Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Cell phones in Afghanistan

I'm one of those liberals who supported the war in Afghanistan. I thot that was a proper response to 9/11. I also have a second cousin in the Army who served there. Every now and then I am reminded of the fact that it is the forgotten war, the one that we should have won long ago, and one that we still might lose. But this is an encouraging sign: there is something of a backlash against the Taliban because they have recently been targeting cell phone towers. I had no idea there were even cell phone towers in Afghanistan. And they're wildly popular: 5.4 million people, one in six Afghans, has one. NATO forces have been targeting insurgents by tracking their cell phones, so the Taliban started taking down the towers. Which led to a backlash against the Taliban. How bizarre is this.

I am also one of those people who is sure that we will eventually win the war against Islamic terrorism, despite George Bush. The advance of civilization is just too powerful of a force. Francis Bacon realized centuries ago that knowledge is power. As is the ability to connect with other people. Once attained, certain freedoms are very, very hard to take away.

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