Column: Shameful

11The war slogs on. The radical conservatives in power are widely regarded by ethnic minority groups, as well as by discontented pockets within the majority ethnic group and some of the international community, to be illegitimate. The ruling elite came to power only through intimidation, behind-the-scenes power plays, and close ties to a few sympathetically minded judicial mullahs. Its inspiration is a religious and social fundamentalism clearly out of step with secular-humanist enlightenment that now guides most of the modern world, as writer and Middle East expert Salman Rushdie so cogently wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece. Despite its regressive domestic policies and nearly unbelievably deplorable intelligence abilities, the ill-fated regime is as secure as ever. Its finely honed fighting forces are well equipped, high in morale, supported by the majority population because of ingenious government propaganda, and fiercely tenacious on the field of battle, though only a fraction of the nation's devoted troops have yet experienced engagement with the enemy.

11In short, the maddeningly obstinate ideological powers-that-be are somehow riding high, notwithstanding a crushing and expanding national indebtedness; a past-troubled economy now deteriorating with dazzling velocity; fantastic contrivances to finance a ferocious war machine; an eviscerated rubber-stamping political system absent even a trace of intelligent and conscionable dissent; and growing international enmity toward its rogue posture as an obstinate and quibbling obstructionist. The regime is determined to flex its ill-gotten power and propagandize the world on its bloody cause of righteousness, pushing aside all foreign and domestic counsel that over the years it has been the architect of many of its own problems.

Just as sorrowful is that the regime takes no interest in protecting its poorest citizens ravished by the elite's self-gratifying military spending and mixed bag of political, social, and religious fundamentalism. Instead, the nation's leaders, according to recent reports, have taken advantage of their high positions by scurrying from place to place to allude detection and have sought personal security by evacuating likely targets of future attacks. Meanwhile, the greater populace and the poor, the displaced, the homeless and hungry are left to their own devices, meager as they are.

At last count, roughly 170,000 inhabitants have lost their homes and suffer because of their government's obsession with"higher" ideological commitments. They roam the streets with little hope of finding even a semblance of permanent living quarters. Civilian mortality estimates vary depending on what group wishes to spin the story for its own p.r. purpose, but at least hundreds have died from circumstances utterly beyond their control. They are the expendable, forgettable pawns in their government's game of hubris. Both the dead and the homeless are merely inconsequential statistics arising from the elite's impersonal principles of rule.

The most credible reports indicate the uprooted of this besieged nation come from"urban communities, where tens of thousands of people are literally homeless." The rurally displaced aren't faring much better, often resorting to temporary accommodations with relatives in already"overcrowded and substandard housing." The long-term poverty stricken--assaulted for years by conscienceless government pooh-bahs and their favored financial cronies--remain most at risk because of having nowhere, and no one, to turn to.

Tragically, children account for roughly one-fourth of the homeless. Older citizens are said to constitute up to 20 percent, and families still with their children about 40 percent. Not surprisingly, ethnic minorities have suffered in greatest numbers, comprising almost 70 percent of the dispossessed population, but at least by now they're accustomed to government indifference, even hostility. The remaining homeless are older veterans, no longer of use to the regime's current military demands.

Of the poor who have managed to retain some form of chronically low-paying employment, they too wander the streets. An astronomical and, of course, impossible to obtain 87-hour workweek would be required of them to afford what little, limited housing is available. An astonishing 70 percent of the country's beleaguered cities and towns have reported an urgent need, at the very minimum, for temporary shelters for the homeless and demoralized.

Virtually all urban districts are registering demands by the destitute for food assistance, with three-quarters of those districts begging for emergency aid for the elderly especially. Every district has pleaded that emergency food supplies are critically needed for a prolonged period--not only for the severely cold winter months ahead. Chronic unemployment, involuntary homelessness, pathetically inadequate wages, and all the concomitant and pervasive poverty caused by government neglect chiefly account for these urgent needs--quite aside from the regime's decided penchant for militaristic habits and armed forces expenditures..

A few responsible officials struggling to be heard assert that even these depressingly high tallies are almost certainly underestimated, for it's impossible to accurately gauge the number of homeless and starving and at any given time. Many are on the move out of necessity or residing in unreported locations such as abandoned buildings.

11Meanwhile, government officials absorbed by military considerations have no coherent plans or even a stated intent to deal with these mushrooming social exigencies. In fact, they show no indication whatsoever of wishing to tackle relentless domestic depravations. The weak, the sick, the defenseless, the displaced and the hungry appear by all accounts to be unworthy of concern by a regime fixated with protecting its own and the few among the privileged class. All others are told to bug off, fend for themselves however and as best they can, and not to expect any largess that the government pours on itself and its friends.

11This regime is based not in Kandahar, but Washington, D.C., and the above statistics speak to our lasting shame and purported conscience.

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