Legal Hegemony

     Shari'a laws are primitive, and I bet if I talked to anyone I know, between them and myself, we'd agree on that point.  This agreement, however, in no way, shape or form gives us the right to go and tell any third person that our opinion is right for them.


     You might well have read any number of articles about the "rape law" in Afghanistan that would have allowed Shia men to rape their wives, in addition to a number of other backward ideas.  You could have read as many articles as you wanted in the US media and none would have mentioned that, in some parts of the United States, that was legal as recently as 1994, when the Violence Against Women Act was passed.


     This came to mind because I'm reading an AP article on the US backed government of Somalia.  This government has 1800 soldiers being paid by the US, since, without a paycheck, many simply defect to the enemy.  The US backed government is soon going to start an offensive to try to take back parts of the capital "most of which is held by al-Qaida linked Islamist rebels."  At what point does America say that a government which has lost most of its capital city is no longer really there?  By the way, the EU is also sending military trainers, but they are going to Uganda to do the training.