Peace WITH Democracy?

This is a picture of us kids playing a game of baseball on our field in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Who knows, maybe one day we will get the pleasure of watching our kids and grandkids join with some Afghan kids for a rousing game on The Diamond. If I'm not mistaken, that's Elephant Mountain in the background.

Once again, Pamela Constable of the Washington Post Foreign Service, beautifully elucidates the complexities of the ‘Afghans' Uneasy Peace With Democracy’
In Discord Over Convert's Trial, Muslims Say They Identify With Islamic Law First
(click title)

Any other illusive thoughts out there?

ON A POSITIVE NOTE BEFORE YOU READ MS. CONSTABLE’S SALIENT ARTICLE:

Farhad Azad, the young publisher of Afghan Magazine, came to the US as a young lad. He published his first edition in 1997, with the hopes of educating the American public to the beautiful facets of Afghanistan’s literary, music, and artistic culture. For a country where illiteracy is the norm, the poetry and stories of the ages, past and present, are stunning.

The last time I was in contact with Farhad, who at the time was living in the San Francisco Bay area, he mentioned to me that his parents and some of his family lived in Allen, TX.

During the year before we left Dallas for the UK, and well before September 11th, my husband and I became acquainted with a compassionate woman who served as the refugee liaison for the Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson, TX. She was a Baptist Texan who had converted to Islam. She taught me much, and I learned to love, admire, and respect her. She put us in contact with a family of Afghan refugees – a mother, daughter and three sons – who were new to the country. We tried to help them while we were there. Their struggles with our Western culture and social morés were achingly obvious.

I would ask that you would read some of the beautiful articles within the online pages of Farhad’s magazine before you read Ms Constable’s report. Hopefully, it will enable you to connect a bit with the heart and soul of the beauty of the Afghan peoples before you can form any judgements, ill or otherwise good.

I believe that one day, with lots of hope and even more gentle persuasion, the Afghans will have peace with democracy. We just have to learn how to respect their freedom.

We'll have to rethink the hot dogs. Pork is a no-no, and there's nairy a piglet in sight, not even to be smuggled on the Black Market. Perhaps hot chops? Our playing field was inside the 2-square mile compound. I have often wondered if Usama bin Laden used our American compound, deserted in the early '70's, as his base of operations? That is, if the Russians didn't destroy it first.