From Salon: 'If we kill schoolgirls, you shouldn't be surprised'

[flpoljunkie]

"If we kill schoolgirls, you shouldn't be surprised"

Responding to threats from the Taliban, at least 10 girls' schools have shut down in northern Afghanistan.

By Matthias Gebauer and Shoib Najafizada

May. 29, 2009 |

When the deputy director of Aqtash High School talks of the government, he isn't referring to Hamid Karzai's central government in Kabul. Nor does he refer to the provincial administration in Kunduz. "The Taliban are our government," Bashir says. "They have taken over our region, their commanders give the orders here."

Bashir is standing in a dusty classroom on the ground floor of his modern school, roughly half an hour from Kunduz by car. As recently as just one month ago, he says, some 400 girls were still coming to the school in three daily shifts to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Figures and formula are still scrawled across the blackboard.

But now, the girls' classrooms have been left to deteriorate. The desks and chairs are still laid out in neat rows, but a film of dust has collected, and Bashir stands helplessly in the middle of the room. "Parents in Aqtash are afraid to send their girls to school anymore, after the death threats," he explains. The school director speaks quietly and carefully. He too is afraid, and several of his teachers double as informants for the Taliban. The bearded fighters, he says, would certainly not like it if they knew a reporter was at the school in Aqtash. "You should leave quickly if you want to get out of Aqtash alive," he whispers.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/29/taliban/print.html

[Dogtown]

1. K&R n/t

[flpoljunkie]

2. Still the news isn't all bad...

Still, the news isn't all bad. At the girls' school in Qosh Tappeh, likewise near Kunduz, the school director, a veteran of the mujahedeen, took things into his own hands. When the Taliban showed up to his school for the second time to present their threats, he found a uniquely Afghan solution to the problem. He told his visitors that, when it comes to fighting to the death, he is much more experienced than they. Should they like to find out for sure, he offered, he would be happy to accommodate them.

His threat seemed to have worked. The girls in Qosh Tappeh continue to attend school.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/29/taliban/print.html

[BeFree]

3. Our response has been....

Bomb Them!! Predator drones. Cruise missiles.

What we should do is have our troops stationed near every school.
How long have we been there now?

[SpartanDem]

8. That's why Obama is doing the right thing and sending more troops

But right now we don't have the manpower

[AllentownJake]

11. This is going on in half the world

Why is Afghanistan special? :shrug:

[Hippo_Tron]

18. Because their neighbor has nuclear weapons

[ensho]

4. the religiously insane are dangerous

people, everywhere in the world, should get them out of their communities.

life would be so much more peaceful and harmonious.

[Wednesdays]

5. K&R

:kick:

[Catshrink]

6. This makes me sick.

My nephew is headed there in June. He says it's a safe area and is the only region the Taliban hadn't conquered. I think he's misinformed. It's going to be a very long 9 months.

[flpoljunkie]

10. Some of our troops there are riding around in Humvees, not MRAPS, and getting killed.

Obama needs to get MRAPS to all our troops on the ground in Afghanistan ASAP.

[snowdays]

12. I wish him well. and to you and your family

[Catshrink]

13. Thank you...

This war is suddenly becoming very real. I've seen the photos of children and civilians killed and they moved me. I've seen the photos of caskets returning and grieving spouses and families. But now it is real, not an abstraction. I had to turn off the Memorial Day Concert from DC because it hit a tender spot.

His mother, a total "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" freeper, won't even talk about it. She changes the subject if we even mention it. I guess it's real for her now too.

9 months. I'm scared shitless for him and his unit. For all of our soldiers placed in harms way.

[snowdays]

16. It became 'real'

for my family last fall when a nephew was sent to Iraq.

I do not want to watch either. I can not imagine what my sister is going through.

Have a good day

[LisaM]

7. This is sickening

Aghanistan, what a failure.

[Cha]

9. Ye gods...we should have

stayed in Afghanistan and not bombed Iraq. And, I don't go around giving the military advice.

[Beacool]

15. I agree.

But I fear that now Afghanistan will be for us another failure as it was for the Soviet Union. They are a hard nut to crack and the Taliban is too far entrenched to let go. What a damn shame!!!

:(

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WinkyDink]

17. Exactly my moral dilemma. The Taliban are evil; I have no qualms wishing them dead.