Culture

 We didn't go into Afghanistan to ensure human rights. We went in because we declined to help the United States in Iraq and had to do something for our closest ally and best friend.

But now we've got ourselves in a terrible mess by suggesting that we won't stand for our men dying just so Afghan men can rape their wives. It's cultural intervention. And despite how furious we may feel, it's really none of our business what laws the Afghan parliament passes. Certainly not to the extent of punishing them somehow.

Nations have been in this cultural predicament before. Some African tribes require genital mutilation of young women if they want to marry. No mutilation and they might remain without husbands all their lives. Its a hideous practise but without it we are condemning young women to a hideous life.

We can and do try to persuade the mutilators to put down their dull knives but its tribal business and not ours. We can only hope that when education picks up in the villages, there will be an appreciation that mutilation is an unecessary horror and can be abandoned.

In Afghanistan, the unhappy position of women appears to be national law. How can we interfere?

Wasn't it Stalin who said when he hears the word culture he reaches for his gun. Now Canadians are doing the same.

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