Comments about ‘U.S. troop withdrawal would leave Afghan women in peril’

There are a lot of armed men in Afghanistan. What if the women were armed? They could guard the schools and wouldn't have to cower when the Taliban come by.

It might be hard for the Taliban to shut down a girl's school if the PTA Moms all have AK-47's and military style training.

Just a thought.

Tekakaromatagi

So this is a reason to stay in Afghanistan? Does that mean we'll have to invade every country where women are mistreated?

How about we accept all females, who desire, from Afghanistan as refugees and set up a female nation. Sort of like what we did with Jews. The only males allowed would be those who profess respect and equality of women.

Maybe we could take Mexico, expel all the males, write a proper constitution, and see what happens.

We may have to get used to people being in peril, because we can no longer afford to police every nation where people are in peril.

Since the time of Adam and Eve, a woman's roll in home is to take care of her husband, stay home, barefoot and pregnant. What happened to that act?. Now Afghan women fear this is the beginning of a Taliban comeback, the imposition of harsh treatment and subjugation of women, and the loss of their new-found freedoms since the invading U.S. forces routed the Taliban in 2001. What is clear is that if the U.S. military departs Afghanistan before the Taliban are either defeated or have lain down their arms, the outlook for women's rights is bleak ?. THEN SEND OVER on their own dime, The Molly Yard movement to protect them and their right's. Molly Yard, for more than half a century an outspoken advocate for liberal causes, who came to national prominence as president of the National Organization for Women in the late 1980's. Active since the 1930's in student and civil rights movements, Ms. Yard served as NOW's president from 1987 until 1991. She was previously the organization's political director. Along with her "dirty dozen" of other radical feminist's. See how long they last over there.

I'm fed up with the exploitation of women's plight in Afghanistan to gain support for this odious war.

Further, we presume to know that Afghan women want us fighting there "for them." A report published in July of this year by Human Rights Watch shows clearly that not only do Afghan women want a negotiated peace regardless the tyranny against them but that Afghan women themselves have set up well organized groups, such as Afghan Women's Network, in order to fight against their oppression using their own resources.

It's also interesting to note that there is a very powerful set of anti-women’s-equality caucuses already well established within the Afghan government that the U.S. supports. Karzai has already passed laws supporting amnesty for men who commit women-related crimes as well as laws legalizing rape within marriage and banning wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands' permission. Our silence on these actions is deafening as well as incriminating.

As Brother Chuck (9:16am) so adroitly points out, the subjugation of women, real or desired, is alive and well in the U.S. as well. I do not presume to compare the US to Afghanistan, however, U.S. statistics for violence against women done by husbands and boyfriends in the US speak for themselves. If the US is serious about protecting women and their rights, they would be advised to start in our own back yard.

@ CLM | 10:43 a.m. Sept. 3, 2010
As Brother Chuck (9:16am) so adroitly points out, the subjugation of women, real or desired, is alive and well in the U.S. as well.




Reply: DADS condemns all forms of domestic violence, but wants to publicize the fact that every responsible study shows that women commit at least equal violence against men. It perpetrates the adolescent-feminist chauvinist myth of all women as innocent victims, and men as animal brutes. It fosters the bias of courts against fatherhood, where mothers are awarded custody 75% of the time, and mothers are issued custody grabbing restraining orders like candy, effectively excluding fathers from the lives of their children. This type of rhetoric is thus a cause of the current Father absence and is the number one predictor of child delinquency, drug use, teen pregnancy, incarceration, and child suicide. These problems will never be solved until fathers are afforded the same "rights" as mother have in the family. The feminist driven one-sided domestic violence rhetoric, which is challenged in this section, is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

PS: One more thing.




Re: CLM | 10:43 a.m. Sept. 3, 2010
As Brother Chuck (9:16am) so adroitly points out.
U.S. statistics for violence against women done by husbands and boyfriends in the US speak for themselves. If the US is serious about protecting women and their rights, they would be advised to start in our own back yard.




Reply: Set your fact's straight. AGAIN - Social policies in the United States have never included support for fathers in keeping their families together. While trillions of dollars are being spent on welfare for women, (mothers?) and children, nothing is being spent for FATHERS. Resources such as United Way exclude services for FATHERS. State court systems have circumvented Fathers since before 1880, (See Hart vs. Hart 14 Philadelphia Reports 352) while bureaucrats, and politicians create families, (mostly women and children) headed and ruled by the state, leaving a social service void for FATHERS.

As "CLM | 10:43 a.m." points out... Women are treated differently than men in our society in MANY ways (whether_we_like_it_or_not).

I don't know if we can 100% change that, or if we even WANT to totally erase the differences between men and women.



A thought...

Last weekend, when everybody was talking about discrimination and Equal Rights, they pointed out what they called the "Justice Gap"... (where black men a 5 times more likely than whites to be in jail).

The thought came to mind today... there are very few women's prisons compared to men's facilities. I wonder what the ratio is?

Googled it, and kgb answeres states that "there are 20 times as many men as women in the US prison population".

So if we use this same baromiter "Justice Gap" as a measure of discrimination and inequal treatment... it sounds like the discrimination AGAINST men (20X)... is 4-TIMES larger than the atrocious 5X gap between black and white!

So why aren't people marching on washington and giving speaches about the inequality treatment of men vs WOMEN?


Feminists.... Do you really want to go there?

Do you want EVERYTHING completely equal?

In_some_ways_you_are_the_most_pampered_and_privileged group_in_the_world.

Question

Women will have equal prisons when women commit equal amounts of crime. They don't. Blame it on your testostrone.

Do black men commit 5 times more crime than white men? Especially since blacks are 12.5% of the population.

Well?

@Question: are you serious or are you just bored?

@Brother chuck: Whether there is domestic violence against men or not makes not one whit of difference in the statistics of domestic violence done against women.

@Question: If you'll read my comment (10:43am) I did not go into the equal rights for women arena, but posited that subjugation of women is alive and well in this country.

However interesting debates about equal rights for women and male domestic abuse might be, I believe they are for another time and place.

Let's get back on point. Afghan women are being attacked REGARDLESS the tens of thousands of our troops in Afghanistan; Karzai, who is backed by the U.S., has passed laws insuring continued oppression of Afghan women, and the women of Afghanistan themselves prefer a negotiated peace.

These women are stuck between their opponents in the insurgency and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. If we are concerned about the rights of women in Afghanistan, the question is, how do we give women the most leverage possible in this situation? Certainly not by exploiting their situation to gain support for continuing the war.

RE: CLM | 6:40 p.m. Sept. 3, 2010
@Brother chuck: Whether there is domestic violence against men or not makes not one whit of difference in the statistics of domestic violence done against women.


Reply: Your right. These women are stuck between their opponents in the insurgency and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. That's their problem and their Government's problem. Not ours. We are there to stop the drug trade, and capture or kill these drug lord gangs there. That's all. This is not a coca cola TV ad, when we are their to hold hands, stand in a long line and sing "we are the world." That's NOT what our Military does, how do their husband and THEIR OWN government give these women the most leverage possible in this situation is up to them alone.

Afghanistan is a mess, and we have precious little justification to continue the expenditure of blood and treasure there.

They are a 7th century civilization, and will remain so, including their treatment of women and religious views. We will not change either of those, and neither should be an excuse to remain there.

Yes, Afghan women will suffer, but it is their country and we have neither the power nor the duty to change it for them.

Right now we need to focus on saving what is left of our own country. Sorry, Afghan women, men and children, you are on your own.

We would do well to arm the people of Afganistan, including the women and then leave it to them to fight for and win their own freedom ... Or not.

I feel for the poor people of Afganistan, they have a religion from hell, ... the radical Moslem religion.

However it isn't fair to the people of America to put our young in the danger of being recuited and being sent over there to be killed or severely damaged phyically or emotionally, and for our daughters to marry these damaged men. It isn't fair to Americans that our treasury be depleted, and we not get social social security.

In elementary school our teacher read us a story of a little girl who helped a young chick out of its egg as it was hatching. The chick died. The exercise chicks exert getting out of the egg, gives them strenght necessary for them to continue their life once they get out of the egg.

Give the Afganistans the means to fight the terrible menace that is the Taliban, then hope and pray for their success, but it isn't our job to fight for their freedom, this is their job.