Do the Code Pink anti-war ladies want to abandon Afghan women like the one pictured above on a recent cover of Time magazine? Do the Democrats that President Obama was worried about last year when he announced a decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan want to abandon such women to the terrors of the Taliban? Reports about Bob Woodward's new book about the Obama administration indicated that Obama inserted a promise to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 in his troop increase announcement because he said "I can't lose all the Democrats". Does Obama realize that he is President of the United States and that he should make decisions that are in the best interests of the country, not just the Democrats?
The woman pictured above, named Bibi Aisha, was disfigured by her husband after local Taliban leaders in her village (where NATO troops have not yet taken over) found her guilty under Sharia law of abandoning her abusive husband when she moved out of his house. The penalty ordered by the Taliban was to have her husband cut off her nose and ears.
Such practices under Sharia law were common during the Taliban rule that preceded the US and NATO invasion nine years ago to overthrow the Taliban government. That objective was quickly achieved, but establishing a competent new government has taken much longer, and it seems that many are growing weary of protecting those Afghans who are now living in a more civilized society than existed in that country before 2001 while also taking the necessary military action to drive the Taliban and its extremist influence out of other areas.
One person who remembers why we need to remain in Afghanistan until the Karzai government can stabilize its control of the country and secure its own countrymen and women is Laura Bush, the former First Lady. On Sunday, she wrote an editorial about the struggles that Afghan women face even today and what could be at risk if Western troops leave too soon.
"Nine years ago, many around the world learned of the severe repression and brutality against women that was common in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Girls were forbidden to attend school. Women were imprisoned in their homes and denied access to doctors when they were sick. And Afghanistan had the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.
Today there are encouraging signs of progress: More than 6.2 million students are enrolled in Afghanistan's schools, and 35 percent of them are girls. Afghan women serve as government ministers and lead as provincial governors. Women have been elected or appointed to the National Assembly. Afghan women work as entrepreneurs, educators, lawyers and community health workers. And their work is essential to the growth of the Afghan economy.
Yet serious challenges remain. A culture of fear still silences women. In many rural areas, those who dare to teach receive letters threatening not only their own lives but their children's as well ......
Though some Afghan leaders have condemned the violence and defended the rights of women, others maintain a complicit silence in hopes of achieving peace. But peace attained by compromising the rights of half of the population will not last. Offenses against women erode security for all Afghans -- men and women. And a culture that tolerates injustice against one group of its people ultimately fails to respect and value all its citizens."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100806343.html
There is no moral justification for pulling our troops out of Afghanistan just to appease anti-war Democrats and "peaceniks" who live in cozy suburban homes when the Afghan government is not yet able to secure the rights of all of its citizens without the risk that the Taliban fanatics could regain control.
It is strange that left wing liberals are often campaigning for the US to help oppressed people around the world, even as Americans contribute more generously to victims of disasters, disease and oppression than citizens of other countries and our government does more to help foreign countries than any other. But when action to help others results in violent conflict, national resolve is limited due to the cries for withdrawal from the conflict by the same left wingers.
Well, at least Bibi Aisha has received the generous help of American charity and goodwill. She has received a new nose from plastic surgeons in California and has escaped the terrors of the Taliban. Sphere: Related Content
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