Comments | canpolitik: Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls

gsyh in canpolitik

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

Dec 06, 2006 17:02

By Kim Sengupta in Ghazni, Afghanistan
Published: 29 November 2006

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 Independent

( Text )

afghanistan

Comments 8

warrioreowyn December 6 2006, 23:36:04 UTC

I agree entirely. We've in Afghanistan, we're there to help, and we should stay either until both security and reconstruction are at a reasonable level, or unless we can see that our presence there is making things worse not just in the short term, but overall.

We need to put a greater focus on reconstruction, though - at present, 90% of the money being used on the Afghanistan mission is going towards military operations. This is simply unbalanced, and not the way to gain the support of the Afghan people. Other nations have tried a more balanced approach, and met with greater success. Here's an article from the Globe and Mail about a different way of managing things:

Globe and Mail 02/12/06 ( ... )

warrioreowyn December 6 2006, 23:37:45 UTC

Article con't:

In the first months after the Canadians' arrival in Kandahar, commanders ( ... )

That's interesting gsyh December 6 2006, 23:43:19 UTC

It's surely worth a look at. Should.

...but what if the Taliban is not to be reasoned with?

What if they don't attack the troops that are here to talk, but attack the civilians for breaking their rules, such as the case above?

sun_tzu December 7 2006, 02:28:30 UTC

Uruzgan Province isn't Kandahar - but still, the Dutch are doing some great work and I have friends who think they're great to work with. It's them, the Brits, the Americans, and us doing 90% of the work there. Reasoning with the Taliban in the Canadian AOR has been all but impossible from everything I've heard, but the other things - the diplomatic efforts - are happening too. They just don't sell a lot of papers ( ... )

holden_wake December 7 2006, 00:26:39 UTC

I would rein in your claim that leaving Afghanistan would be as cruel as our failure in Rwanda. There certainly isn't any danger of ethnic cleansing.

To be sure, such incidents are to be condemned. Comparing the two just seems to be an inaccurate way to state your case.

allhatnocattle December 7 2006, 00:30:49 UTC

Under Taliban rule, if you're not obedient, you will be cleansed. If you're not a supporter of Taliban, you will be cleansed. The comparison seems fair and apt.

holden_wake December 7 2006, 07:01:50 UTC

The scope is quite different though. Rwanda was millions. If we are going to make an argument that Canada should send troops overseas to prevent Rwanadian style genocide, then I think it is more apt we send them to Darfur instead. It would make no sense to send troops to Afghanistan under this reasoning when there is a significantly higher level of ethnic cleasening under way in Darfur.

I also wonder how much our presence there will change their customs. Could this be an institutionalized way of thinking? The neo-conservative project to convert Afghanistan and Iraq into liberal democracies have yielded very limited results so far.

allhatnocattle December 7 2006, 12:06:13 UTC

Only the difference you point out is one of quantity. The numbers are significantly higher in central Africa only because the populations are bigger. But in terms of qualitity, the brutality is still brutal. I wouldn't want to trade shoes with victims of either situation ( ... )