Substack

As for the Afghan shooter in D.C.:

I immediately thought that this was probably a case of out-and-out lunacy, but I decided not to write about it. I do not know this man. I was not his therapist. I was not in the room in Bellingham.

On the other hand, many ex-fighters suffer from PTSD, but they do not often drive clear across the country in order to shoot the uniformed representatives of the country for whom they’ve once worked and who, thereafter, rescued them and their family from Taliban hell--which is precisely what Rahmanullah Lakanwal did.

Since then, I’ve spoken to some Afghans who are shocked, angered, humiliated, and now terrified by so “evil” an act. Will they suffer some collective punishment that might be as unjust and ineffective as the failure to have vetted all Afghans who worked for the CIA? Indeed, as the failure to admit so many unvetted immigrants to our country?

One Afghan actually identified with the National Guard, who had been out there, during the shutdown, working for no pay--and who were then shot down by an Afghan.

Another Afghan told me this: “Lakanwal comes from a very rural, very primitive, very religious area--Khost--where the women are not even allowed to address their fathers-in-law or brothers-in-law because such men are not viewed as close enough family.”

Could Rahmanullah be a Jihadist, an Islamic assassin, stewed in interpretations of a death cult that has instructed their followers that carrying out “Death to all Infidels” would guarantee them a one-way ticket to Paradise? While Westerners might view this idea as “crazy,” in most Muslim countries it is not viewed as such.

Robert Spencer, in today’s FrontPage Magazine, viewed the fact that Rahmanullah was butt-naked as he was carried to an ambulance--and that some say that he had shouted “Allahu Akbar” when he fired on the Guard members--as either highly suggestive or proof that he had undressed in order to be ready for the many virgins who’d be waiting for him in Paradise.

On the other hand, Anthony Blair, in the New York Post, reports that Lakanwal’s behavior was “so disturbing” that a local community advocate “reached out to a refugee organization for help.” Reportedly, Lakanwal “has not been functional as a person, father, and provider since March of last year (2023).” He struggled “to assimilate, failed to hold down a steady job or commit to learning English.... Alternating between periods of dark isolation and reckless travel.” He sometimes spent “weeks in his darkened room, not speaking to anyone, not even his wife or older kids.” He had “manic episodes” in which he took off in the family car and drove nonstop “as far as Chicago or Arizona.”

According to an unnamed community member, he seemed so depressed that they “feared he would harm himself.”

I can hear what his Qatar- and Muslim Brotherhood-funded left-wing defense lawyers might say. It’s all America’s fault, for going into Afghanistan in the first place; then, for removing Lackanwal from Khost to Kandahar, to an anti-Taliban CIA Zero Unit, in which his pre-existing killer skills were vastly improved--and for having provided him with money that might have supported his entire extended family and a large part of his immediate village. In doing so, America sealed his fate in terms of the Taliban. He and his family could never have remained “in country” after that. America should never have gone and should never have stayed in that God-forsaken place. The CIA should never have trained Afghans to kill their own. Lakanwal’s deed is on us, on the CIA, on America’s imperial reach.

Oh yeah? Afghans are world-class specialists in killing their own--fathers and mothers kill their own daughters in honor killings; family members kill one another; different tribes specialize in killing members of other Afghan tribes (Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks, Balochs, Turkmen, Nuristani etc.); the various governments specialize in killing dissidents, gays, and women, always women, who want to live in the 20th or 21st century, not the 7th century.

Talking about women--America may not have intended to educate a vast number of women and poor people, but they managed to do just that. Women became doctors, lawyers, judges, teachers, artists, small business owners, athletes--and more. Importantly, girls and women also had shelters for battered women and rape crisis counseling for help.

Not a bad thing, not at all. I myself was privileged to co-lead a grassroots feminist team that rescued 398 women from Taliban Hell in 2021. Among those whom I helped rescue, not a single one is a Jihadist. Some of those whom I’ve come to know may still be religious--but they are not engaged in Jihad of any kind. Their skills and ambitions are very Western.

As everyone knows, long, long ago, I was once, quite unexpectedly, held hostage in Kabul. I can assure one and all that the indigenous customs of the country are as rigid as they are barbaric. Even westernized Afghan men, as my first husband surely was, usually revert to form upon their return. They have no choice if they wish to survive and even prosper there. However, such men do not necessarily behave in such Afghan ways in the West. Some do--hence the preponderance of Muslim honor killings in the West.

As some of us have said: One may not be morally obliged to do something that cannot be done. Although there are so many precious exceptions in terms of Afghan individuals, the country itself, historically, has always, always returned to the 7th century. A reformer Afghan King, Amanullah, was ridden out of town on the proverbial rail and lived in Europe, in Italy, for the rest of his days.

Even the great and terrible Soviet Empire could not defeat the almost barefoot Afghan religious warriors, known then as the Mujahideen--and yes, of course, America also had a hand in that and in all matters concerning Iran and how the Great Game was played in both regions have been the subject of many books and movies.

Lakanwal is only one of many thousands of genuine Muslim jihadists who have been penetrating and attacking both the infidel West and Israel. We fail to recognize this at our peril. But most of Europe and parts of the United States and Canada have absolutely refused to understand this.

Okay. Should President Trump deport Lakanwal’s wife and children? That would be harsh. Should the president stop all immigration from a certain number of Muslim countries for now? Alas, probably, yes. Is this “Islamophobic”? I think not. According to the National Library of Medicine, look at what’s happened to cities just in Sweden in terms of the exceedingly high rates of rape by first- and second-generation “immigrants from the Middle East and Africa.” Probably Muslim immigrants, yes? No?

Lakanwal committed a terrible and premeditated crime that calls out for American justice. Serving that principle is not “Islamophobic.” When will Americans realize that a full-scale jihad against America and Europe is well underway? I hope that we can find just ways to respond to this clear and present danger.