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bopinion · 3 years

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2021 / 33

Aperçu of the Week:

"You must not believe everything you think!"

(Heinz Erhardt, German humorist of the 1950s)

Bad News of the Week:

Joe Biden currently faces as much criticism for developments in Afghanistan as any other leader in the Western "alliance against terror." One could have assessed the strength of the Taliban just as well as the weakness of the Afghan government and its army trained and equipped by the West. The estimates of the intelligence services should have been questioned, diplomats should have been listened to better. The predicament of the so-called "local forces" could have been avoided. This is obviously confusing cause and effect.

It was the Republican George W. Bush (or rather the hawks around Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz) who started the so-called "war on terror", first in Afghanistan, and invented the carte blanche of pre-emptive strikes with the Bush Doctrine ("National Security Strategy"). For those interested in the background, Bob Woodward's book "Bush at War" is highly recommended. And it was Republican Donald J. Trump who signed the virtually unconditional troop withdrawal agreement with the Taliban last year, which is now being executed according to plan. To now blame the current administration for the development is ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous is the current pretense that the Afghanistan campaign was a success. After all, its objective was to dry up the retreats of Al-Qaeda and, above all, to kill Osama bin Laden. Fun facts on the side: none (!) of the 19 attackers of 9/11 came from Afghanistan, Iraq or the African Horn, but 15 (!) from Saudi Arabia, like bin Laden himself. But especially for the Bush family the Sunni fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia have always been untouchable. And where was bin Laden finally caught and killed? In Abbottabad. And that is not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan.

According to Time the rise on Taliban would have been impossible "without Pakistan's shelter and support". Associated Press writes about the role of Islamabad that it "does permit the Taliban leadership on its territory and its wounded warriors receive treatment in Pakistani hospitals. Their children are in school in Pakistan and some among them own property. Some among Pakistan's politicians have rebranded the insurgents as 'the new, civilized Taliban.'" To understand the complex relationship between the two states, it helps to look at the history books. Spoiler alert: it's not the U.S. that's to blame, but the British.

The hereditary enmity - yes, you can call it that by now - is based on the so-called "Durand line." The British colonel who gave it its name drew a border line between the two states, which had strategic reasons but completely ignored ethnic regionality. Thus, the West's ignorance of the cultural distinctiveness of this region already has a long history. The Durand Line cut right through the tribal areas of the Pashtuns. After the Pashtuns proclaimed "their" state Afghanistan, this border was of course never officially recognized. And independence or affiliation efforts of the cut Pashtuns, often on the brink of civil war, were actively supported. In turn, Pakistan has been trying to destabilize the Afghan state with political and economic measures for almost 70 years.

What do we learn from this? It has never worked when a Western power has tried to impose its values on a colonial people, ignoring their culture and history. Not with the British in Central Asia, not with the French in Indochina, not with the Americans in Korea or Vietnam. Or before that the Spanish in South America or practically all Europeans in Africa. So have we learned that by now? I'm afraid not...

Good News of the Week:

During the lockdowns, there was a real boom in Germany to get pets. The cat was supposed to replace the missing social contacts, the dog to guarantee the possibility to leave the domestic quarantine. So not the best conditions to ensure the welfare of the creatures - pets are not toys!

The thematically responsible cabinet member, Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner, now wants to counteract with new animal welfare regulations. Thus for example the chain keeping of dogs is to be forbidden, they must get daily at least one hour free run and also the puppy raising is to become more kind-fair. And also in the zoo specialized trade more expert knowledge becomes obligatory, in order to prevent among other things that domestic animals are given into a care, which could not be animal appropriate.

In the wake of recent developments such as the ban on chick shredding, the requirement for more species-appropriate housing with more space for cows and "employment material" for pigs, and the ban on imports of wild birds, this gives me hope. Of course, these are all just (too) small steps, but at least they are going in the right direction.

Sidenote: Tonight my son gets a "vacation dog" for two weeks once again. So the requirement "at least one hour of exercise in the fresh air per day" will not only apply to the dog Tzela, but also to the prospective professional gamer... ;-)

Personal happy moment of the week:

I could listen to music all the time. And of course, in a family household, I can't ruthlessly "acoustically dominate" everyone all the time. And I like good sound quality - so 5.1 surround sound for Netflix, DAB in the car and HomePods in the living room are a must. In addition, the increasingly digitalized communication in the home office with web conferences and Teams meetings demands a good headset. The solution for everything is - of course - good headphones. So last year I did a test run for several weeks with a pair of cheap Bluetooth headphones to see if I could live well with a permanent Mickey Mouse on my head. It made sense before investing, because after all, there were more and more rumors last year that Apple would eventually merge its experiences with AirPods and Beats by Dr. Dre into its own high-end headphones.

And then they really came on the market: the AirPods Max. When I finally went to order them as a birthday present to myself, my ears were shaking: more than three months of delivery time? OMG... No wonder that in that time span (and at my age) I had at some point forgotten that yes, there was still something in the pipeline. Until I finally got them last Thursday. And they also fully met my expectations. Now I'm happy, my roommates have their peace and everyone else has something to laugh about when I'm out and about with "Apple's purse" (because that's exactly what they look like in their Smart case).

I couldn't care less...

...that possible coalition partners of the German government after the elections at the end of September are already bickering about the typical German topic "speed limit on highways". As a driver of an electric car, I hardly ever drive faster than 100 km/h anyway. I prefer to stay in the right lane "attached to" a bus with cruise control and distance radar and ride towards my exit in a relaxed manner. And the famous, equally typical German driving pleasure? I get it from the barely comparable acceleration power - with which I can overtake practically everywhere and also make most of the big gasoline-powered cars look stupid at the traffic lights. Nice!

As I write this...

...I run every ten minutes first to the basement and then upstairs to the office. In the former, the freezer is defrosting and I have to constantly wipe up the new puddle of ice water from the floor. And in the second, the system update is running on the Mac and I have to keep clicking "Okay" - or read for what feels like the seventeenth time that the next step will take "about five more minutes". Every third time I go over to the neighbors, whose cat I'm taking care of for the weekend, to see if the madam has deigned to show her face, so that I can let her into the garden. Presumably the activity rings on the Apple Watch tonight will let me know I've had an athletic day.... ;-)

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