5 Feet of Fury

Is Malala Yousafzai equating Western soldiers who kill the Taliban to… the Taliban?

“I started thinking about that the Talib would come and he would just kill me.

“But then I thought, ‘If he comes, what would you do Malala? Then I would reply to myself, ‘Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.”

“But then I said, ‘If you hit a Talib with a shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib,” she continued.

“You must not treat others with cruelty and that harshly, you must fight others through peace and through dialogue and education. Then I said, ‘I’ll tell him how important education is and that I even want education for your children, as well.

“And I would tell him, ‘That’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.'”

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This post is pre-coffee, so bear with me:

To state the blatantly obvious:

Malala Yousafzai is a courageous individual.

In a society in which cowed office workers meekly obey orders not to say “Merry Christmas,” few of us can imagine having her kind of principled fortitude.

Now, it’s fine if Malala Yousafzai wants to adopt a surprisingly Christian attitude as her personal response to an assault, and as a path to individual sanctity.

However, like all non-violent philosophies, it presumes an equally civilized and sophisticated opponent, and the Taliban are neither.

They are not Christian (or even Roman soldiers in 30 AD.)

They are not the even post-war Japanese or Germans.

The Taliban are illiterate, primitive, low IQ Muslim pedophiles.

They are beyond the reach of reason or even normal human fellow-feeling.

They need killing.

Look: Jon Stewart and his audience thinks her’s was a wonderful answer.

Isn’t that all you need to know?