An Inconsistent Constant

Re: In Marja, a Vice President Speaks With Warmth, but Reaps Cool (Tuesday, March 2, 2010)

To the Editor:

War: It is the institution that leads to confusion for most people. Leaders speak peacefully about violence. Countries pull together to break countries apart. Alissa J. Rubin demonstrates the idea of negations in the time of conflict as she speaks about the logistics during Afghani Vice President Karim Khaili’s visit to Marja in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. First of all, Khalili is speaking in a language, Dari, which most in his audience cannot understand. It is a language of the Hazra when most of Khalili’s audience is Pushtun. Without an interpreter, as the article describes, the message is sent to the soldiers and not to the average Afghani citizen. This may be a strategy on Khalili’s part, but a poor decision. Consistency comes in communication and when few are hearing the message there is no reliability. However, there is always some consistency in a goulash-like situation. In the Afghani war it is the Taliban, which seems to be the root of all the Afghani problems. Vice President Khalili’s people, the Hazra, are being persecuted by the Taliban. The Taliban are Pushtuns, the very people to who the vice president is speaking. However, not all Pushtuns are Taliban; even this constant intermingles into the irregularity of the conflict. In Michael Muhammad Knight's Journey to the End of Islam, such an idea is described. He demonstrates how a peaceful group pushes and prods to get to the peaceful and holy Ka'ba. It is possible that this inconsistency is human nature, an ambition to fulfill one's life-long desires. Possibly, Khalili is trying to bring peace with overexerted ambition.