Throughout history, we’ve seen it: Despair, poverty and war breed desperation.

Saturday, October 20, 2001

Throughout history, we’ve seen it: Despair, poverty and war breed desperation. And out of desperation can rise fanaticism.

Tyranny is not usually far behind.

It was these conditions that gave rise to the Taliban in Afghanistan. And knowing how a desperate, lawless country can become ripe for totalitarianism, we all should have seen our current enemy coming.

After the Soviet puppet government was taken down in the late ’80s, Afghanistan fell into near anarchy. Warlords and their competing militias fought in the streets, robbed travelers and killed civilians. The victory over the Soviets brought no relief for a country that’s been ravaged by destruction for 20 years.

Out of this mess rose the Taliban, whose strict application of extreme Islam brought order to a society that craved it. The Taliban were merciless, but when they rose to power, they were fighting the warlords and bringing their form of justice to the land. It was welcomed by many.

Unfortunately, a ruling militia that wins its power through force cannot be stopped once it’s in control.

The 20th century saw the rise and fall of fascism and communism, forces which left millions dead in their wake and threatened the existence of democracy everywhere. Whether you’re talking Nazi Germany or the communist movement, the conditions sprang from desperation. When people put faith in a fanatic movement that seizes power through war, the result is an oppressive and destructive government that keeps its grip on the nation through more and more killing.

The warning signs have been there all along for the Taliban. They first made headlines when they assumed control of most of Afghanistan and imposed rules based, they said, on Islamic law. Television, movies, and non-religious music were banned – as were amusements like kite flying. Women were kicked out of their jobs and schools, and thousands of widows were forced to beg on the streets because they are forbidden from working. Sculptures and photography of living things were declared illegal.

Since then, we’ve heard about the Taliban destroying massive ancient statues because they were considered blasphemous; forcing members of religions besides Islam to wear tags identifying their religion; and detaining several foreign aid workers – two of them Americans – on charges of spreading Christianity.

Some of those actions can be seen as defending their own relgion and culture; but the Taliban is responsible for atrocities that hardly seem justified by the Quran.

The Taliban has terrorized the Afghan people, obstensibly to discourage support for the Northern Alliance, made of up ethnic minorities and warlords who used to reign over parts of the country.

As recently as February of this year, Human Rights Watch issued a report describing Taliban massacres in May 2000 and July 2001, in which members of the Hazara ethnic minority. It described piles of bodies, many of them international relief workers.

This is what happens when the people have no say in government. You may get lucky and have a benevolent dictator, but you’re just as likely to get fanatics who do whatever they please, whenever, and will do anything to keep their power.

This is why now is a time for all of us to appreciate our democratic system. A democracy can be messy, with plenty of bickering and in-fighting. Things don’t get done fast in a democracy; change happens much more quickly under a dictatorship.

This makes it easy to understand why America has stood up for democracy across the globe. This is also ironic, because America’s abandonment of Afghanistan after the Soviets fell helped usher in the very anarchy the Taliban quashed.

It should be a lesson that when we try to help other nations, we aren’t just meddling. And making the world safe for democracy is in all of our interest.

Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor. His column appears Sundays. E-mail him at dylan.belden@albertleatribune.com.