Coed grade school torched in Afghanistan

[Cocoa]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Afghan_School_Burned.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in Afghanistan's main southern city Sunday, the latest in a spate of attacks against teachers and institutions that educate girls.

No one was hurt in the pre-dawn attacks against the Qabail Primary School in Kandahar, said Hayabullah Rafiqi Othak, Kandahar province's education director.

A group of men tied up two security guards and made bonfires of books and wooden desks that eventually razed the whole building, he said. The school, which was on a two-month vacation, taught some 700 boys and girls.

Dozens of schools have been burned since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden. Most of the attacks have come at night and have caused no deaths.

On Tuesday, however, suspected rebels beheaded the headmaster of another coed school in the region.

more...

[Surya Gayatri]

1. But Laura saw

for herself that freedom and civil rights are on the march in Afghanistan--or so I was led to believe? SG

[Cocoa]

2. she should have stayed more than 6 hours there

6 1/2 maybe.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Yes, but doin' Dubya's business is "hard work".

Can't stop long enough to see what her dimwit husband has truly wrought. Gotta move on to the next photo-op! SG

[acmavm]

4. Yeah, she herself said she was going to do all those great things for

women in Afganistan.

Someone better pack her bags and take her to the airport. I think she has some work to do. She can take the girls with her. Give them something worthwhile to do.

Tell Jenna to hang on to her I.D. She'll need it at customs.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Yup, time to put

her actions where her rhetoric is. She's been a teacher. They need teachers. How about 6 months over there instead of 6 hours--really do some good on the ground? SG

[bluerum]

6. Why is the librul press reporting only the bad things,,,,, there must

be something good happening in Afghanistan that they can report on.


:sarcasm:

[Hello_Kitty]

9. The opium trade is booming!

Why do you hate the entrepreneurial spirit? :sarcasm:

[bluerum]

12. Yes - and weeding out the schools not performing to

No Child Left Behind standards.

:puke: :sarcasm:

[fujiyama]

7. I thought we won Afghanistan

and it was a democracy :sarcasm: (this is what someone said before the US invasion of Iraq).

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. If these schools are teaching USA "values" - is it any wonder??

.
.
.

The USA is running rampant around the world spreading "democracy"

but leaving millions dead and destitute in their wake

I believe I read about something like "clean your own house first" - b4 you start imposing your system on other people, nations . .

with the numbers of homeless, jobless, and medically untreated in the USA -

doncha think the world might have a better impression if the USA fixed their own problems FIRST??

Lead by example I say

but the USA is a damm poor example

tryna fix the world with guns, bombs and toxins ain't quite the way methinks

but that's Just My Canuk Opinion

(sigh)

[nofoil]

10. A growing trend

This, sadly is becoming a growing trend in Afghanistan. Last week, a teacher was beheaded in front of his family by the Taliban because there were girls in his classroom. Prior to that, another teacher was beheaded. This is no laughing matter. Lives are at stake, and very few people are talking about it.

On a similar note, do you know that some 1/4 of the women living in the nation's most cosmopolitan city of Kandahar aren't even allowed out of their homes by their husbands? It's much worse in the countryside. There, for example, women have very little chance at all of seeing a doctor, because they are still not allowed to be examined by men. Pregnant women commonly need to take a long and painful ride by donkey so that they can give birth under the trained eye of a medical professional. And yes, many are still forced to live under the stifling burka. This is tragic stuff. It's important we spread the word while there is still time.

[rodeodance]

11. Condi has said many times that Afgan democracy is model for Irag. yup.