White House throws Afghan women under the bus
A senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan policy said changes to the land program also stem from a desire at the top levels of the Obama administration to triage the war and focus on the overriding goal of ending the conflict.
"Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities," said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations. "There's no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down."
Afghan women are pet rocks. Time to toss them aside so Karzai can woo the Talibanistic to his side.
It's not like we learned anything about supporting oppressive regimes in the past month, really ....
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Seven words
"This Is What a Feminist Looks Like" http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1268&bih=680&q=obama+ms.+cover&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
Seriously
I was thinking of that mag cover as I wrote the post.
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alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/
That cover
*still* bugs me. I wonder if they're feeling stupid and remorseful now for putting that on the cover.
- “I do not think that word means what you think it means"
54/40 or Bust!
My etsy shop
P.S. Happy International Women's Day
what a wonderful world.
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alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/
If only I could be shocked by this...
So if we aren't going to deal with those "gender issues", why did we take down the taliban and get involved in a war there? Last I heard, we still didn't find Osama Bin Laden either.
Pet rocks. Nice.
Yes, Obama is quite consistent
in treating women's rights as useful bargaining chips.
I think vastleft had a thank you note encapsulating the Obama Doctrine on Women's Rights.
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alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/
More about those pet rocks
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/201...
“Creating and supporting strong networks for protecting women’s rights hits powerful men in a place that hurts — their own homes and families. Nemat says there have been several occasions where women from the families of influential commanders, warlords, and politicians showed up at shelters. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the shelters came under intense pressure from officials to turn these women over to their families, says Nemat.”
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alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/
I wonder if pipelines
or control of Afghanistan's resource wealth counts as pet rocks.
Not to disagree with you but
'Saving the women and children' was always just the fourth ot fifth attempt at framing the 'why we have to stay in Afghanistan' reasons as the others were proven absurd or lies. Remember there was even a huge push to conflate 'Al Qaeda' and 'Taliban'? Most 'Libruls' still buy it; I've had loads of arguments on the boards about it. We're fighting them over there so...how's that go?
And Happy Women's Day; I know all Americans (especially politicians, really feel proud about the holiday, and live it!
Sorry; I'm a bit bitter today. And will be tomorrow, no doubt.
This ^
I would be greatly shocked if the issue of Afghan women has ever come up in a principles meeting during either Afghan War administration. It was, as far as i've ever been able to tell, simply a tool for making sure that liberals were on board with the Afghan adventure.
It's like the Time cover of the woman who had her ears and nose cut off that said, "What Happens if We Leave?" While it neglected to mention that the act happened while we were there...and that further, real reporting made it clear that the Taliban was not involved in the situation at all.
I'm still trying to figure out how it helps Afghan women to have their children killed and their villages leveled.
“Don’t believe them, don’t fear them, don’t ask anything of them” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I agree it was just only ever feel-better justification
and not a real motivation but it is contemptible that they are publicly throwing it under the bus.
And it is taking away one last thing that the soldiers embroiled in it can use to keep from feeling utterly demoralized. It's like the difference between letting a victim keep some shred of dignity versus utterly demeaning them -- brutal cruelty.
Like someone else said on another thread, at least the Bush gang tried to hide their misdeeds; this gang has no moral compass at all. I hope it will be their undoing.
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alas is crocheting daily at http://memorycrochet.blogspot.com/
From a Twitter stream
http://twitter.com/deepak_minhas
women perform 66% of the world's work, earn 10% of world's income and own 1% of the world's property #IWD
One word
Rent.
I should really set up a "Lambert's Obsession with the Rentiers" thread...
(You asked on another thread about a unifying post; that's going to elude me for a bit, but the main ones in the past are rent party, New Year's Resolution, and what can we do....... I view these ideas as NV protest [#75], though I'm not sure that's Gene Sharp's original intent.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi