This is fantasy, I know, but I'll say it anyway.
It seems to me that women and girls in Afghanistan are most at risk now that the Taliban have swept into power. Indeed, I've seen it suggested here on DU that one reason the Taliban had such an easy time of it these past weeks was because Afghan men, by and large and with the exception of those who identified in some way with the West, don't feel all that threatened by blatant misogyny and toxic masculinity.
So it then also seems to me a better strategy for keeping the Taliban at bay would have been to train and arm several tens or hundreds of thousands of WOMEN, giving women and girls the means and the power to fight back.
Yes I know, a fantasy, and there are probably a dozen reasons why this apparently never occurred to our own military. Cultural reasons, for instance. Such an effort would no doubt in and of itself would have led to massive (male) protests. And yes, even so there were some women armed and trained, but this was a miniscule effort compared to what we did for the men.
Years (many years) back I recall seeing the slogan, "Vietcong women carry guns!" Women were a huge part of the Vietnamese resistance to the French and American occupations. French women were a major, in fact pivotal part of the French Resistance against the Nazis. And I recall the words of the courageous Sophie Scholl, a leader of the German Resistance, who told her friends, "Someone will have to shoot Hitler. If no man will do it, a woman will have to."
Am I totally wrong and delusional about this?
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