Fresh attacks on Pakistan schools

[Coventina]

Source: BBC

Taleban militants have blown up another five schools in north-west Pakistan, officials say, despite a government pledge to safeguard education.

The schools were destroyed in the town of Mingora in troubled Swat district.

The Taleban issued an edict in December that private schools must close by 15 January as part of their campaign to ban education for girls.

Meanwhile the Khyber route for supplies into Afghanistan was temporarily closed on Monday after a militant attack.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7836875.stm

[ananda]

1. The Taliban are seriously sick,..

... and sociopathic individuals.

This is one of the saddest and most
deplorable results of the incompetent
interference of Bushinc in the ME.

[libodem]

2. Wow

They must hate public education as much as Dr. Laura. Especially female children need to be safeguarded from any outside influences that might compromise her virginity or make her anything less than a housewife and mother.

[Bragi]

3. I appreciate your effort Coventina

I can see from your postings that you are trying to generate support for war against the Taliban, but I think the reality is that the war in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan has nothing to do with womens rights, girls education, etc. This war is about oil pipelines and geopolitics. When it's over, the tribal thugs, drug lords and religious extremists who have run the place for the last 200 years will once again be in charge.

Based on a lot of reading I've done on this region and this war, I am confident that nothing is going to change for women or anyone else in this poorest and most backward of countries as a result of yet another decade of bombings and killings.

Obama should be ending this war, not escalating by sending in more troops.

- B

[Coventina]

4. Are you calling Pakistan the "poorest and most backward of countries"?

I'm sure there are many well-educated and urban people in Islamabad who would greatly disagree with you.

You don't do a very good job of mind-reading. I am posting these stories because, as a woman, when women or girls in other countries are attacked for their gender, it is a concern to me.

I am trying to raise awareness of what the Taliban is doing in PAKISTAN. A nuclear power! It is rapidly becoming a failed state, the people of Pakistan are fighting for their country's soul right now.

I don't want the US to go to war in Pakistan. But what if Pakistan's nuclear weapons fall into the hands of the Taliban? What then? I don't have the answer to that question, but please let me know what you would do!

[Bragi]

5. You ask:

"But what if Pakistan's nuclear weapons fall into the hands of the Taliban? What then? I don't have the answer to that question, but please let me know what you would do!"

The Pakistan government may indeed, eventually, be overtaken by Islamic extremists, and what happens to their nukes is a matter of concern. But the Taliban would be a very tiny and inconsequential part of any resulting power structure.

The Taliban are backward Pashtun medivilists with no political agenda beyond turning the clock and society back to the 14th century. They have no imperial ambitions in Pakistan or anywhere else. They only matter politically and militarily in the ungoverned northwest territories of Pakistan, along the Afghan border, and in southern Afghanistan itself. They are not a significant force within Pakistan. Accordingly, the Taliban are not really an issue when it comes to Pakistan's nukes.

Needless to say, I share your abhorrence of the views of women held by most Islamic extremists. However, I believe the wars now being waged in the Pashtun areas will do nothing to change the situation of women in these sad societies.

- B

[Coventina]

6. "The Taliban would be a very tiny and inconsequential part of any resulting power structure"

Really? Just like they were a tiny and inconsequential part of the power structure of Afghanistan? It seemed like they had a big political agenda in that country!

I'd love to believe you. Please give me the links to the materials you have read that assure you of this.

Also, I'm not quite so pessimistic as you about the plight of women. I believe that there are many men in these "sad societies" that want their women and girls to be educated. Cultures are never monolithic entities, and we should be encouraging the forward thinkers, not turning our backs and shrugging our shoulders about the society's tragic backwardness.

[Bragi]

7. Here are two worth reading...

I said the Taliban are inconsequential in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.

I found two books that gave me the best context and overview of the situation:

War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, Revised Edition (Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/War-Top-World-Struggle-Afghanistan/dp/0415934680/ref=pd_bbs_

On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/Road-Kandahar-Travels-Through-Conflict/dp/0385662378/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232388079&sr=1-2

Regular columns by both authors are also instructive.

Margolis has a site with all his columns:
http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries.aspx

Burke's writings can be found at the Observer website.

You wrote: "I believe that there are many men in these "sad societies" that want their women and girls to be educated. Cultures are never monolithic entities, and we should be encouraging the forward thinkers, not turning our backs and shrugging our shoulders about the society's tragic backwardness."

I don't disagree with encouraging forward thinkers. However, this cannot be done through military force of the sort that Bush introduced, and Obama now intends to escalate.

- B

[Coventina]

8. I'll look for those books at my library, thanks.

But I must say that I am NOT CONVINCED, at this point, that the Taliban are or will be inconsequential in Pakistan.

[Bragi]

9. Truth is...

You wrote: "I must say that I am NOT CONVINCED, at this point, that the Taliban are or will be inconsequential in Pakistan."

Me either, though I will concede that the preponderance of evidence I've seen seems to lean strongly that way.

- b

[EFerrari]

11. Taliban 2.0 wear suits and use IPhones. And yes, both the Afghani

Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban operate in Pakistan and are networking with dissidents in the inner cities.

[truebrit71]

10. I agree with you...Pakistan is on the verge of collapse...

...and the Taliban continue to infiltrate further and further away from the tribal areas...the idea that the Taliban has no interest in Pakistan's nukes is laughable...