According to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (a journalism outlet created and sponsored by the U.S. government), Taliban forces in Afghanistan have killed twenty people and wounded ten others who refused to pay a “war tax” to that group. The report is slim on details, though another version sources the report to Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a “police spokesman” from Kunduz Province.
Ruth Benn of NWTRCC reacted to the news this way:
I am immediately reminded of what minimal risks I face (and most of us in the U.S.) with my own war tax resistance. I hope I would be strong enough to say no to militarism under those circumstances too, but it’s impossible for me to really imagine that moment for those 30. I am awed at their refusal, which does not lessen the sadness at such news for lives lost in the name of endless war and killing.
I believe war tax resistance can be a stronger force in opposition to war. If the government had to take more notice the risks would increase. It seems the least we in the U.S. can do to honor those unnamed civilians in Afghanistan is to find ways to strengthen our resistance and worry less about risks.
