October 14, 2004
LET’S BURY THIS ONE IN THE CLASSIFIEDS
'God forbid a success story' (Glenn Reynolds, The Guardian, October 14th, 2004)
The photo above shows Afghan men waiting in line to vote. John Tammes, the reader and US army major who took it, was kind enough to email it to me and give me permission to use it.Mr Tammes writes: "These men are waiting to vote in Dasht-e Robat (Parwan province). They were very good natured about waiting and they seemed to be proud of what they were doing."
So they should have been: despite threats of death and destruction from the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida as well as many media commentators, they had turned out to vote. The election may not have been perfect - the UN apparently needs a better ink supplier - but international monitors pronounced it fair.
As a result, it is getting rather little attention in the western media - because if Afghanistan is obviously not the "quagmire" people have been calling it for three years, Bush must have been doing something right. That raises the troubling possibility that he might know what he is doing elsewhere, a notion that must not be entertained - if at all - until after the US elections.
Even after the elections, the success of democracy in Afghanistan or Iraq will be denied by the mainstream left with the same panic and zeal with which the pious rejected Galileo.
Posted by Peter Burnet at October 14, 2004 7:00 AM
Why do you think the pious rejected Galileo with panic and zeal?
Galileo was himself one of the most pious Catholics in Europe. It was a dispute about whether authorities should be respected even when they make foolish directives, exacerbated by some personal animosities and beliefs that friendships were betrayed.
Posted by: pj at October 14, 2004 7:21 AMPj:
Oh, all right, all right. I was not referring to the details of the trial or the actual actors, but to the general alarm and instinctive resistance many feel when the foundations of their long-held worldview is challenged. Would you feel better if I substituted Darwin?
Posted by: Peter B at October 14, 2004 7:43 AMActually the contemporary leaders of the Church did not have much of a problem with Galileo. During the height of the contoversy he was protected by the local Bishop.
His real opposition, and the people who agitated for the inquiry into his work, was the Ptolemaic astronomers who had, to say the least, a different world view.
The real problem that Galileo had was that his theory of the solar system did not do as well as the epicyclic system of the Ptolemaic astronomers in predicting cosmic events. The reason was that, in keeping with Ptolemaic "tradition", he assumed that the orbits of the planets were
circular.
"Mr Tammes emailed me last week after the opening day of an Afghan girls' school. He wrote: "What better way to get ready for the historic presidential election here than to ... open a girls' school."Posted by: Uncle Bill at October 14, 2004 8:37 AMSeprate but equal? Good Lord, where are the civil rights folks. If the ACLU can't function there it must be a quagmire.
The thought of a hysterical ACLU lawyer in front of a panel of turbaned Afghan judges is enough for a warm smile.
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 14, 2004 10:32 AMI do disagree about the mainstream left denying success in Afghanistan and Iraq after the elections. If Kerry wins, both countries will soon become success stories in the media - with all the success attributed to Kerry.
Posted by: Brandon at October 14, 2004 10:48 AM>If Kerry wins, both countries will soon become
>success stories in the media - with all the
>success attributed to Kerry.
"THE VOICE OF A GOD! NOT OF A MAN!
THE VOICE OF A GOD! NOT OF A MAN!..."
Yes! But what about the ink ... and the yellow cake?
Posted by: genecis at October 14, 2004 2:25 PMI, too, was surprised by Peter's example, but Darwin wouldn't be much of an improvement.
I would also dispute Earl's short note on a very complex subject, but no local bishop protected Galileo, and his principal enemy was not a Ptolemaic astronomer but Bellarmino, reputedly the most learned Catholic of his time and also, as it happened, pope
Elections do not make democracies, Peter, tho' they could be a starting point.
I would point out that today the Pakistani parliament decided to let Musharraf be dictator for life.
Pakistan used to have elections and even once had a (more or less) peaceful transition from one national administration to an opposing one, which is one of the great tests whether a 'people's republic' is the McCoy or not.
I wish the Afghans well, but I am not hopeful.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 14, 2004 5:23 PM