Afghanistan: The War for Girls

Afghanistan: The War for Girls

www.nick.com

What kind of people would harm a mother and father simply because they sent their daughter to school?

The answer: The Taliban, apparently.

And, now, as absurd as it might sound, they're reportedly threatening the lives of parents who want their daughters to get an education.

Why?

Because according to their understanding of Islamic law, girls are not supposed to get an education - or at least not much of one.

"If we send our children to these schools, then the Taliban will come to our houses

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.google.com
www.presstv.ir
www.google.com
www.latimes.com

Reading about this is what makes me support the war in Afghanistan.

What kind of men would kill a family for sending their children to school?

Certainly no one who has a relationship with God. It is hard to imagine anything more brutal.

They have also spread their terrorism across the border into Pakistan, blowing up numerous schools in that country as well for trying to educate girls.

Clearly these people have no respect for the beliefs of others. There can be no peace with people who commit such atrocities.


www.nick.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

And tov erify that this is recent story, here is the search page from google. This article was written Jan 8, 2010, and is a new development in the war.

news.google.com...

While I find these types of law abhorrent, who are we to say how they should live? If we justified attacking any country with a questionable or poor human rights record -- we'd be fighting all over the world. And frankly, China would be right at the top of the list! And for China, it's worse in my opinion because of their status in the world's economy and moreover, because they actually consider themselves to be a democracy!

No amount of military muscle is going to change laws such as these. The only way Afghanistan women are going to be permitted to attend school is if the actual citizens of Afghanistan fight for it!

The only way to win against laws such as this is if the people fight to have them changed. The citizens far outweigh the Taliban and need to band together in order to save their own country.

Remember the Afghan law that gave a man the right to rape his wife? Do you remember the international outcries AND the displeasure of the women? This law was changed -- still not perfect, but much improved -- and not a single drop of blood was spilled. Rather, it was the collective protests that occurred within their borders. At best, international support gave them the courage to voice their opinion, but in the end it was they themselves that forced the law to change.

People in the Middle East and elsewhere really don't care how we want them to live. They want to be able to live how THEY want to live.

reply to post by lpowell0627


Which is why the international community should be raising outcries against this current practice by the Taliban. Bring it out into the light.

We no longer live in isolated communities. With immigration, people with these beliefs can move in next door.

These types of behaviors should not be ignored, and should not be excused as acceptable, because some people think this way. This is something violent religious radicals are forcing on the people of Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

In addition, we should be equally speaking out against human rights violations. We need some level of human rights around the globe.

I agree with you both. We need some UN standards, and sanctions, but at the same time, people within the countries need to be willing to fight for their own rights.

America did not win against the British monarchy alone. The fact of the matter is that people with similar ideologies DO gang up to knock out groups with ideologies that threaten their own. There just isnt an easy answer. Leaving everyone alone isnt the answer, and neither is intervening everywhere.

I applaud you both for even trying to find a "right" answer, because I contemplate this often, and I have come to the conclusion that there just isnt one. Or, at least not one I will find.

Reading about this is what makes me support the war in Afghanistan.

The problem is that soon american children won't be able to eat no more or already don't have good education... you know why? Because all that money is spent in a useless war in Afghanistan.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


Yeah, it is mainly a matter of getting people to recognize universal moral principles.

The propaganda war may be more important than the physical war.

So many people love to paint the U.S. as the enemy, but when you start pointing out the atrocious things that our enemies are doing, it moves the argument a lot further in our direction.

I don't care what cultural beliefs people want to hide behind, blowing up schools, and killing families who send their children to school is down right evil.

Make no doubt, the Taliban are the bad guys, and their engagement into this type of activity makes this perfectly clear.

reply to post by Vitchilo


We sure could reduce our military budget a great deal. I agree with you on that, but this problem with over spending on defense has been going on far longer than the war in Afghanistan.

How is it that we couldn't even defend our own nation on 9-11 with our huge military budget.

Originally posted by lpowell0627
The citizens far outweigh the Taliban and need to band together in order to save their own country.

German citizens far outweighed the Nazis too.

In this small world, with these religious nut jobs treating their women like they all too frequently do, it is like living next door to a guy who constantly abuses his wife and children.

At some point you got to take action.

"taking action" is all well and good to say, but what do you mean?

If you mean spreading information and awareness of an issue, so be it. If you mean speaking out about human rights abuses and starting private groups that will lobby governments and agencies in other countries to aid in change, fine.

If you mean the US government doing anything other than talking (giving money, adding conditions to friendship, bribery, threats, war, interfering action, etc) then you can forget it.

The US Government has no moral or practical cause, justification, or need to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations.

reply to post by traditionaldrummer



Godwin's Law? In MY ATS?!?!
apparently it has no effect, interesting.


back to topic:
IMO, it is akin to seeing a kid being bullied. Sure, you could walk on by, but chances of others being bullied by the same bullies increases each time you ignore it. Shouldn't someone stand up to the bullies?

Of course the situation is much more complicated than that, but the principles are the same.


[edit on 11-1-2010 by cjcord]

reply to post by poet1b


I realized I just parroted what you had posted, apologies for the redundancy^^.

not my business, not my country- China doesn't permit another party other than the communist party, countless African nations indulge in barbarity that would make Afghanistan look quite advanced

Personally what I think is that the problems in the third world become a source of deflection and transference for many people living in the first world.

We have lots and lots of problems here, unemployment, corrupt government officials, artificially low wages that cause many people to become indentured servants to credit card companies to get by, high crime in our inner cities that results in the warehousing of entire generations of people, and a deeply entrenched victim dictum attitude where no one individual is responsible for their own actions that often play into these things.

In large part because most individuals would prefer to focus on injustices they perceive in the third world and to morally and financially and militarily back efforts to end those injustices instead of the ones going on here.

Why?

Because nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety nine times out of one hundred thousand the people worried and decrying about these things aren’t actually going to go to the third world themselves to do anything about it just like they aren’t going to do anything personally here to end the injustices in the first world.

They are going to cheer someone else on doing it! At the same time while cheering them on they have given themselves a false notion that they are making the world a better place by having a distant minority dictate to a large silent majority in another country the edicts of a sometimes vocal and often silent minority there.

In this strange bizarre round about way they actually imagine they are making the world a better place while completely escaping the reality of their own world right here and making it a better place for the fantasy feel good and easy notion of making someone else’s world a better place.

I don’t mow my neighbor’s backyard or pull the weeds from it or rake the leaves in it.

I concentrate on my own yard hoping to give the lazy neighbors a hint!

I do try to keep in mind though that maybe, just maybe they prefer the all natural look!

reply to post by KrazyJethro

If you mean the US government doing anything other than talking (giving money, adding conditions to friendship, bribery, threats, war, interfering action, etc) then you can forget it.

The US Government has no moral or practical cause, justification, or need to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations.

Sorry, but I disagree.

Why should most of our planet be controlled by warlords?

It seems to me that you support the right of the brutal thugs to control most of the planet, WHY?

I think my rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should exist anywhere I go on this planet.

Why shouldn't I be able to support the method and means to stop these warlords around the planet from denying me and my fellow human beings the rights that we should all enjoy.

It is not like we can lock our borders from refugees from around the world fleeing from these warlord thugs.

Once again, because technology has made our planet a very small place, what is happening around the planet effects us all.

Everyone on the planet cannot live in the restricted regions of our planet where rights are defended, therefore we have no choice but to fight for the rights of man to be universal across our planet.

This means, that because the problems of the third world are having a great impact on the first world, we have the right to end the abuses of third world dictators and warlords everywhere on this planet.

It is quickly becoming a necessity to defending our rights at home.

edit to correct script error.

[edit on 11-1-2010 by poet1b]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

Because nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety nine times out of one hundred thousand the people worried and decrying about these things aren’t actually going to go to the third world themselves to do anything about it just like they aren’t going to do anything personally here to end the injustices in the first world.

I would say your numbers are off quite a bit. A fairly large percentage of our population volunteers in our military with the knowledge that they are obligating themselves to fight in third world nations for the rights of the people there.

In addition, there are large numbers of people in first world nations who voluntarily go to third world nations to aid in providing humanitarian relief, and to shine a light on abuses there.

reply to post by poet1b


Alot of people join the military because they can't support their families or find a semi decent job. If you want to do good then join a volunteer group, you join the army for pay and security or kill if you have the mental issues required to acutally seek that out. They do that rather than turning to crime to survive, they go where they are told to go. It is not a nice little tea party where everyone votes on which destination they want to go to in an effort to raise moral standards globally. They are a tool of the government to carry out policy overseas, the sophisticated warlords as opposed to the ones hiding on the hills and in caves.

Alot of the troops in the third world want to come home make no mistake.

Edit: If you think it's all about making the third world a better place you are mistaken. It's money

And whilst they foreclose on your house and ship your job off to the third world where they will do it for pennies your worried about poor Afghan children's education. Warped

[edit on 11-1-2010 by Bunker or Bust]

[edit on 11-1-2010 by Bunker or Bust]

This is just horrible. What is even more horrible is that we cannot do much about it. I would agree with the western world intervening in such cases, but we simply do not have enough resources or abilities to do something more than talking. Remember, this is a country that we invaded to stop things like this (among other things )
The only solution is to painstakingly build infrastructure, educate and support third world countries, but, after all, the people of those countries have to change their mindset themselves.
Sometimes it is a sad world we live in...