{"id":22487,"date":"2005-02-28T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:55:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T06:55:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:55:23","slug":"the_work_ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"The Work Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: &lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/www.hometownlocator.com\/City\/Wellersburg-Pennsylvania.cfm”>Wellersburg, Pennsylvania&lt;\/a>. Dave, welcome to the program. Great to have you with us, sir.<\/line>CALLER: Alpha-omega dittos, Rush. Been with you from the beginning. We\u2019ll be listening to you at the end.<\/line>RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/line>CALLER: My pleasure. Hey, I wanted to know what\u2019s your take on the economy in Afghanistan? How are things shaping up? You know, is a strong economy taking root over there over there?<\/line> RUSH: Well, not yet. I mean, this is the thing about Afghanistan. When you go over there with the American experience as your comparison point, you look at it and say, “This is not possible.” I looked at it, and said, “This is not possible.” Folks, this is like plugging it into the wall. I mean, this is where we are. It\u2019s that basic what has to happen. These people have not had <\/emphasize>an economy for 20 or 30 years to speak of because they haven\u2019t been free to engage in one. They\u2019ve been trying to stay alive. They\u2019ve been running away from gunfire and oppressors. The stories that I heard about the way women were treated in this society under the Taliban would make you retch. Now, the progress in Afghanistan what you have to do is you have to stop that and then turn it around — and it\u2019s a huge country. They\u2019re doing their best to align it and unify it. I\u2019m optimistic about this. I\u2019m just saying that my first exposure to this was a very sobering one because the task ahead is massive. It is literally massive. Here\u2019s what has to happen in terms of the Afghanistan people having their own commencement you know they don\u2019t even have a banking system? They don\u2019t know the concept of interest. There\u2019s no interest paid. There\u2019s no interest charged. <\/emphasize>There\u2019s no interest earned. So a banking system is being taught. By who? The United States. In addition to that, they have no rule of law yet. All of this… They\u2019re establishing the court system. They are establishing a way to adjudicate, oh, conflicts and disagreements in court. <\/line>Now, if you\u2019re an international investor. Let\u2019s say you want to put in a hotel. Let\u2019s say you want to build a series of hotels there or whatever business. You\u2019re not going to do it until there\u2019s a rule of law where you\u2019re going to be protected and defended against any number of crimes that might occur or cheating, whatever. You\u2019re just not going to find people putting money in. But India has just agreed to fund a number of projects. Karzai, when I had met with him, he had just gotten back from two days in India where he had gotten an agreement. India wants to run a natural gas line through country, but they\u2019re not going to do it until there\u2019s a rule of law in there where it\u2019s protected, where if people vandalize it, that there are penalties and captures and so forth, and that there\u2019s a system to prevent this from happening. They need a police force. Police force is being trained, but it\u2019s very small. One of their big problems is that it\u2019s sort of Colombia. There\u2019s a huge drug trade with opium, the poppy. They\u2019ve got poppy fields over there, and one of the conditions the United States has set forth with President Karzai is, “Our military is not into crop eradication and we\u2019re not going to do that. Our military doesn\u2019t do that; you\u2019re going to need to have a trained domestic police force that can handle that. We\u2019ll help you, but we\u2019re not getting involved in domestic political or legal affairs like this. We\u2019ll do what we can to help you in development,” and Karzai understands this because a number of other people are saying: <\/line><\/p>\n

<\/a>Until you do something about poppy eradication, you\u2019re going to have a whole segment of your society that\u2019s lawless and murderous and just full of renegades<\/emphasize> — and it is a big problem because here are people that are not educated. They can\u2019t read or write but they can make tons of money by growing poppies and selling the stuff off for heroin and other derivatives. So that\u2019s a big obstacle that\u2019s in the way. All of these things are being worked on. The number of people that can read in that country, you would be shocked at how few it is, and so there are programs underway to teach women to teach other women to read. There\u2019s a whole academy in Kabul called the Women\u2019s Literacy Institute<\/a>, I think, where young women are being taught. Two years ago, three years ago, women didn\u2019t have the right <\/emphasize>to leave their homes or their villages to do anything — to vote, to do anything. Now they\u2019re being trained to read, taught to read and then taught to teach others to read. So, folks, that\u2019s why I say, “Your country is doing the Lord\u2019s work over there,” and so much of what we take for granted is a huge project there. But I\u2019ll tell you why it\u2019s worth it — and I mentioned this in the first hour. Security. Freedom and security, the twin pillars of this policy. Well, the twin pillars of what I ascertain the policy to be. You have to understand why we\u2019re doing this. This is not a Meals on Wheels program. We\u2019re not doing this because liberals have gotten hold of the system and we just are trying to be nice. <\/emphasize><\/line>That country was the staging and training ground for the people that blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9\/11, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and as I mentioned in the first hour: “If you look at Osama bin Laden\u2019s history, he always went to countries that were stateless, that were lawless and basically took over. There was nobody that was going to do anything to him first in Somalia, then to Sudan, then to Afghanistan.” Well, you can\u2019t have that. After 9\/11, it just makes no sense whatsoever to allow such circumstances to continue. But our belief is you don\u2019t have governments by installing puppets who are going to ramrod policies down the people of the country\u2019s faces and make them do this. You establish a government by having the people of the country do it. Hence you have elections. Hence you sponsor and foster freedom. You foster a free market economy that the people of the country create by virtue of their own commerce, not by infusions of cash from the US foreign aid budget. There\u2019s not enough money to do it that way and we\u2019ve proven with our own welfare state that it doesn\u2019t work. You just can\u2019t give people money and create prosperity. All you get is dependence and corruption. So the point here is to develop the country, bring it into the 21st Century with at the same time a free people as the engine of it. But for that to happen, there are certain basics that need to be explained and taught. I was told a story while there one night at dinner. Does the name (Grand Ayatollah Ali al-) Sistani [ news<\/a> | bio<\/a> | website<\/a> ] mean anything to you? Sistani is a Shi\u2019a leader in Iraq. He\u2019s a Shi\u2019a leader, and he is pro-American. <\/line><\/p>\n

He\u2019s one of the assets that we have. He\u2019s not officially aligned, but he wields a considerable amount of influence, and he was being lobbied by the US. When the Iraqi constitution is finally ratified, he was being lobbied by the US to support the notion that it must be ratified by a three-fourths vote, not just a simple majority — and he didn\u2019t understand this, didn\u2019t understand why. “Why should we go to that?” It was explained to him by a very pro-American friend of his from Oman. He said, “You have to do it that way so that there\u2019s no doubt <\/emphasize>that\u2019s what the people want. When they ratify your constitution, it\u2019s got to be three-fourths vote, otherwise it doesn\u2019t happen.” He said, “I don\u2019t understand.” He said, “Well, that\u2019s what Americans did,” and Sistani said, “Americans do that?” Yeah. “Well, when did America do that?” “America did that 200 years ago. The Founding Fathers of America demanded.” They said the man from Oman told Sistani, “One of the reasons America is great and one of the reasons America has survived for 200 years is because in its founding, its Founding Fathers understood the necessity of having their be no doubt about the future of the country as its constitution was ratified, and that\u2019s why you have got to support what the US wants is a three-fourths vote, 75%, whatever, a vast majority in order to ratify this so there\u2019s no doubt.” Sistani thought we had only forced this on them but we had not lived it ourselves. <\/line>He didn\u2019t know. In that part of the world they don\u2019t know who Thomas Jefferson is. They don\u2019t have these basics that we\u2019re taught and grow up with. It\u2019s not part of their experience. So as I was told, Sistani told his friend from Oman, “All right, let me look at this,” and two weeks later he came out he came out and supported the notion of a three-fourths vote to ratify the Iraqi constitution when that day comes. He had been persuaded because he had done some research into American history. The point of this is, you go to certain circles in that part of the world where they understand that they have been living in squalor and tyranny and oppression and a Fourteenth to Fifteenth Century manner, they want out of it and they really do look to this country as the example of how. You don\u2019t hear about them much. Have you heard this Sistani story reported? Of course you haven\u2019t. There are many other such stories that I heard during the course of the trip. You know, we are a far more influential nation in that part of the world than you would know by simply reading the US media, and we are far more respected than you would know, particularly by those who are aligned with us and want our help. <\/line>They\u2019ve gone to the trouble to understand why we are the way we are, and they understand that we are not forcing <\/emphasize>our way on them to punish them. That\u2019s been their experience. One Afghanistan citizen told me that he was scared to death of these elections. His experience was if you voted for somebody, and your guy lost, the guy who won would come and shoot you for not voting for him! That was their experience with leadership. If you didn\u2019t support the leader, you died. Hence, 99% of the people voted for Saddam. They didn\u2019t want to get shot. I\u2019m talking about Afghanistan, same thing there. These are Moslem countries, and when they were assured that, “No, no, no! If your candidate loses you just reorganize and fight another day for your candidate to win. Nobody gets shot,” they were ecstatic! They couldn\u2019t believe that they would live if they didn\u2019t support whoever was demanding that they support for them or vote for them. I heard these stories all over the place. But that\u2019s where they were when we started this, and there\u2019s just a long way to go. But, folks, it\u2019s well worth it. This is not idealism. This is just humanity. It\u2019s worth it because there are two benefits: Our security and the emancipation and the development of the people around the world who have been literally living under somebody\u2019s shoe for generation after generation after generation. <\/line>END TRANSCRIPT <\/line><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: &lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/www.hometownlocator.com\/City\/Wellersburg-Pennsylvania.cfm”>Wellersburg, Pennsylvania&lt;\/a>. Dave, welcome to the program. Great to have you with us, sir.CALLER: Alpha-omega dittos, Rush. Been with you from the beginning. We\u2019ll be listening to you at the end.RUSH: Thank you, sir.CALLER: My pleasure. Hey, I wanted to know what\u2019s your take on the economy in Afghanistan? How are things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: &lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/www.hometownlocator.com\/City\/Wellersburg-Pennsylvania.cfm”>Wellersburg, Pennsylvania&lt;\/a>. Dave, welcome to the program. Great to have you with us, sir.CALLER: Alpha-omega dittos, Rush. Been with you from the beginning. We\u2019ll be listening to you at the end.RUSH: Thank you, sir.CALLER: My pleasure. Hey, I wanted to know what\u2019s your take on the economy in Afghanistan? How are things […]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"description\":\"Excellence In Broadcasting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/\",\"name\":\"The Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-19T06:55:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-19T06:55:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Work Ahead\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_title":"The Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show","twitter_description":"RUSH: &lt;a target=new href=”http:\/\/www.hometownlocator.com\/City\/Wellersburg-Pennsylvania.cfm”>Wellersburg, Pennsylvania&lt;\/a>. Dave, welcome to the program. Great to have you with us, sir.CALLER: Alpha-omega dittos, Rush. Been with you from the beginning. We\u2019ll be listening to you at the end.RUSH: Thank you, sir.CALLER: My pleasure. Hey, I wanted to know what\u2019s your take on the economy in Afghanistan? How are things […]","twitter_image":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/","name":"The Rush Limbaugh Show","description":"Excellence In Broadcasting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/the_work_ahead.Par.0002.ImageFile.jpg"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/","name":"The Work Ahead - The Rush Limbaugh Show","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2011-05-19T06:55:23+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-19T06:55:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2005\/02\/28\/the_work_ahead\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Work Ahead"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}