Via Jerry Coyne, I see that Christopher Hitchens has given our military a sound spanking for allowing fundamentalist lackwits to use American soldiers as Warriors for Jesus. Not that I wasn't aware of it before, but it's rather depressing to see all of the stupidity concentrated in one place like this, not to mention appalling.
At least there's a small but growing contingent of freethinkers digging in their heels. Between them and the MRFF, hopefully there'll be enough troops crying foul to put a stop to the dangerous shenanigans. Otherwise, we're going to end up with Crusades: the Reprise, and you know what the Crusaders did when they got their asses soundly kicked in the Holy Land. They came back and trashed Europe. Do not doubt we'd end up in the same boat. Men with large weapons, an outsize opinion of themselves and a fanatical religious mission have to do something to salve their pride after getting humiliated. Beating up on the defenseless infidels back home certainly isn't beyond them.
And you thought all we'd have to worry about is PTSD and a terrible variety of crippling wounds....
Sharia still seems to be the law in Afghanistan. It was only a few years ago that someone was convicted of apostasy there for converting to Christianity. Note that, at least in our language, apostasy means denying the existence of a god. Supposedly, Christians and Muslims believe in the same god.
ReplyDeleteThese "missionaries" are endangering the lives of the people they're proselytizing. As Hitchens notes, that isn't something that's going to win us friends in Afghanistan.