Three Cups of Deceit
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson is a bit of a staple in college classrooms, including my own. It is a poignant story of one man's struggle to help educate the girls of Afghanistan. A promise he made after being rescued by the villagers of Korphe following an unsuccessful bid to scale K-2, the world’s second highest mountain. He struggled mightily in his cause; the Taliban kidnapped and held him hostage in Waziristan and blew up the schools as fast as he could build them. His book gave me hope for Afghanistan as it struggled against the Taliban and a purpose for our presence there. I agreed with columnist, Nicholas Kristoff, when he said, “So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.” But it appears Kristoff and everybody else has been hoodwinked. Yes, duped, and in the worst sort of way. Not onl...