Afghan Religion And Democracy Collide

[SirJosephPorter]

So do we trump democracy to protect the rights of Afghan women?

If so, what do we replace democracy by?

Monarchy (with a monarch sympathetic to equality of the sexes of course)?

Colonial parliamentary system, whereby the legislative branch is democratic but the executive branch remains in the hands of an allied military tribunal sympathetic to the equality of the sexes?

Another variation on the colonial system could be that the state is democratic except for the constitution, which would guarantee Anglo-Saxon values and could be amended only the US Senate,the UK's Parliament, the Canadian Parliament or some other similar solution?

Or do we accept democracy at all costs, even if it means suppressing equality of the sexes? What's the solution?

We do nothing. We wash our hands of the whole thing and get out of there.

 

[mabudon]

Agreed wholeheartedly SJP. The SAME arguments I (and many others) have always had against this "mission" are now simply writ in bold.

If we are supporting the regime that is doing this, our support MUST end. I do not care to hear idiots using the weasel classic "you must understand they are different from us" as some excuse to continue the charade.

What I FULLY understand is that we are enabling a regime that, were it not for the artificial "best friend" status conferred by the talking points, should actually be facing massive protest at the VERY least. Hell, we supposedly wnt in there to "get bin laden" and "stop the opression". Neither the primary objective NOR the hastily contrived secondary objective has been achieved, the mission is over, and it was a TOTAL failure- at least judging by the reasons we were supposed to believe

 

[Machjo]

Agreed wholeheartedly SJP. The SAME arguments I (and many others) have always had against this "mission" are now simply writ in bold.

If we are supporting the regime that is doing this, our support MUST end. I do not care to hear idiots using the weasel classic "you must understand they are different from us" as some excuse to continue the charade.

What I FULLY understand is that we are enabling a regime that, were it not for the artificial "best friend" status conferred by the talking points, should actually be facing massive protest at the VERY least. Hell, we supposedly wnt in there to "get bin laden" and "stop the opression". Neither the primary objective NOR the hastily contrived secondary objective has been achieved, the mission is over, and it was a TOTAL failure- at least judging by the reasons we were supposed to believe

I fully agree with that. Bin Laden is still not cought. Justice is not likely to appear aytime soon (sure they're democratic, but most voters are illiterate, superstitious, fanatical! How do we think they'll vote?). It appears all we've achieved is the creation of a democtatic statestructure.

We have no business going abroad trying to change their stuctures. We should pull out and accept whatever happens. In the event that, come next election, the same government is elected again, or another is elected but supports the same rule aainst women (possibly with women themselves supporting this law), then perhaps a better stratey would be to let the people choose their government, even if it is the Taliban, and we focus instead on providing the population, to the extent the government will allow, with education, first in reading and writing, then in critical tihnking abilities (pssibly by having them study their own sacred texts so as to make such courses more palatable to the authoritie).

This would help them question different interpretations of the Qur'an. Some might then be able to defend women's rights via Qur'anic passages that the Taliban likes to ignore.

Then, as their level of education continues to develop, provide education in a trade or profession, and finally, once their educational system is more developed, promote bilingualism so as to give them access to another culture. This is a process that would take a good generation at least, unlike Bush-style nation-building with M-16s.

 

[mabudon]

Fully agreed there too Machjo and why not go even farther-

To appease the "terrorists are streaming out of that country" (and something I have suggested for years now) why not do everything possible to lock that country down from possible targets?? Like super stringent security, on all possible points of entry, and maybe diplomatic overtures to surrounding countries to help out in such an effort??

The belligerent, drunken lust for vengeance that has been the keystone of this stupid, stupid "mission" is at the very core of its abject failure

We don't need another "hero"

 

[talloola]

Actually, this is not quite right. The intelligence community tracked him down, and the US demanded that be allowed to go in and get him. The Taliban said "No, but we will give him to you - we just don't want you in our country."

This wasn't good enough for the US - so THEN they went in, destabilized the country, and the rest is history.

That is false, the taliban refused right from the getgo to hand him over,
there was never any agreement that they would find him and give him to
the u.s. government. They refused, period.