A Painful Story

#22 - The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Finished 5/1/07
Rating: 4/5
Total Pages: 391
Reason for Reading: b-a-w ATF list
REVIEW: A great read. The pages literally flew by. A painful story about family and betrayal, set mostly in Afghanistan over a time period of 30 years or so. Reading about the Taliban and how they treated the common people was certainly illustrative about how cruel man can be to his fellow man. The atrocities committed by this regime, driven by greed and an insatiable desire for power, made my heart ache with despair. Highly recommended, even if some of it is very difficult to read.

* * * * *

I'm still hurting from this book. The story will resonate inside my heart for a very long time to come. Completely by coincidence, while reading the news this morning, I stumbled across a five-minute slideshow of a medical unit based in Afghanistan, accompanied by audio voiceover. Powerful images. A painful reminder that young soldiers are dying in Afghanistan as the world tries to keep political power out of the hands of the Taliban.

The experiences recounted in The Kite Runner, in combination with viewing these photos, and knowing that dozens of Canadian soldiers have been killed in this ongoing campaign (seven last week alone, and of course all of the other soldiers killed in this ongoing conflict too) -- all of these have left me feeling distinctly uncomfortable and uncertain about the right way of moving forward in today's world. What are the lessons that we will learn from this -- as a human species? Surely there are better answers than human beings running around shooting each other? Yet alternative effective solutions have so far eluded the modern world. Sometimes everything seems very complicated. From what I've learned previously about the Taliban regime, and now what I've read in The Kite Runner, surely we must do everything we can to stop this dangerous and cruel faction from regaining control of the country.

Sigh.

And the battle goes on. And more young men will die. And it's all very real. Please read The Kite Runner, learn more about the Taliban by clicking here, and watch the slideshow (link below). Remember that real people are losing their lives over this.

The Guardian --> Britain's War in Afghanistan: Life and Death on the M*A*S*H Shift