Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls (Afghanistan)

[deadparrot]

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

Mr Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taliban and US and Afghan forces.

The day we arrived, an Afghan policemen and eight insurgents died during an ambush in an outlying village. Rockets were found, primed to be fired into Ghazni City during a visit by the American ambassador a few days previously.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2023831.ece?taliban

[VenusRising]

1. That is so tragic,

I feel so bad for his wife and children.

[madrchsod]

2. first they were "our friends" now they are "our enemy"

we could have prevented much of this but we had saddam to fire first.

[cali]

5. The Taliban were never our friends

Yes, we funded precursors to the Taliban who were fighting the Soviets, and it's certainly true that had we focused on Afghanistan instead of Iraq, and poured much more in the way of resources and thought into rebuilding that country, we could have possibly done something that was actually beneficial.

[madrchsod]

7. well may not friends -our-friends

but would be friends of dick`s. they were trying to get the taliban to ok the natural gas pipeline but the boys found out the taliban were to stupid to understand what the deal was. so the boys decided to go build around them. that`s one of the reasons cheney lost interest in afghanistan and decided to fire saddam

[uppityperson]

3. k&r for girls in the War on Terror's step-cousin (Afghanistan)

[aquart]

4. Which is why I never get upset about atrocities to Taliban men.

I feel they've been well-earned.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. What I would have done in Afghanistan:

1. Round up all the Taliban men and make them live under the same restrictions that they put the women of Afghanistan under, i.e. house arrest behind painted windows

2. Rebuild that country's infrastructure, putting the rest of the people to work and giving them an alternative to growing opium poppies.

[eridani]

11. Our warlord allies are no different from the Taliban--

--except for being more corrupt and somewhat less puritanical. I think a better way might be to follow the lead of women's organizations like RAWA, not that the effects of nearly 30 years of the war of each against all can be easily overcome. Women lose that one 100% of the time, as only the most vicious, jingoistic and misogynist thugs survive under those conditions.


As far as the poppies, I think it would make more sense just to cut out the middlemen and pay the peasants far higher prices and take it all ourselves--we could then start a program like Switzerland's for addicts. They could spend the proceeds building their own infrastructure.

[yurbud]

8. it's a good thing we won the Afghanistan War early, so things like that wouldn't happen there

[Solo_in_MD]

9. This can't be happening, The Chimp declared Islam a religion of peace

perhaps he misspelled it and mean pieces.

[Igel]

10. I wind up calling some varieties of it

a religion of pacification.

Remember, the word 'pacification' means 'peace'; and when quibbles arise, well, it has the root 'pax' (peace) in it.

After all, what's pacification if not getting the citizenry--your own or others--to submit?