It’s not always predictable just what will bring monstrosities to widespread attention. In Afghanistan, unnoticed horror has been piled upon horror for years, most recently under the government of the Taleban, a gang of despotic and brutal men calling themselves Islamic.
Consider this: in the middle of 1998, the Taleban massacred about 8,000 people in the town of Mazar-iSharif. They were killed because they were Hazara men, ethnic enemies of the Taleban. Many were shot in the streets or in their homes or in hospital beds; others were roasted alive and asphyxiated by being crammed into metal containers in the relentless August sun. Bodies were left in the streets as a warning, to be eaten by dogs._
The crime was remote and invisible – but it was quickly documented by such groups as Amnesty International. The reports attracted practically no attention, if only because the media were preoccupied by President Clinton’s lies about his ludicrous sex life.
Since then, the situation in Afghanistan has got, if anything,