Taliban Target Pro-Western 14-year-old girl

http://www.csmonitor.com

Once again, the Taliban show their colors by attacking a child whose only crimes were her love of education and publicly speaking her mind. Malala Yousafzai, a child activist who is known for bringing attention to the atrocities of the Taliban, was shot in the head by a Taliban shooter while on her school bus. She is currently in critical condition after surgery.

I'm all for an end to our involvement in Afghanistan, but I fear what will happen when we are gone. Just look at their influence in Pakistan.

 

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because laser bombing weddings is SO much more ethical, along with the torture US troops are commiting in Gitmo and Abu Grad

 

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Really? You're saying the US is no different than the Taliban? You can't see the difference between the unintentional killing of civilians while trying to eliminate terrorists and the intentional attempted murder of a 14-year-old girl?

 

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unintentional?

http://gawker.com/5892290/american-soldier-murders-16-civilians-in-afghanistan

 

I have no sympathy for those fuckers. Cry all you want for them, I wont shed a tear.

 

Yes, a terrible thing to happened. But rather than pat them on the back, they will be punished.

 

You're moving the goal posts now, no doubt because you can't answer the question. You were talking about the wedding guests who died in Afghanistan, which was unintentional. The massacre you're talking about involved one deranged soldier. You're going to say that he represents what America does in Afghanistan? My ass. The US isn't ordering soldiers to kill civilians.

 

I don't think he has a reply. I wouldn't want to side with the likes of the Taliban, so I doubt he can offer a defense.

 

Considering the number of war crimes the US has been involved in starting with the invasion of Iraq in the first place how exactly can you prove that

And on the flip side how can you PROVE that "the Taliban" rather than an isolated person or persons ordered this girls death?

 

I'm sorry, how was the Iraq War a war crime? I didn't agree with the invasion, but there was nothing illegal about it. See Hitchens' explanation on that count. (We disagree on the necessity of the war, but his case for its legality is sound)

Stupid question. I could just as easily turn it back on you and ask how you can prove anything you've claimed thusfar. But instead of pretending that either of are acting on anything other than second-hand information, how about you just answer the damn question I asked you twice now?

 

Obviously. It's very easy--not to mention popular, particularly among know-nothings--to casually compare the US to the Taliban, or to Al-Qaeda, to say we're no different than the people we're fighting. This nonsense crumbles along with the claimant at the slightest pressure, of course.

 

When I read stuff like the story in my original post, it just makes me angry. I know we've made mistakes, but it's a difficult fight. I just don't believe there's a compromise to be had with the Taliban, and I worry for those within their sphere of influence.

 

I lament the fact that Bush Jr. decided to wage these wars, but I'm comfortable with our position of moral superiority over the Taliban.

However, torturing prisoners and dropping bombs on children--even unintentionally--does shake that superiority right down to the foundation. It's still clear who the good guys are, but I'd like less gray in that area. Even so, when hearing that the Taliban tried to kill a 14-year-old girl for speaking out against them, one's first response shouldn't be "Well, we're no better." That kind of even-handedness is for its own sake, and idiotic to boot. We're not talking about the minor differences between democrats and republicans, but the vast differences between the United States of America and the freaking Taliban.

 

Well, we're out of there in 2014...hopefully. Only time will tell whether it was worth all of the sacrifice. I do fear it has been for not, and that once we are gone, the extremists will simply return. What can we do, more so after being there for so long? I suppose we can't save the world, and that might be the lesson we learn from this war.

 

Malala Yousufzai - Free Pakistan - Kill the Taliban

[video=youtube;ngAIoxzIBzM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngAIoxzIBzM[/video]

AfPak military strategy blog

 

A Profoundly Troubling and Troublesome Mess

So here's the problem:

• The Taliban has claimed responsibility and stated that they intend to finish the job. Denouncing them as less than filthy, wild dogs plaguing the Earth is easy enough, but what, exactly, is to be done?​

Exterminate the vermin? Certainly that sort of huff and puff sounds great to many, and helps them feel better, but just how is that accomplished?

The Predator campaign in Pakistan is such that it is ... er ... acceptable ... to kill "between two hundred and seven and three hundred and twenty-one" people in order to get one enemy.

True, it's not always a ratio in the range of hundreds to one. We can even say it's rarely in that range. But what will be the human—excuse me, collateral—cost of exterminating the Taliban?

And, true, I raised the proposition of extermination, but in order to reflect on the dimensions of the situation. In all honesty, I have no idea what should be done. I'm an American; we can't win justice with bullets and bombs in this case.

There is a bounty for the arrest of the attackers, and we'll have to see what comes in order to gauge how Pakistani people respond. Inshallah, they will seek to follow the Libyan route. As we saw with Benghazi, there comes a point when the people just won't take it anymore. That might well be the only solution, and if this isn't enough of a catalyst, I really don't know what it will take.

 

You can't really do anything about them unless you are willing to exterminate them along with any bystandards that happen to be around.

 

That would be the best way, the people rising up and taking action. The Taliban are like cockroaches, though. They are hard to kill.

 

I know... It's just that the kid was a shining star in the midst of adversity.

 

This is true- it's up to them. We or other nations cannot do it for them. This is, for them, a deep rooted belief and a way of life. Those watching can only hope that youngsters courage will inspire courage in others.