Clinton to Afghan women: 'We will not abandon you'

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that women's rights should not be sacrificed to any peace deal between the Kabul government and Taliban militants.

Speaking as Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with other U.S. officials, Clinton told three senior female Afghan officials Thursday "we will not abandon you," amid concerns that any political settlement with the Taliban could result in severe restrictions on women's rights.

Karzai came to the U.S. this week in part to persuade the U.S. to back his plans for ending the war through negotiations with militants. Taliban sympathizers routinely intimidate or attack women who work outside the home, wear western dress or try to attend school.

Clinton said "it is essential that women's rights and women's opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process."

She noted she had promised Karzai the U.S. would not "abandon Afghanistan in its quest for peace and long-term stability and we will not. And I make the same pledge to the women of Afghanistan. We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqyaFh_efr-brDq0rMLF1hkop0tgD9FM59DG0

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I do like this Secretary of State quite a bit.

We are going to get to a point where the govt. realizes what the people already know--it just isn't worth being there. And when we live, the plight of Afghan women will not even be a factor that was considered.

Yeah, I like Hillary Clinton too, but that's not going to change anything.

It's called "Diplomat Speak". It's one thing Hillary's mastered.

against the Soviet-backed Marxist government.

:eyes:

Gotta tow the party-line, huh?

That could be hard on your back. I prefer to toe lines, but that's just me.

For sure, religious fundamentalists are waaaaaaaaaaaaay preferable to those dirty pinkos! Women are way better off under the Taliban.

Is that your position?

But that doesn't make the excesses of the Soviets in Afghanistan anymore agreeable.

One thing I know for sure though - without the anti-communist hysteria that lingers and still affects the brain power of even so-called liberal Americans, the Taliban would never have been as strong, or as dangerous as they are now.

That makes you and others like you responsible for the fucking Taliban. That can't feel good.

How disgustingly hypocritical Secretary Clinton. :thumbsdown:

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-women_taliban.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-women_n_alliance.jpg

Year in Review: Zoya from RAWA
by GRITtv was published on December 28th, 2009

Barack Obama announced last month that the US would be sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. (No word on how many private contractors would be accompanying them.) He did not explicitly use the Afghan women as justification, but many politicians have, claiming that we cannot leave the women to their fate. RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is an underground women’s organization and one of the groups that predicted a long, deadly engagement. Zoya is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of RAWA and she joined us to talk about what would really be best for the women--and all the people--of Afghanistan. The Afghan Women's Mission has coordinated her speaking tour. Zoya is a pseudonym and her face is obscured to protect her identity.

http://www.grittv.org/2009/12/28/year-in-review-zoya-from-rawa/

or even most of them.

ETA: I'm always flabbergasted when obvious failures like MILIARY OCCUPATIONS are defended by anyone here. I must be one of the slow ones.

:shrug:

And they are damned sure not speaking up to answer western media polls.

I swear, the idiocy of some of the tools around here makes me want to SCREAM!!

Faith-based!

RAWA has a long record of opposition to the religious extremists, and to foreign troops in their country.

Show me any recent poll of Afghanis that does not reflect strong concerns about precipitous US withdrawal and what will undoubtedly happen to vulnerable groups, especially women, if that happens.

You are entitled to your own opinions about occupation, and I can assure you that even those of us who post concerns about how this withdrawal happens share many of them. But you are not entitled to make up your own facts about what the Afghan people think.

... Asking for facts? No, no, no.

You see, no one knows how the Afghan people think as well as the DUers who are against the war there. It just stands to reason they are experts.

You're fabricating, Robb.

Just perpetually optimistic as though I had brain damage. :)

say, get out. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. It's possible.

I posted a few in response to something you said: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4219906&mesg_id=4222747">The latest Afghanistan poll sponsored by ABC, BBC & ARD German news is now "Pentagon Propaganda"?

The OP has the survey results: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4219906">Poll: 7 in 10 Afghans support U.S. forces

all that material but thanks for putting it together!

... braze yourselves for the opposite.

I think most people in this country do not really understand that most of the uprising of muslim fundamentalism in the past 5 decades are due directly to US policies which favored theocracies over the budding democracies that sprung along the middle east after WWII. Americans love to play the "victim" card as if this radicalization by muslims was both a new thing, and something about which the US has not connection whatsoever.

Afghanistan, Iran, and even Iraq had democracies and were fairly Westernized societies. However, these are countries which were close to the former USSR (for both geographical and cultural reasons). The minute these countries were thought as being under the influence of Moscow, the UK and the USA specially felt the natural resources these countries harbored would be off limits to them. The current islamic radicalization of that area is due squarely to a set of blowbacks from American-led activity in that area. From Iraq, Iran, to Afghanistan... we can see the fingerprints of the CIA all over. A lot of people in that agency need to be answering a lot of questions. But instead of requesting their responsibility, we send our sons and daughters to die killing more innocent civilians over there, so that we can keep on patching and covering previous fuck ups by our "intelligence" establishment. The I in CIA is an oxymoron, nothing even remotely close to intelligence seems to have been produced out of Langley. Me thinks.

...On what planet was Afghanistan "fairly Westernized" before the Soviets?

.
.
.

in the wrong place at the wrong time

BUT THE GOOD OLD USA WILL MAKE IT ALL RIGHT ! ! !

yeah,

right

We abandoned them in 1990 after we supported the Mujahideen for 12 years. How'd that work out for us? We may have a short national memory, but you can be damn sure these people will not forget. They're still holding grudges that date back hundreds of years.

so they don't know what Hillary is saying, or for that matter, what Laura Bush said back in late 2001 (same thing as Hillary today).

This is right up there with "Never again.". Spare me.

after that, maybe a Saddam Hussein part 2 in Afghanistan?

OK so if I am close with the spelling thats good enough.

Bush and Condi set her up pretty well didnt they!

So instead of "defeating the Taleban" (which was the mission change after "smoke out the terrists" failed), now it's gonna be "make Afghanistan safe for Afghan women." But they were supposed to make the new goal easier, not harder. At this rate, we'll be there forever. What's the new mission going to be once "save the women" fails? A WalMart in place of every goat farm? Maybe set up a nice Christian republic?

In the past the U.S. made it very difficult, nearly impossible, for them to do so. Our government does not recognize the systematic abuse & subjugation of women as a good enough reason to let someone into the country.