17 Afghani's Beheaded By The Taliban For Dancing

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If ever there was a story that appears to speak for itself, this is it. 17 Afghanistan civilians, 2 of them women,  were beheaded in the Helmand Province, by the newly resurgent Taliban, for dancing at a party.

I don't think I quite grasp the Taliban's foreign policy here, I don't see why they abhor music and dance so much. It might be similar to Plato's belief that it moved people's souls away from perfect harmony.

Here was Plato's thinking  about music from Yahoo's "ask" website:
 
"Plato had a love-hate relationship with not only music, but the arts in general. His writings indicate that he paid very close attention to what he saw and heard, yet on the other hand he found music threatening and believed that while it should be taught in the ideal republic, it should also be strictly censored. Music, in Plato's mind, appears to be a shaper of character as it stirs emotion and influences behavior.  At least in part, Plato's thinking was inspired by the work of Pythagoras and his number mysticism; the 'perfect ratio' present in octaves, fifths, thirds, etc. in the correct proportions was believed to set the soul in harmony as opposed to discord. That meant excluding certain musical modes from the Republic, and keeping only those that were conducive to a properly ordered soul, I.e., one whose will ruled its passions at the direction of its reason. Only when young people were ready should the strength of their character be tested by exposing them to depictions of evil, and to the more promiscuous modes of music. To quote Plato, "Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." (Plato's Republic)"

Fair enough, so that's what the Taliban think subconsciously: in effect the private is made public and we therefore become defined as animals not as children of God. Or, children of the devil, if you prefer.  This is from the LA times:

"And there’s the fact that while the Taliban was largely in control—nearly a decade, beginning in 1992—music was outlawed. According to the Taliban’s fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran, anyone who listens to music will have molten lead poured in their ears come judgment day. The Taliban’s religious police enforced that idea by shuttering conservatories and destroying musical instruments. Radio Kabul was closed, its archives decimated."

Ahhhhh, so that's what we're talking about. The problem here is that The Koran is the most musical religion of them all, it  The Koran is written to be, for sure chanted, and borderline song. But there you have the situation.

It makes Russia look, dare I say it, reasonable.

Here is the AP Report on the beheadings, I took it off the New York Daily News:

"KABUL, Afghanistan – Insurgents beheaded 17 civilians in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan, apparently because they attended a dance party that flouted the extreme brand of Islam embraced by the militants, officials said Monday.

The killings, in a district where U.S. Marines have battled the Taliban for years, were a reminder of how much power the insurgent group still wields in the south – particularly as international forces draw down and hand areas over to Afghan forces.

The victims were part of a large group that had gathered late Sunday in Helmand province's Musa Qala district for a celebration involving music and dancing, said district government chief Neyamatullah Khan. He said the Taliban slaughtered them to show their disapproval of the event.

All of the bodies were decapitated but it was not clear if they had been shot first, said provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.

Information was only trickling out slowly because the area where the killings occurred is largely Taliban controlled, Khan said. The Taliban spokesman for southern Afghanistan could not be reached for comment.

Many Afghans and international observers have expressed worries that the Taliban's brutal interpretation of Islamic justice will return as international forces withdraw. Under the Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, all music and film was banned as un-Islamic, and women were barred from leaving their homes without a male family member as an escort.

Helmand is one of the areas seeing the largest reduction in U.S. troops, as the force increase ordered up by President Barack Obama departs. The U.S. started drawing down forces from a peak of nearly 103,000 last year, and plans to have decreased to 68,000 troops in country by October."

I don't want to make light of this, though I don't know what else to do about it. This is what the Afghans prefer to Western influence?  It reminds me of Iran in the early 1970s, the US was pouring money on the Shah and on  the Iranians. The Iranians LOATHED the US. They felt belittled being offered charity. When Khomeini arrived and told the people they were not merely as good as the Americans, they were immeasurably better, the Shah and the US got the boot and fast.

You can't buy love you can't buy a woman's love, she resents you, a country can't buy its populations love without demanding sacrifice from it. The Afghans hate the Taliban but they hate the US immeasurably more. So while their brothers are being decapitated and their sisters being kept under house arrest, they prefer that horror to living under the Yankee Imperialist Yoke. 

The killings terrify us because they are so completely meaningless but for the people surrounding the victims, for the civilians, there is a semblance of cause and effect. Compare it to civilians being meaninglessly murdered by US Drone Aircrafts. Dead is dead, but there is a way for civilians to protect themselves from the Taliban, do as they are told, they can't protect themselves from the US where they are simply collateral damage. 

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