marym625 (6,285 posts)
Should the US military pull out of Afghanistan or stay to protect females from the Taliban?
Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2015, 10:49 AM - Edit history (1)
Today is International Women's Day
The Feminist Majority is calling for US troops to remain in Afghanistan to protect women and girls from the Taliban. The strides made for females in Afghanistan are amazing. Without continued support from the US military, the chances are fairly good that the improvements made will quickly end.
I am confused on this. I don't think we should stay. But I also don't want females in Afghanistan to suffer the horrors they have in the past.
If you want to sign the petition, it's in the email pasted below.
I would like your thoughts on this. Thank you.
Regardless, let's stand for women today and keep DU celebrating our strong, brave women and pay great attention to what is desperately in need of improvement.
Dear feminist activist,
Today is International Women's Day, which is a day we call attention not only to the achievements of women but to the fight for equality around the world. The Feminist Majority has been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan women and girls in the fight against Taliban oppression for 18 years. Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, many Afghan women and girls are going to school, have entered the paid workforce, and have benefited from a significantly reduced maternal mortality rate. But the Taliban has not gone entirely away and is threatening constantly women and girls' advancement and security. We must remain shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan women and girls.
Many Afghan women leaders as well as ordinary Afghans are saying their number one concern is security, and they want the remaining U.S. support troops to stay. We support the Afghan women's groups concerns. This is no time to leave Afghanistan completely when women and girls are making progress and the new unity government, pledged to women's empowerment, is trying to move forward.
Please urge President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Congress to support postponement or extension of the US timeline for removing support troops from Afghanistan.
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1269/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11000
President Obama is right now reviewing his decision to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2015 and ALL troops by the end of 2016. Afghan women and girls have come too far to be turned back now. If the Taliban returns, too many of the women who have gone to work and school and who have taken on leadership in government or in the several hundred established Afghan women's groups, will be killed. We must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these courageous women.
This International Women's Day, tell President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Congress that the U.S. must not abandon Afghan women and girls who need and want security. Let’s help Afghan women protect the gains they have won.
For women's lives and equality,
Eleanor Smeal
President, Feminist Majority
I blame Bush's lying, imperialist, profiteering, war-mongering, Dominionist theocracy.
socialist_n_TN (10,625 posts)
4. I think the Kurdish women of the PPK have an answer......
Ask ISIS about them in Syria. Sometimes the only answer is armed SELF defense.
^ Gun control fanatic
Lurks Often (3,775 posts)
10. People are very quick to say "We need to leave country such and such NOW!!"
Without the slightest bit of consideration for the consequences of what would happen after we left.
Afghanistan is certainly one example, if we leave now, it is very likely millions of women and female children will revert to essentially being the property of religious extremists.
I remember the outcry here on DU among many when Boko Harum kidnapped 276 female school children last April that the U.S. should do something. If we should do something for 276 female school children, we sure as hell should do something for the millions of females in Afghanistan.
Whatever the US does the Proglodytes will scream for the opposite.
It's not about social justice, it's about tearing down the US so they can rebuild it in their own distorted image.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026330763
