To American College students who seek any excuse to protest against the U.S. Gov't and those others who protest to bring the troops home:
Here’s something worthy of protests on the streets of every American city. Below are excerpts of a story in the Washington Post about women candidates in Afghanistan and the dangers which they must confront to have a chance to gain any seats in their nation’s Parliament.
Afghan Women Put Lives on Line To Run for Office By N.C. Aizenman Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 29, 2005; Page A01 CHARKH, Afghanistan -- The note slipped under Mahmoud Shah's front gate was written in a tidy, graceful hand. But the message brimmed with venom: "If you don't stop campaigning for Noorzia Charkhi, your life will be in danger. Also tell Noorzia Charkhi that she should give up her candidacy. Aren't you ashamed to put up posters of your family's women in the bazaar?" "I'm not going to quit, because I want to show people that a woman should be able to do these things. But definitely I fear for my life. . . . The people who did this already have blood on their hands," Charkhi said during a visit to Shah's home, 50 miles south of Kabul. "I'm even more afraid that they will smear my reputation," she added. "That would be worse than death." …In southern Helmand province, U.N. officials are investigating reports of letters circulating that offer a $4,000 reward for killing female candidates. In southeastern Zabol province, unknown gunmen tried to hijack a car belonging to Zarmina Pathan, a candidate and employee of a local aid organization. Afghan and U.N. officials said they are investigating whether the attack was a routine crime or an attempt to intimidate her. In Logar, Charkhi is not the only female candidate to face threats. Zobaida Stanekzai, 52, a school supervisor running for parliament, said she has little doubt about the motives of whoever set fire to the door of her mud-walled home several weeks ago. …"They were trying to scare me into dropping out," said Stanekzai, whose home was also attacked with a grenade last year when she took a job registering women to vote in the presidential election. "But my decision to be a candidate is unshakable."You want to protest? Protest against the way women are treated in Afghanistan, and not against the soldiers who have given them the ability to challenge the system that has oppressed them in such a way that even now they are literally running for their lives. I know there’s going to be an anti-war protest sometime in September, but if you guys are serious about protesting for something meaningful, I do not want to see posters saying “Bring our Troops Home,” or “No More War”, or even “Money for books not war.” The truth is straightforward and simple, we are at war so arguments for no more war, or using money spent in the war for something else, are nonsensical. We have been at war since September 11, 2001 and will continue to be at war until we have eradicated those who are fighting against us. Until then, we will remain in Afghanistan, we will continue to go after al Qaeda and their allies wherever they are found and we will make them pay for all the suffering they have caused, not only Americans or the “West”, but also the many Muslims the have killed in their blind pursuit for power. Many of you might not have agreed with the Iraq war. Like me, you probably believed that either a) it was the wrong time b) the arguments that Hussein and al Qaeda were allies were unfounded and completely wrong or c) the WMD threat was overblown. I agree with you on all these three arguments against the war, however I still supported it. Why? Because Hussein had to go one way or another, and sooner was better than later and I for one will not shed a tear over his dead sons or the fact that he is now behind bars. That debate has long been decided, we went to war, we are there and if we leave we will be guilty of committing the same mistake we committed in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. When we abandoned Afghanistan back then, we allowed Pakistan and its Islamist allies to have full sway over the country eventually ending up with the Taliban and al Qaeda. If we abandon Iraq now, we not only leave it vulnerable to the Sunni insurgency that fears their minority status, but also to an Islamist insurgency whose main objective is the establishment an Islamist state in the heart of the Arab world from which to launch the jihad for the restoration of the Ummah to the rest of the Muslim world. I have before, and will again call on this administration to level with the American people, to let them know the truth about the Iraq campaign. We will be there for at least a decade; Iraqi forces are not ready to tackle the job of defending their country against the Islamist threat even though we have by last count 167,000 of them “trained”; the war in Iraq gave Osama bin Laden a point to focus all the anger of the Muslim world and a means to direct it toward the U.S., and as such, in the short term, we have probably given him more volunteers than he could have imagined or dreamed; just because we are fighting them “over there” does not mean that they can’t bring the war to our own soil, as the attacks in London have proven; this struggle will be bloody and violent; the U.S. and the West cannot win this war alone, it will only be won when we convince the moderate elements within the Muslim world that their future does not lay with bin Laden but rather with free-markets, tolerance and education and globalization; we need to wean ourselves off oil; things will get worse before they get better; we will be attacked again in the U.S. homeland; Muslims hate us not because of our values but rather because of our actions and policies in the Muslim world; ask for more sacrifices from Americans; if you want to ride a Hummer, go to Baghdad!; stop lying or painting rosy pictures of the progress of the war, it only reduces your credibility and makes you look incompetent when things don’t go as planned. All this said, please remember, in September when you go to your protests, if you must, protest for the U.S. to ensure that women in the Muslim world have a chance to fight for their freedom. I know we can’t impose our system of government on anyone, and I would never argue for us to do so. However, we can ensure that conditions in both Afghanistan and Iraq are secure enough so that a political process can take shape where women can still have a voice. As long as they can run for office without the threat of violence and death hanging like a cloud over them, we have given them a chance they have never had before. Ensure the security of the Afghan and the Iraqi people and they will choose a government that will fulfill their aspirations: a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Now that’s a protest I would love to see.
