppies produces the most potent heroin in the world.
That all changed on September 11, 2001.
America’s “worst day” catapulted Afghanistan to the front of the world stage, and introduced us to its disturbing and destructive triangle of rabid rulers, apathetic citizens and a thriving dope trade with modern-day links to President Hamid Karzai’s family and government.
The past eight years tell the grim tale of our hopeless, ceaseless, Vietnam-esque military intervention, whose success is not incumbent upon Obama’s pledge of 30,000 additional US soldiers, bringing America’s military commitment there to almost 100,000 troops.
The War in Afghanistan has killed more than 900 Americans and nearly 600 allied troops, and made a babbler out of the current White House, which is demonstrating its naivete with every misstep.
As leader of the Free World, President Obama needs to address the over-riding yen for martyrdom, violence and revenge which have become the buzz words for Islam’s sanctimonious hordes who, clearly, get their kicks by killing innocent people across the world.
Such a fixated psyche cannot be eradicated through military might, but through an overdue global convention on why modern-day Muslims have cornered the market on religious extremism.
Only then can peace reign in the world.
Sabruzzo@cnglocal.com.