Wow. In addition to having a website, the Taliban now have a playbook, laying down rules for their military code of conduct.

Curiously, it reads very much like an American guide to military operations in civilian populations: be polite, do not kill non-combatants, avoid torture and mutilation, stay out of people’s homes, and so on. Great stuff, but there seems to be evidence that none of it is being obeyed.

CNN obtained this—the Czar won’t ask how—in Afghanistan, and folks on the American side as well as the Afghan side find it ruefully funny. The Czar doubts these books are being carried by any ṭālib, unless his job is to drop them in places where they are likely to be found by civilians.

“Hey,” the discoverer is supposed to think, “these Taliban sound like really cool guys. Look at the rules they play by. Nice fonts, too.”

What this means to the Czar is that the Taliban realize they are losing the psychological war, badly. Pakistan, in particular, showed that given a choice between the brutality of Sunni Šarīʿah Islamism, and secular, American-style democracy, the people will choose the latter because you and your loved ones tend to live. The American plan tends to live up to the hype. Imagine: we now live in a world where millions of Pakistanis are liking us for the first time.

Ergo, the Taliban realize, if you want public support, you need to stop shooting them in view of their families, cutting the corpses’ heads off, and then raping the surviving family before robbing them and slicing their ears and noses off.

Or at the very least, say you don’t do these things. Who knows? Maybe they’ll believe it.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.