Assassination is mediocrity's antidote to greatness. I know this.
And since, by the laws of nature and statistics there's always going to be a lot more mediocrity, mobilizing the thugs against a public meritocracy tends to be a pretty potent drug to push. It's working swell, too:
A former Taliban intelligence official, Mullah Ehsanullah, told The Associated Press this year that there were more than 500 men training as suicide bombers in 50 sites across the region in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These camps he said, are run by al-Qaida and include Pakistani jihadists and Arab militants.Meanwhile, we in the Empire are doing our little part to try to keep this in check:
With enactment of the FY2007 supplemental on May 25, 2007, Congress has approved a total of about $609 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).But do the math: our little effort has cost $1.5 million for every square mile in the combined area of Iraq, Afghanistan and that shadowy border region of southwestern Pakistan.
As a farm subsidy, that sort of outlay could re-fertilize the original fertile crescent for centuries. Or pay to litter the landscape with new schools. Or at least clean up the landmines poisoning Afghanistan's soil.
And if you chose to allocate it by individual suicide bombers that's more than a billion dollars each.
A whole lot of money. But somehow not enough to protect one woman from the barbarians.
