The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Pashtuns-Never too old to die fighting

    By jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 7:21pm |

    A moment of truly spine tingling synchronicity:(cue the Twilight Zone theme music...): Just as Clint Eastwood was proving that 82 is too old to vamp, back in Afghanistan, a member of the people once described as Clint Eastwood in a turban was proving that 70 is not too old to die fighting.

    *A nightime raid by Australians had drawn the ire of President Karzai. Responding, a U.S. spokesman offered the current blanket categorization that if you are military age and dead, you are a Taliban. The wrinkle here is that we now recognize that Pashtuns never quit.

    Now, let me say at once as a nineteen year old with noncomforming paperwork, that I am fully in sympathy with a rule of thumb that recognizes my military worth.

    That said, the idea that any random dead 70 year old is in fighting trim does give pause, closing the circle back to Clint who just yesterday had occasion to question the wisdom of undertaking our excellent Afghan adventure, albeit his 82 year old brain blamed Obama for going in rather than his real blunder, doubling down.

     

    * " the raid killed 70-year-old Haji Raz Mohammed and his 30-year-old son, Abdul Jalil, and a spokesman for the provincial governor said the two men were not part "of the Taliban. Captain Einert said the two men were “military-aged” insurgents."

    Comments

    And all those lazy mooching leeches here in the US are taking early retirement at 62 claiming they can't find a job. They don't want to work! As you quite correctly point out there's jobs for them in Afghanistan for a good eight years if they really wanted to work.


    by ocean-kat on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 12:14am

    I for one, am prepared to return to Afghanistan and bring my special talents in service to the Afghan women who, let me say right here. are smokin'. It's one thing to drop the military age to twelve (ten?eight?). Pushing it to 70 is a hoot! ( for us-trust me, you wouldn't want Haji Raz behind you with a knife, let alone a gun.)

    by jollyroger on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 2:08am

    The question is, when will the Eternal Flamers (cum 'baby' "boomers") BEGIN to FIGHT these 0bamanable, DEMiserepubilkan halfascist unitary partiers pillaging OUR ​POSTERITY?


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 10:33am

    When, you ask? Why, just as soon as the Holy Boomer Three return in a cloud of acid. That would be Jimi, Janis, and Jim. For, Lo, I saw Hugh Romney, and his gravy was wavy, and he spoke of those dead these many years, and he warned that of the blue or purple acid we might eat, but of the brown acid we should tasteth not, for lo, bummers lurked therewithin. Does that answer your question?

    by jollyroger on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 3:49pm

    And I heard again the voice of God, and it proceeded as of yore from "wolf" the sacred harp that sang under the hand of Garcia, and he told me of St. Stephen and asked me "what's become of the baby?" and so I wept in my shame that things had come to such a pass.

    by jollyroger on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 4:14pm