Water tank poisoned at Afghan girls' school; 140 hospitalized

Sick SOBs poisoning a bunch of little girls.

It's totally alien to me.

Do the perpetrators not have little girls of their own or little girls in their family? If so, do they hate them as well?

Women & Girls are treated as slave objects and do not participate in decision making regarding them selves; what to wear, what to do, who to marry etc. They are not supposed to go out with other women--must be accompanied by a man from their family. Many are expected to meet the sexual needs of their family members including uncles and even fathers & brothers. Thus the family members are their biggest perpetrators.

This is the way it goes with conservative, fundamental, ideologist/religious men. Its a tight control game.
There are many different "team names" but they are all the same functionally. Its called RELIGION.

Life is starting to remind me more and more of dystopian science fiction.

..when I refered to those who do these things as "Talibastards".

...about Marines urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban. I expressed in no uncertain terms my complete lack of sympathy for the Taliban, gort my post hidden and was flamed. I believe, by well meaning people who had no idea of what the Taliban really does. Posting some photos of young women with noses cut off and acid burned faces for wearing perfume and attending schools did change some minds.

doesn't justify the desecration of corpses. "They do worse shit than we do." is not much of a standard to aspire for. This type of behavior doesn't make the soldiers' jobs any easier. To many of us these members of the Taliban who commit these atrocities are some of the lowest forms of human being. But when the armed forces do something stupid I see no need to make the comparison. That's just me. But it doesn't mean that it would bother me a whole lot if the victims and their families got their revenge either.

It's too good for them.

"Leaders", religious and secular, who won't decieve people into hating and killing each other.

What we DON'T have is the right to militarily force our culture and values upon them.

We need to send healing thoughts and wishes for enlightenment to Afghanistan, not bullets and bombs and American warriors.

There's very little tolerance for fundamentalist religious wackos on DU.

&feature=related

I've been flamed hard for supporting women's issues when the people who were harming women weren't Fundamentalist Christians. NEVER flamed when they were and I said similar things against what Fundies believe in regards to the non-rights of women.

....you get the drift.

inconvenient DU truths or whatever, especially when the topics about hard core patriarchal religious shittiness....

Are the humanitarian aid workers who have to go in and try to clean up the mess our wars - all wars. - leave in their wake. How these people hold it together after seeing this kind of shit and still manage to function and not crack up is beyond me. These are the real "holy" people, in my opinion.

...and attacks have decreased dramatically since then, according to Ahmed Rashid in his new book, "Pakistan on the Brink."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan?page=full

I was looking for that article, which showed what a modern nation Afghanistan was becoming until it became another battlefield for Superpower supremacy.

or is this just "shut-up money" that he'll split with his drug lord brother...or protection money for the fossil fuel pipeline running through Afghanistan?

Karzai wants 'at least $2 billion' a year from US

Source: AFP News

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said he wanted "at least $2 billion" a year from the United States after it withdraws its troops in 2014.

Karzai said the US should specify in a partnership agreement to be signed between his country and the US how much money it will give to Afghanistan after they leave.

"They (US) say we will give you money, but will not specify the amount. We say give us less, but write it down," Karzai told a group of university professors and students in Kabul.

"We want them to write down that America will give for Afghanistan's security $2 billion a year -- or at least two billion a year", he said. "If they want to give us more, they are welcome."



http://news.yahoo.com/karzai-wants-least-2-billion-us-141710318.html

Afghan females; schools, hospitals, shelter, etc. Let the men fight it out with each other; it seems that many Afghan women would be better off living where men can't get to them.

How do we know it wasn't foreign (probably US) soldiers that did this?

While I'm no fan of this war, or some of America's despicable war crimes, I'm going to call bullshit on this claim - that US soldiers would have participated in poisoning the drinking water of a girls school.

Either US soldiers, in a completely new tactic, have decided to start poisoning girls for no reason or the Taliban in part of their decade old traditions (centuries for that basic mindset) have decided to continue murdering girls that dare to receive an education as they'd done thousands of times in the past.

It's like if you hear a dog barking outside your window at night but can't see it. You *could* assume it was an escaped emu from the zoo that had learned to perfectly copy a dog bark and it is the one making that racket. Or you could say it's probably a dog, doing what dogs have always done.

think American soliders did this shit? On the basis of what?

you wouldn't be doing that, would you?

think they're worse than the Taliban?

But better yet, lock up the Taliban. I know. . . it is just a dream.

Where were they the last time the Taliban said you can go to school but not your sister?

Afghan men are gutless, cowardly, dickless creeps. No wonder they fire guns in the air.

Their sisters and daughters are poisoned and they will do..............I'm guessing nothing.

don't have sisters/daughters in school.

So no doubt the relatives are pissed, but they aren't in a position to retaliate (unless the perp comes in to town and announces himself) nor could they have stopped this.

Buncha fucking cowards. They aren't worthy of the women who have to fight this crap every single day.

No matter how much money we spend or how many soldiers we send or how many bombs we drop, Afghanistan will never be a liberal democracy. Not for many, many generations at least.

There is really nothing more we can do there, short of killing every single male in the country. They are a 12 th century religious theocracy, and the only way they will ever change is if the Afghans themselves demand it and fight and die for it.

It's time to come home and let them fuck their sisters and murder each other for honor. If they allow al Qaeda refuge, send in the special ops and the cruise missiles.

and give them some drone surprises if they try something like 9/11 again.

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500931.html

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 26, 2008

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

taken to the ultimate conclusion.

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/01/18/the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan-documentary-exposes-horrific-sexual-abuse.html

The “dancing boys” of Afghanistan: Documentary exposes horrific sexual abuse

Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2011/01/18/the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan-documentary-exposes-horrific-sexual-abuse.html#ixzz1sKLYLcF6

Definition of LURGULARY

Casting any corrupt or poisonous thing into the water. Wharton.
Related Legal Terms
PTOMAINES

I heard this word for the first time just this week end
on a NPR quiz show but didn't think i'd be using it so soon.

their faces covered. They hate girls and women so much!

Yup, disgusting. The religious police forced the girls back into the burning school (where they died) because they weren't covered.

For those who missed it the first time around....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Mecca_girls%27_school_fire

This was a few years before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets were building schools and colleges throughout the country, alongside a bunch of social/infrastructure projects.

America was worried at the close cooperation between the Afghans and the Soviets and secretly started funding rebellions/opposition.



^^ Such Anti-Soviet funding went into what we now know as the Talilban. They were known for their attacks on schools and other places where girls/women were present. In one of their major attacks they stormed a girls school run by Soviet teachers, and beheaded the teachers. Nearly 100 Soviet teachers/officials and their families were killed within a few months. Naturally this pissed of the Russians and they invaded.

But no...we had to make it seem as if the Russians invaded for the sake of Invading. (What would the American reaction be if 100 American aid workers and their families were attacked?). Nearly 30 years later, history is laughing at us..and I guess the Old Russians would be too. The Same Islamic fundies armed and trained by us have turned on us. What did the "great" politicians like Charlie Wilson expect? that they could contain religious fundamentalism? This type short sightedness has always been America's bane when it comes to foreign policy. A classic case of being penny wise and pound foolish.

Now the actions of the us in the 70s/80s is costing the lives if thousands of American servicemen!
To top it all, even to this day one sees self-congratulatory documentaries about how America "defeated" the evil Russians in Afghanistan

just let the Soviets have it. Nothing could be worse than the Taliban, which was also supported by Pakistan. In fact, the Taliban were Pakistan's lifelong friends.

Looking back, I really do not see the Soviets doing anything outrageous there...and were carrying out a lot of social welfare projects.
The Mujaheddin only survived cos of US help via Pakistan.Now We fight the same folks.

Fantastic pictures!

I bring this up for that for in this type of civil war, i.e political. Military actions tend to be meaningless, the issue is political who provides what. Teachers and Doctors are the front line soldiers in such a war, both sides wants to educate (and thus indoctrinate) the next generation. Thus teachers are often the targets, that was the case in Vietnam (1950s-1970s), El Salvador (1980s), China (1930s, 1940s), Russia (1918-1921), Afghanistan during the Soviet intervention, etc.

I bring this up for these attacks are portrayed in the West as attacks against women's education, but the better view is these attacks are against such education being provided by the West, just like the Viet Cong killed any South Vietnamese teachers captured during the Tet offensive of 1968. These were NOT done to end education, but to end support for the Government of South Vietnam.

I suspect the same thing is going on in Afghanistan today, the attack on Schools for Girls are more attack against education provided by the Government then an attack on women education. Anti-women education may be part of the reason for the attacks, but I suspect it is more political then religious or anti female education.

We may disagree with the Taliban as to the issue of education of women (The Taliban believes it should be done at home, a position rejected by the rest of Islam) but women will get some sort of education during their childhood. The Education may be limited to domestic subjects, but that is still some sort of education.

My point was NOT that women were NOT being educated, but that education of today's youth is one of the front this war is being fought at. The poisoning of the well may have NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATION OF WOMEN, it may be just telling their families that education in that facility is NOT acceptable. Notice the issue is NOT education but who CONTROLS that education. Thus the poisoning of the well to this school may just be a way to tell the students to go elsewhere for an education, some place under the Taliban Control.

The Taliban wish to keep women dumb, helpless, and servile.

Educating women so that they can be independent of men is why they pull this shit.

And until the 1800s, most education, even in the west, was within the household and that including learning to Read and Write.

The issue in Civil Wars, is rarely who should be educated, but by whom. No one in Afghanistan is demanding co-ed schools for example, even the subject matter is not is dispute, the Koran will be taught no matter what school you are looking at. The issue is who is teaching and by that what is taught in terms of who is the good side in the War between the Taliban and NATO. Are NATO troops Christian Crusaders who are fighting against Islam or are NATO troops loyal allies of the rightful government of Afghanistan against some radical religious zealots? if the Former, the Taliban has few objections to it, if the later the School the Taliban view the School as one that must be closed.

This context is completely missing from the article, I suspect deliberately. Someone wants people in the West to object to an attack against women education, when it is an attack against the present government of Kabul providing that education. Keep that is mind, in this type of Civil War, who provides what service is what people are fighting over, not who controls what town.

I'm really kind of amazed at how few people on this thread seem to remember either Greg Mortenson or the organization he created: the Central Asia Institute

While it's true that he's just not a good businessman, the CAI is still is existence and working. That is, working to build schools, especially for girls.

No matter what anyone's take is on Mortenson, I still highly recommend the reading of his book "Three Cups of Tea". It gives the best perspective on what's going on in Afghanistan with regards to the educating of their children. I don't know if the school in this story was one of theirs, but I do remember reading that of the forty or so schools they had built, only one had been attacked and destroyed. The very building of the schools get people to work together, all for the good of their children.

The CAI's efforts are working, slowly, yet effectively. They are building peace in the region by building schools. I can't think of a better way to peace myself

to be truthful. He's probably a pretty bad example.... this is just the first link of many that come up when googling Greg Mortenson's work...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/04/investigation-throws-three-cups-of-tea-author-greg-mortensons-charity-work-into-doubt.html

"And according to "60 Minutes," Mortenson's charity, the Central Asia Institute, has spent more money in the the U.S. talking about education in Pakistan and Afghanistan than actually building and supporting schools there."

and read this:

CAI’s Response to the Montana Attorney General’s Investigations 04/05/12
http://www.ikat.org/ag/

disprove 60 Minutes' expose...

I'm hopeful that the enhanced scrutiny will force CAI to get it's act together. I just don't think it's realistic to be naive about what's working (and what's not).

What I read was that the CAI had basically severed relations with Mortenson. Therefore, they are working independently of him and his inability to run a business. That's hardly being "naive" about a story. And I didn't offer it to disprove 60 Minutes, only that the CAI was indeed still doing what it was set up to do: build schools in Central Asia.

Then again, do you trust everything 60 Minutes has ever produced?