The Taliban are now accusing the United States of targetting civilians in the attacks on Afghanistan, which strikes me as the worst sort of hypocrisy. Anyone who watched Beneath the Veil on CNN knows that Taliban soldiers execute and rape civilians with regularity in their ongoing war against the United Front (aka Northern Alliance) and apparently think nothing of it. These are also the people who publicly execute women for wearing makeup, showing any of their skin in public, or teaching girls over a certain age.

I abhor the idea that innocent people are dying at the hands of Americans in Afghanistan, but I honestly do not believe that Americans are targetting them intentionally. It disturbs me greatly that the people who are marching in the streets around the world to decry America’s attacks on Afghanistan are seemingly willing to overlook the Taliban’s brutal treatment of the Afghani people. One of the most interesting things about the story I linked to yesterday was how the sentiments of the man interviewed seem so at odds with the actual behavior of the Taliban. I wonder whether he was lying to the interviewer or if he’s lying to himself.