This is a US-installed state, 100%. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a US-made entity that terribly oppresses its people.

I'm by no means an expert on this, but I remember reading that Afghanistan in the 1980s was a better situation for women than it is now. They had a democracy for a while.

I can't help but think the Russians had cracked down so hard and were so ruthless that the radical fundamentalists were much more in check.

In any event, we need to get out NOW and let the Afghans run their own show. Better, worse, whatever, it is not our place to try and "fix" their culture, especially when ours is flawed.

or if the rest of the world was fooled by propaganda about how great it was. I simply don't know enough about the situation then. I have read that life was better in Afghanistan for women in the past than in recent years. Pakistan and Afghanistan are tied for #1 worst places for women in the world.

But in any case, I fully agree that we need to GTFO. Invading Afghanistan has historically proven disastrous time and time again. It's just bad for the USA. The USA isn't strong enough financially to keep invading the middle east.

Women could walk down the streets of Kabul unveiled, and filled the universities, and had important positions of leadership in government. Definitely better. But it was an occupation. And it was no more justified for the Soviets to be there than the US now.

It's an amazing book by a woman who grew up during the russian invasion. Afghanistan was a very different place then.

It's what the men over there want. The US doesn't impose those laws on the men living there. That's what the men there have chosen for themselves. Not *everything* horrible in the world is the fault of the US.

afghanistan women were very strong and had more freedom. with the soviet invasion, they had freedom. There are afghanis against the taliban. We helped create the environment by supporting fundie wackos like OBL instead of the more moderate factions of afghanis fighters.

So, all the sympathy by little boots about the women in afghanistan being abused, having no rights was just a con. Because it appears, they're going back to the same bullshite. When the taliban ruled, the highest rate of female suicides in the world was in afghanistan.

The US IS responsible, because it chose to invade and govern the country, just as the Soviet imperialists did before the US ones. Afghanistan was a bastion of modernity in 1979, when this cycle of subjugation from abroad began.

she lived with an afghani family for a while. Women did have more freedom than under the boot of the taliban.

in this country are pushing us.

A preview of what's to come

But the people who go in after the mayhem and the bloodshed don't blow stuff up reel gud, so it's unsurprising that nobody notices it.

So that's not a valid criticism. Just remember that if it comes up in the future.

Some cultures are more advanced and consistent with economic development. In that sense, and that sense alone, of course Western culture is superior to feudal culture.

We're superior because we have womens rights, gay rights, democracy, free speech, freedom of religion, right to due process etc.

I know some of those have gone out of the window in the US and not many on DU are concerned about that, though.

Dont let fundies kid you,they would do the same and worse if they could.

This corrupt POS has thrown women's rights under the bus time and time again. This time it was to appease the Taliban. The last time it was the Afghan warlords. All just so he can remain in power.

Women are second class citizens in Afghanistan. They're not getting slaughtered in the soccer stadium anymore, but they are still stoned, abused and oppressed throughout the country. Little girls cannot even get an education. They risk their lives if they attempt it.