Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Reagan did not want the Russians in Afghanistan.  Precious oil pipelines run across this Middle East country.  So what is the former film star to do but battle against any Russian control of Afghanistan, even if it meant placing the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban in power?

High tech U.S. war materials like so-called Stringer Missiles blasted those Russian war planes.  Presto!  The Taliban grabbed the power at this momentous moment, courtesy of the freedom/democracy loving U.S.A. superpower.

In the Seattle Times February 8, 2008 edition in an article by John F. Burns from the New York Times with a London place line, the most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, is blasted for suggesting that the "Shariah" be used in family law for some Muslim extremists, insisting it was "unavoidable" and going so far as to say, "constructive accommodations should no deprive Muslims of their right to take their case to the existing court system."

What is "Shariah"?

"Shariah" is drawn from the Quran.  In the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad it prescribes that religious and secular punishment should be provided for breach of Islamic law.  

In countries where Islamic militants have gained power, such as Afghanistan under the Taliban, harsh forms of Shariah Law have been imposed against perceived wrongdoers.  These have included stoning individuals to death for adultery and chopping off hands for perceived thieves, along with severe restraints on women's rights and provisions subjugating them to the will of men.

The Taliban was placed in power under the Republican icon Ronald Reagan.  U.S. taxpayers funded bringing the Taliban into power.  Are you listening, John McCain?  This is your idol!

Wouldn't it have been honest to at last recognize what horrors Afghanistan citizens were subjected to when the U.S. fought to place the Taliban in power in Afghanistan?  

How many adultery victims were stoned to death?  How many hands were chopped off?  Can we finally realize what hell Reagan's revolution caused after the Taliban was placed in power?  

Now the U.S. is fighting to bring democracy and freedom to Afghanistan.  But after having placed our high tech war weapons in the hands of the Taliban, U.S. soldiers are dying today with equipment the Reagan Administration delivered into the Taliban's hands.

This truth is kept silent now.  If we had provable statistics of the actual number of adulterers stoned to death, of how many hands of thieves have been chopped off, we might question the wisdom of Reagan's Republican Administration in power.

We did not deliver democracy or freedom to Afghanistan under Reagan, that's for sure!  Now the U.S. is trying to replace Reagan's Taliban/Afghanistan days with true democracy and true freedom.  We can only hope that better days are ahead.

Women in Afghanistan can now go to schools and colleges.  The traditional Taliban dress code has been done away with.  Reagan's amnesty for illegals policy has prompted other illegal immigrants to think this way.  If amnesty was once offered to illegals, it could happen again if they chose to enter the U.S. illegally.  

The tragic consequence is a flood of illegal immigrants.  How to address their status at this point in time has made legal immigrants wait much longer in line.  Was the Reagan amnesty for illegals policy therefore a plus or minus?

The Reagan immigration policy has caused a dilemma.  The Reagan legacy is one of debt, destruction, and chaos.  

This is the president that John McCain holds up as an example of enlightened American leadership.