Life, death and the Taliban: War of ideas
A woman, a school and a tragically complex relationship.
KABUL — On the morning of July 9, boys and girls were walking down a narrow road in the Logar Province on their way to school just as they did every day at that time.
That’s when the large bomb packed in a timber truck pulled up at a checkpoint and detonated, killing 25 people, including 13 school children, in the worst bombing in Afghanistan in several years.
It is believed the Taliban carried out the attack in retaliation for the girls’ school that had been built in the village in the Mohammed Agha district.
News photos showed that the crater left by the blast cracked the asphalt in the shape of an enormous spider’s web. Amid the wreckage of the truck and other vehicles destroyed in the enormous explosion there were blown-apart student backpacks. Pages torn from school books were scattered in the rubble.
Education is on the frontline of the war in Afghanistan.
Almost daily, girls’ schools are burned and bombed and teachers, principals, students and their families receive what are known as “night letters,” Islamic decrees of death issued by the Taliban and pasted on homes and the walls of villages in the dead of night.
In just two years, more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and more than 350 in Pakistan have been bombed, burned or shut down, according to the education ministries in both countries. Eighty percent of those targeted were girls’ schools.
In the Helmand Province in the south of Afghanistan, where the Taliban is effectively in control of most of the province, 75 of the 228 schools have been shut down by Taliban militias that disapprove of the secular teaching and the idea of girls receiving an education.
There are indeed too many bombings and too many funerals for school kids risking their lives in what is literally a war of ideas.
But the July 9 bombing in Logar and the devastating effect the deaths of 13 elementary-school-age boys has had on the village where it happened offers a microcosm of just how bad things are in Afghanistan.
The story really begins on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
This is an excellent report on a complex situation. In a place like this, nothing is ever simple and often not what it seems. I'm glad to see a published piece go into so much depth to explain the nuances of this complexity, something we don't see enough of in the mainstream media. Thank you for bringing this to light.
Paula Lerner
http://www.lernerphoto.com
I disagree. There is almost no explaination of why the opposition strength has grown to the point that a school they allowed be built they are now able to close. Don's rant about American policy is without specifics. Give me something to be for or to be against in the way of US decisions and tell me if Al Quiada has had anything to do with the shift in power.
I listened to Mr. Sennott on my local NPR station tonight. Obviously a brave and well-informed young man. Bravo.
HOWEVER. His talk about how we're going to need more troops in Afghanistan took me back to the sixties. Then, we were told that if we didn't prevent the Vietnamese from settling their own issues, i.e. if we allowed the Commie North to take over the corrupt-though-nominally-democratic South, the Domino Effect would swallow us all, eventually. Now, the idea is that if we let Afghanistan go to the Taliban, Pakistan might -- just might -- come under their sway as well. And for some reason, that is seen as an unacceptable outcome. Why? No reason, just because it is, with a dose of "They've got nukes!" fearmongering thrown in for good measure.
Wake up, folks and Mr. Sennott. We have no business in Afghanistan. None. Zero. Zilch. The fact that Pakistan has a nuke or two is India's problem, not ours. Let them handle it. We're too broke to be the world's problem-solver.
This will break Obama just like Vietnam broke Johnson. Two great liberals, all for naught. So sad.
After reading a few of the comments on this story I am very dismyed. People tend to forget that this is not the 60's, any similarities with Veitnam are coincidental. Veitnam was war that was fought with no real provication. I think 911 is more than enough reason for the US to be in Afghanistan. If we do not stabilize that region there is just going to be more Osama Bin Ladens being mass produced. An enviroment of fear and ignorance will just produce more terrorists. It is apparent that the public is letting their bad feelings about Iraq cloud their judgment about Afghanistan. I think that we owe it to the people of Afghanistan as well as to the victims of 911, to stay and see this thing through.
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