Kris Kristofferson wrote that freedom was just another word for nothing left to lose. I can't help but feel the Bush Administration was going by that definition when they decided to bring freedom to the Iraqi people - or for that matter, the Afghans. Under Hussein, the Iraqis were tortured, oppressed, and murdered by their own government; also, they had free health care, running water, electricity, jobs, and homes. Now that they're free, they've still got the torture, oppression, and the violence, possibly on an even larger scale, but with all the good stuff gone. Research it - one of the first official actions of the US in Iraq was to privatize health care. I wish that was a joke.
The Taliban were brutal religious fanatics. AND they denied women driver's licenses. AND they banned music. That's the two main criticisms I've heard repeated about them by our media - they wouldn't let women drive, and they outlawed music (and dancing!). I have no doubt they were (and will be again) an awful bunch of dictators, but saying that and not qualifying it is just ignorance. There are a couple things that need to be stated here: 1) Western history is filled with similar people who represented a transitional stage towards something more enlightened, 2) Afghanistan was a scene out of Mad Max before the Taliban brought order, and 3) Afghan women are now free to be... astronauts? Climatologists? Soldiers? Politicians? How about none of the above - they're free to go on with pretty much the same future as any other woman in the Third World - they'll be treated as second class to the men and live and die in poverty.
But back to banning music. In Western history, possibly the first recorded example of music censorship was when the Christian Church, ca. 400 AD, banned a particular chord - one that was considered too dissonant and provocative for musicians to use in performances. When Hendrix was alive and making his mark he actually used that chord a fair bit, think it was a Minor 9th or something... anyways, the irony in all of this is religion's preoccupation with the soul - yet you've gotta be pretty soulless to want to ban music. The attempt to censor music may be related to the attempt to restrict sexual activities by various religions and governments; institutions wants you to find happiness in service to them, and anything like music or sex, activities where the participants find happiness independent of any institution, are competitors to be eliminated.