Taliban Outduels US in Green

Once again, the US is surpassed by an Asian country in the Green Revolution.

You expect the Chinese to do it.  Their Revolution never stops, so they have all the infrastructure.  The last American Revolution was all about Dot.com's and we know how that worked out.

But now it is the Taliban.

How embarrassing is that?  Mullah Omar's Taliban.  These are the guys who plan to spend most of their time detonating the occasional Buddhas, enforcing a head-to-toe-but-not-hands burka law and stoning anyone they can see without a beard (thankfully, the burkas protect the women).  Not that kind of stoning, either, even though Afghanistan has more poppies than decent stones.

You probably think war is not that great, but it can foster Green innovation.  And it has in a place where the last know innovation was...  Okay, that's not the point, because innovation is happening now in  Afghanistan.

In ancient and even recent times, shields were made of wood and/or metals, like highly polished chrome-steel and the less glamorous cast iron.  They were pretty effective if you could lift them.  But wood requires cutting down carbon-dioxide-gulping trees and metals must be mined, melted, purified and cast or hammered into usable shapes.  All of that metal work takes energy, generally from carbon-based fuels, probably trees again, worsening Global Warming and threatening to flood the family poppy farms.

The Taliban solution may not be for everyone, but it is Green.  Afghan Human Shields.  In Afghanistan, humans, especially women and children, are plentiful and need no hot smokey fires to purify them, although that would help. Unlike oak or metal shields, human shields make your enemy think twice before trying to shred the shield to get to the combatant's vital organs.  In the Taliban case, that might not include the head, but big deal.

Best of all, these days, human shields can last for days and are recyclable as all get out.

Can you wait for this high-powered close up:  Mullah Omar getting his Nobel Prize?