moderately crazy
Andrew Stuttaford writes about the difficulty of finding “moderate” Taliban leaders: Moderately Crazy.
Mullah Omar Mohammed, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader, is, we are often told, insane. A twitching, convulsing Cyclops in a turban, this lunatic clergyman is, apparently, a standout kook even in a region famous for its delusional and psychotic despots. Amazingly, however, he might not be the craziest participant in the current crisis. That distinction may have to be reserved for the urbane and superficially more normal-seeming Colin Powell, a man who, according to press reports last week, has expressed an interest in “reaching out” to more “moderate” elements in the Taliban, a task about as anchored in reality as an attempt to find Charles Manson’s inner sweetness.



