Military, Women and the Taliban
One claim that is secretly believed by some in power in Australia is that, if men are allowed to do anything they want to to their wives, then more men will be willing to go into the military.
There are three major reasons why this is wrong.
First, there are women in the military as much as there are men in the military, and they do not demand that they come home to obedient husbands.
Secondly, it matters what it is that one is defending.
If half of the population are made to live in slavery, then one's claim of fighting for liberty is a lie.
Finally, wars today are won by technology rather than muscles.
It is a matter of brains rather than brawn.
And demanding that one half of the population live in subservience is a brainless stance.
I am the last person that one would expect to have anything to do with the military; but after 9-11 I called three different military recruitment services in America, where I resided at the time.
The main reason for that is that the behavior of the Taliban types toward women is abominable, and I was willing to go to Afghanistan myself to set things straight.
Not being in Afghanistan, I am finding reasons to fight for the same things here, as there are any number of men in Australia who look up to the Taliban and use them as the reason to be ugly to their wives and girlfriends.
One danger of multiculturalism is that it allows people from worse cultures to influence people from better cultures.
The Taliban has had a highly poisonous effect on Western males.
And the point that nobody makes and should make is that the Taliban is the worse culture than anything that exists here, and that the differences between the West and the Taliban are a result of better ideas in the West and people being willing to stand by these better ideas.
Free speech, women's rights, education and science are better than lack of these things; and it is wrong for people who are culturally behind and don't have such things to influence people who are culturally ahead and do.
The people who go to war for Christian or nationalistic reasons are not much different from the people who go to war for Muslim reasons.
The real difference is with the people who are fighting for actual areas of the West's superiority to Islam.
It is the people who are fighting for free speech, women's rights, education, science, economic opportunity and more intelligent, more humane and more viable social covenants.
It is the proponents of the West's liberal tradition that have actually made these countries great.
Liberalism is not, as some claim, a threat to Western democracies.
Rather it is the source of the Western countries' greatest achievements.
It is at the root of science that is at the root of all technology and the bulk of economic activity.
It is at the root of free speech and women's rights.
It is at the root of the greatest works of art, the best forms of governance and the most noble ways of life to have been ever created.
It is what actually distinguishes the West from places such as Afghanistan; and it is time that more people possess the courage to say such things outright.
The relativist claims all perspectives to be equally valid; but it is obvious that the perspective of the Taliban is vastly inferior to what it seeks to supplant.
And it is wrong for the virtues of tolerance and compassion to be abused like this by a wannabee totalitarian force.
No, the perspective of the Taliban is not as valid as the perspective of someone who values such things as women's rights and social liberties.
It is vastly inferior to such perspectives and must be confronted at its own brutal level - mainly with the help of military technology that comes from intelligence and science.
At which point the true area of the West's superiority to the Taliban will make itself manifest and be used to push these brutal oppressors back into the hell that they've made for themselves and show for everyone's consideration who actually possesses better ways.
There are three major reasons why this is wrong.
First, there are women in the military as much as there are men in the military, and they do not demand that they come home to obedient husbands.
Secondly, it matters what it is that one is defending.
If half of the population are made to live in slavery, then one's claim of fighting for liberty is a lie.
Finally, wars today are won by technology rather than muscles.
It is a matter of brains rather than brawn.
And demanding that one half of the population live in subservience is a brainless stance.
I am the last person that one would expect to have anything to do with the military; but after 9-11 I called three different military recruitment services in America, where I resided at the time.
The main reason for that is that the behavior of the Taliban types toward women is abominable, and I was willing to go to Afghanistan myself to set things straight.
Not being in Afghanistan, I am finding reasons to fight for the same things here, as there are any number of men in Australia who look up to the Taliban and use them as the reason to be ugly to their wives and girlfriends.
One danger of multiculturalism is that it allows people from worse cultures to influence people from better cultures.
The Taliban has had a highly poisonous effect on Western males.
And the point that nobody makes and should make is that the Taliban is the worse culture than anything that exists here, and that the differences between the West and the Taliban are a result of better ideas in the West and people being willing to stand by these better ideas.
Free speech, women's rights, education and science are better than lack of these things; and it is wrong for people who are culturally behind and don't have such things to influence people who are culturally ahead and do.
The people who go to war for Christian or nationalistic reasons are not much different from the people who go to war for Muslim reasons.
The real difference is with the people who are fighting for actual areas of the West's superiority to Islam.
It is the people who are fighting for free speech, women's rights, education, science, economic opportunity and more intelligent, more humane and more viable social covenants.
It is the proponents of the West's liberal tradition that have actually made these countries great.
Liberalism is not, as some claim, a threat to Western democracies.
Rather it is the source of the Western countries' greatest achievements.
It is at the root of science that is at the root of all technology and the bulk of economic activity.
It is at the root of free speech and women's rights.
It is at the root of the greatest works of art, the best forms of governance and the most noble ways of life to have been ever created.
It is what actually distinguishes the West from places such as Afghanistan; and it is time that more people possess the courage to say such things outright.
The relativist claims all perspectives to be equally valid; but it is obvious that the perspective of the Taliban is vastly inferior to what it seeks to supplant.
And it is wrong for the virtues of tolerance and compassion to be abused like this by a wannabee totalitarian force.
No, the perspective of the Taliban is not as valid as the perspective of someone who values such things as women's rights and social liberties.
It is vastly inferior to such perspectives and must be confronted at its own brutal level - mainly with the help of military technology that comes from intelligence and science.
At which point the true area of the West's superiority to the Taliban will make itself manifest and be used to push these brutal oppressors back into the hell that they've made for themselves and show for everyone's consideration who actually possesses better ways.