In Other News... War Tears Families Apart.

Despite my cheeky title, this is going to be a serious entry. I read an interesting article on the Washington Post website today. It seems it is not uncommon for families to be split right down the middle, with some supporting the Taliban and Insurgency while the others support the war and the local government.

The article tells the story of Yar Dad Khan, a tribal leader in Mohmand who is strictly Pro-Government and his Taliban Leader cousin, Raheel Khan. According to Yar Dad: "There are some good people in the Taliban, who actually want to bring an Islamic system to Pakistan. But very few. Most of them are bad people, like my cousin."

Unlike many Taliban, Raheel was not the model Islam before joining. He was a grade school drop out who drank heavily and was generally not a religious man. His motivation for joining the Taliban was purely selfish. He was cut out of his father's inheritance and decided to go play Terrorist. Since then one family member has been killed, others have joined Raheel in the Taliban and the others live every day in fear of the man they once called family.

Not long after the emergence of the Taliban in the tribal lands that the Malik family held, they revealed their intentions to overthrow Tribal rule by assassinating the Maliks. They could be spared by vowing fealty to the Taliban but hundreds were killed anyways. The Maliks had plenty of enemies who were willing to help the Taliban in their crusade against the family. Plenty of lesser and rival tribesman where all to happy to grow a beard, join the Taliban and fight the righteous family. This is what enticed Raheel to join, since his father was a Malik.

After a Taliban raid of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the Pakistan Army arrested Raheel's father and uncle, who would be held responsible for Raheel's actions as a Taliban fighter. His family begged Raheel to abandon his ways and return home. He gave a resounding No by crashing a family wedding with 25 of his Taliban buddies and kidnapped the groom. The man was eventually shot dead for no apparent reason. The man was Raheel's cousin.

Stories like this just go to show how deep and complex the Taliban issue really is. Although it appears to be just religious extremists, the groups radical ways attract other, non-religious extremists, who will use the groups resources to wage their own wars, sometimes, on their own families. How do you fight a group of men with morals such as this?