Simple Phrases "Diplomats" Can Say To Ensure Endless War

H/t: Abu Muqawama
("Your daughter is beautiful" and other things you should not say to a rural Pashtun)

Just call this the OMFG! Story Of The Day:

Holbrooke to Pashtun father: “I would like to dishonor your daughter”

Nice work Holbrooke. Via WaPo, h/t BruceR:

U.S. envoy Richard C. Holbrooke, red-faced and sweaty, sat on the dirt floor of a stifling tent as Aslam Khan, a 38-year-old laborer, spoke haltingly of his family’s panicked flight from a Pakistani army offensive against Taliban forces in their mountain village, three hours north of here.

Holbrooke asked some questions about the Taliban but got few answers. “Are these all your children?” he asked with a smile. Yes, Khan said, he had nine.

“Your daughter is beautiful,” Holbrooke continued, nodding toward a young woman who sat quietly at the edge of the family. Her head was covered in a royal-blue scarf that revealed only her stunningly dark eyes.

“That’s not my daughter,” Khan said abruptly.

Yeah that’s what you should do, tell rural Pashtun men that you’d like to take their daughter for a test drive,"
[In Full @ Ghosts Of Alexander]