Democracy in Afghanistan

I've blogged about this before, but now that young journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh has had his death penalty commuted to a mere twenty years in an Afghanistan dungeon for the crime of supporting equal rights for women, it's time to raise the question once again: what exactly are our troops dying for?

For this:

We sentence you, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, to 20 years in prison for insulting Islam and the respected Prophet Mohammad.

In Afghanistan, a land of torture and boy-rape, both abetted by Canadian forces, a former journalist, Ghaus Zalmai, is doing hard time for putting up the money for a translation of the Qur'an. He, and a mullah who had approved the translation, and a publisher who issued it, were found guilty of "errors." He got twenty years, as did the mullah; the publisher was let off with a mere five.

For those simpletons on the Right who never tire of playing the alleged "Left/Islamism alliance" card, turnabout is fair play. Let's hear your alibis and excuses for continuing to prop up mediaeval Shariah law in Afghanistan. With the blood of our troops.