Here is what our troops are killing and dying for in Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/39af8f34185f00456415727901109bbf.htm

AFGHANISTAN: Widespread child marriage blamed for domestic violence

16 Oct 2007 07:34:13 GMT
Source: IRIN

KANDAHAR, 16 October 2007 (IRIN) - Fifteen-year-old Razia (not her real name) has been imprisoned in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, for escaping from her husband's house and eloping with another man.

She was only 12 when her father married her to an elderly man for a significant dowry payment. "He was very brutal and was treating me violently," Razia said.

"No one was helping me escape my husband's cruelty," the distraught teenager said, adding that her only resort was to elope with a young man whom she thought would give her a new life.

Months later Razia registered for divorce from her elderly husband. "As I filed for divorce the police arrested me and put me in prison," she told IRIN.

Not only is elopement unlawful for a married woman in Afghanistan, it is also taboo.

It is unclear how long Razia will remain in prison. She could be sentenced to death or get 10-15 years. Sexual relations outside marriage are considered a serious offence in Afghan civil law, which is derived from Islamic Sharia law.

[bahrbearian]

1. Yes , that may be So, but the women don't have to wear Burkas now.

Unless forced to by Men, and they also can go to school, unless....

[natrat]

2. jeez i thought we were fighting for bushco to have a record poppy crop

[maxsolomon]

3. here's who we should have turned afganistan over to:

in my opinon, the men of afganistan should STFU for about a 1000 years.

http://www.rawa.org/index.php

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan. The founders were a number of Afghan woman intellectuals under the sagacious leadership of Meena who in 1987 was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, by Afghan agents of the then KGB in connivance with fundamentalist band of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . RAWA’s objective was to involve an increasing number of Afghan women in social and political activities aimed at acquiring women’s human rights and contributing to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on democratic and secular values in Afghanistan. Despite the suffocating political atmosphere, RAWA very soon became involved in widespread activities in different socio-political arenas including education, health and income generation as well as political agitation.

[wuushew]

4. We don't belong there

Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. It is very arrogant to think Bush will succeed where Alexander the Great failed.

We need to get the hell out of there. If you want to help people you'll find mosquito netting for Africa a better return on investment.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. If the US/NATO forces leave....

who is gonna protect the drug lords?

Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

By Craig Murray (former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan)

SNIP

Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations.

It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government – the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.

When we attacked Afghanistan, America bombed from the air while the CIA paid, armed and equipped the dispirited warlord drug barons – especially those grouped in the Northern Alliance – to do the ground occupation. We bombed the Taliban and their allies into submission, while the warlords moved in to claim the spoils. Then we made them ministers.

President Karzai is a good man. He has never had an opponent killed, which may not sound like much but is highly unusual in this region and possibly unique in an Afghan leader. But nobody really believes he is running the country. He asked America to stop its recent bombing campaign in the south because it was leading to an increase in support for the Taliban. The United States simply ignored him. Above all, he has no control at all over the warlords among his ministers and governors, each of whom runs his own kingdom and whose primary concern is self-enrichment through heroin.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469983

[rodeodance]

6. I have no sympthathy for a religion---its interpretation---that does this to its young.