Yesterday, while answering questions about Afghanistan and it’s new law that legalizes rape for the Shiite minority (10 to 30 percent of population), the president indicated that while he believes that the law is “abhorrent,” as indicated in the White House transcript, while rationalizing it by saying that “it is very important for us to be sensitive to local culture.” He also says that nations should respect basic human rights but does not outline a way to pressure or influence this violation occurring right under our noses in Afghanistan (other than merely have our views “communicated to the Karzai government"). While I personally do not recommend that we start making our troops go out and defend women in Afghanistan while they fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, I think that if we truly respect human rights we should pressure the Karzai government to rethink its decision. This is the problem with nation-building in general, if we make Afghanistan our baby then we have certain responsibilities. Were our policy more of military cooperation against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, our link to this human rights abuse would be less direct. At this time, while American forces are fighting the Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to tacitly support a law that only benefits Shiites may further legitimize the Taliban ideology by exposing religious divisions. The Taliban are fiercely anti-Shia and may be able to use this to their advantage. On various levels, not doing more to stop or repeal this law would run contrary to our goals in Afghanistan. Obama’s appeal to cultural tolerance must have its limits…

Curiously, cultural tolerance goes extraordinarily far when talking about the violation of human rights in Afghanistan, but falls short when observing harmless local customs in France. While France’s first lady, supermodel Carla Bruni, gave a hug and kiss to Michelle Obama, when she tried to kiss President Obama on the cheek he awkwardly turned away and shook her hand instead. Strange. I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to tolerate a kiss from her:

Its an odd double standard.

-AG