Mike the Mad Biologist

No doubt they hate us for our freedoms (or something), but if I were an Afghan, this might just push me over the edge:

Prime among Atmar’s concerns was a party partially thrown by DynCorp for Afghan police recruits in Kunduz Province.

…according to the leaked cable, that money was flowing to drug dealers and pimps. Pimps of children, to be more precise. (The exact type of drug was never specified.)

Since this is Afghanistan, you probably already knew this wasn’t a kegger. Instead, this DynCorp soiree was a bacha bazi (“boy-play”) party, much like the ones uncovered earlier this year by Frontline.

If your skin isn’t already crawling, it will be now:

…bacha bazi is a pre-Islamic Afghan tradition that was banned by the Taliban. Bacha boys are eight- to 15-years-old. They put on make-up, tie bells to their feet and slip into scanty women’s clothing, and then, to the whine of a harmonium and wailing vocals, they dance seductively to smoky roomfuls of leering older men.

After the show is over, their services are auctioned off to the highest bidder, who will sometimes purchase a boy outright. And by services, we mean anal sex: The State Department has called bacha bazi a “widespread, culturally accepted form of male rape.” (While it may be culturally accepted, it violates both Sharia law and Afghan civil code.)

For Pashtuns in the South of Afghanistan, there is no shame in having a little boy lover; on the contrary, it is a matter of pride. Those who can afford the most attractive boy are the players in their world, the OG’s of places like Kandahar and Khost. On the Frontline video, ridiculously macho warrior guys brag about their young boyfriends utterly without shame.

Even the Taliban are disgusted by this. These police recruits–kiddie rapists–were the people we were (and are) counting on to help us ~~bring light unto the heathen~~ ~~spread democracy~~ stabilize Afghanistan. And if one of them gets in trouble, some U.S. infantryman or Marine will have to risk his or her life, possibly be injured or killed, for a kiddie rapist.

When this is what it takes to find allies, get out. Get out now. No U.S. soldier, no citizen should have to die for these guys.

Or we could just blame Wikileaks for releasing this (even though the information was already public).

Comments

#1 Kevin
December 15, 2010

Even the Taliban are disgusted by this.

In this case, I’m afraid that doesn’t say much. I’m sure they’re horrified by the buggery, not the fact that they’re children
#2 Katharine
December 15, 2010

And people wonder why I’ve lost any sense of compassion for most of humanity. I don’t care that they’re poor, they do shit like this. (Replace ‘they do shit like this’ with things such as ‘they rape kids’ or ‘they kill gays’ or ‘they stone people’ or ‘they used to burn people at the stake’ or ‘they mutilate children’ or ‘they’re fucking crazy’ or some variant of it.)
#3 Tim
December 15, 2010

Funny thing, the west has know this since Marco Polo.
#4 Paul Murray
December 15, 2010

“Even the Taliban are disgusted by this.”

The Taliban were the nearest thing to a functional, corruption-free government that afghanis had ever had. The day that the coalition forces slink away in defeat, afghanis will re-instate a government in which officials generally do not take bribes and thieves are promptly punished.
#5 DRK
December 15, 2010

“The Taliban were the nearest thing to a functional, corruption-free government that afghanis had ever had. The day that the coalition forces slink away in defeat, afghanis will re-instate a government in which officials generally do not take bribes and thieves are promptly punished”.

And women can go back to being treated like chattel, and the trains will run on time. Seriously? You people think the Taliban will be better than the current regime? Why? Because it’s better that little girls be raped (like Bibi Aisha, the young woman on the cover of Time recently, whose nose was cut off after she fled her Taliban husband, to whom she was given at age 12) than little boys? It’s better that widows starve to death or die from lack of medical care in their houses — under the Taliban, they couldn’t leave their homes without a male relative escorting them. Women were not allowed to go to school either. Yeah. Fifty percent of the population was under permanent house arrest, a situation reinforced with floggings, stonings, and beheadings. Right now, according to Amnesty International, about 4 million people in Pakistan are living under Taliban rule, and torture, mass killings and rape are daily occurrences. You people have very short memories. The Taliban were a nightmare.
#6 Paul
December 16, 2010

The Taliban amputated a woman’s feet because they didn’t want her to be in a movie. The reason the Taliban rose to power in the first place is because the US abandoned Afghanistan after the Soviet occupation. The Taliban bombs girls schools and throws acid into the faces of little girls that go to school. Although what is being reported here IS reprehensible we still need to ERADICATE the Taliban as they are misogynistic brutal monsters. I sure as hell don’t approve of boy rape but I also sure as hell don’t approve of the Taliban which is even worse.
#7 Aj
December 16, 2010

Why do I suspect that it’s the dancing part that the Taliban really objects to, not the child rape.
#8 nichole
December 16, 2010

Crap like culturally sanctioned child rape makes it difficult to dispute sentiments like “Nuke ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out.”

Leaving these middle eastern hell-holes to fester hasn’t gone well, neither had occupying them… FSMdammit I hate people.
#9 Katharine
December 16, 2010

DRK, how about we just conclude that the Taliban and the Afghan military culture are both messes and kick them both in the ass?
#10 Frank Abernathy
December 16, 2010

We need to maintain strategically located forts for predator drones that can “service” all the necessary areas. These installations would have sterile perimeters around them whose dimensions would be established by the military. Anyone or anything breaching that perimeter without permission would be eliminated. Small kids wanting to enter the perimeter would be searched by robots as long as they stay put and don’t make a run for it. These forts would be permanent installations which makes us occupiers, not liberators. Remove all other military and cut Karzai and his parasites loose. Spray the poppy fields. If and when these people decide to act like civilized human beings, we can talk about getting out. However,I would strongly suggest not holding your breath.
#11 Will
December 18, 2010

Or we could just blame Wikileaks for releasing this (even though the information was already public).

This has nothing to do with WikiLeaks. Anyone not living under a rock has known DynCorp to be writhe with child rapists for years. Their reach also extended past Afghanistan and into eastern Europe as well.

Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host, even mentioned this about DynCorp on her show a few months ago when she was defending ACORN against the GOP’s branding it as an organization that supports child prostitution.

Something to remember: If you dig deep enough you will find that the American Right can never claim moral superiority over anyone; they’re as bad as it gets.