across the table.
My brother is an Air Force JAG, and is currently serving in Afghanistan. His duty while there is, to put it simply, process terrorists. A typical day involves him sitting in a dimly lit room, staring at and talking to members of the Taliban that are brought and placed in a seat across the table from where he is seated. These men…no, I won’t even call them men…these subhuman atrocities of existence sit across a small dirty table from my brother, and casually deny any involvement with any terrorist group. There is evidence proving their involvement. Prisoners and citizens alike have confirmed their involvement. They are nonchalant, flippant, and yet according to my brother, the tension in the room is palpable. He feels that given the chance, they would take his life in an instant. They would celebrate it. Pride themselves in it. Rank themselves by it. And later, deny it.
I understand to a certain extent the complexities of war and loyalty. No person wants to incriminate his or her self. One can perform an act deemed heroic by his or her peers and can then later deny involvement in the event of capture and interrogation. It makes sense. It is what any reasonable person would do. And yet I refuse to give this credit to the Taliban members that sit across the table from my brother. They have organized terrorist attacks all over the globe. Unprovoked, they have murdered thousands of innocent people. They oppress women. They recruit and murder children. In the midst of all of this, they celebrate their achievements. They act and give thanks in the name of God and a religion they consider unsurpassable. They commit suicide, deeming it acceptable if and only if innocent others are murdered in the process. And through it all? Pride. Absolute and undeterred pride. They boast their completion of this and other unconscionable acts, deemed as religious duties mind you, in released videos, local news networks, and public word of mouth. And yet, while alone in a dimly lit room with a young American lawyer, they deny it all.
I don’t care about your religion and the duties it requires. I don’t care about your rank or your loyalty to service. If you have the spiritual strength to murder thousands in the name of an unprovable God, have the strength to admit it to a nervous, young American. You are a coward.
Also, I am extremely proud of my brother.
