May/June 2009 Issue

The Great Game, Afghanistan Edition

Who wants to be an Afghanistan expert? (Some not so trivial trivia.)

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1. A key reason the Taliban banned opium production for the 2001 season was:

  • Religion
  • To drive up the value of their opium stash
  • To punish Helmand, the top poppy-growing province
  • Poppies too colorful

2. To which Hollywood action hero does a movie mujahideen deliver the following line: “Alexander the Great try to conquer this country…then Genghis Khan, then the British. Now Russia. But Afghan people…They never be defeated!”

  • James Bond
  • Rambo
  • Chuck Norris
  • The Governator

3. In the first half of 2008, how many more bombs and missiles did the US and NATO use in Afghanistan than in Iraq?

  • 5%
  • 59%
  • 146%

4. What percentage of seats in Afghanistan’s provincial councils are held by women?

  • 2%
  • 14%
  • 25%

5. In 2008, when 6,593 Afghans were asked, “What’s the biggest problem in your local area?” the most common response was:

  • Too much violence
  • Not enough electricity
  • Unemployment

6. Under the Taliban, men’s beards were required to be at least how long:

  • One fist below the chin
  • A week’s worth of growth
  • Two inches

7. Just 8 percent of Afghans support the Taliban. What percentage say its leaders should get to hold office if only they agree to disarm?

  • 19%
  • 43%
  • 64%

BONUS: Match the quote…

8. “The United States government is wholeheartedly committed to the full participation of women in all aspects of Afghan society.”

9. “We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy.”

10. “I’ve never understood why we give a damn whether a girl goes to school in Afghanistan.”

11. “We do know [bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan or in some other country or dead.”

12. “If we set ourselves the objective of creating some sort of Central Asian Valhalla over there, we will lose. Because nobody in the world has that kind of time, patience, or money.”

  

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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