14-year old Pakistani girl activist shot by Taliban

[merithyn]

She's been on the Taliban's hit list for years, but she pushed them over the edge by saying that President Barack Obama was her idol during a recent interview.

This just makes me sick. I'm trying so very hard to understand why we aren't just swarming Afghanistan and killing every last one of those fucking Taliban. I know, I know. Knee-jerk reaction with insane consequences, but this has to stop. It just has to.

CBS News Article

MINGORA, Pakistan A Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school in Pakistan's volatile Swat Valley on Tuesday and shot and wounded a 14-year-old activist known for championing the education of girls and publicizing atrocities committed by the Taliban, officials said.

The attack in the city of Mingora targeted 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who is widely respected for her work to promote the schooling of girls — something that the Taliban strongly opposes. She was nominated last year for the International Children's Peace Prize.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling Malala's work "obscenity."

"This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter," said Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan by telephone. "We have carried out this attack."

The school bus was about to leave the school grounds in Mingora when a bearded man approached it and asked which one of the girls was Malala, said Rasool Shah, the police chief in the town. Another girl pointed to Malala, but the activist denied it was her and the gunmen then shot both of the girls, the police chief said.

Malala was shot twice — once in the head and once in the neck — but her wounds were not life-threatening, said Tariq Mohammad, a doctor at the main hospital in Mingora. The second girl shot was in stable condition, the doctor said. Pakistani television showed pictures of Malala being taken by helicopter to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar.

In the past, the Taliban has threatened Malala and her family for her activism. When she was only 11 years old, she began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC's Urdu service about life under Taliban occupation. After the Taliban were ejected from the Swat Valley in the summer of 2009, she began speaking out publicly about the militant group and the need for girls' education.

While chairing a session of a children's assembly supported by UNICEF in the valley last year, the then-13-year-old championed a greater role for young people.

"Girl members play an active role," she said, according to an article on the U.N. organization's website. "We have highlighted important issues concerning children, especially promoting girls' education in Swat."

The attack displayed the viciousness of Islamic militants in the Swat Valley, where the military conducted a major operation in 2009 to clear out insurgents. It was a reminder of the challenges the government faces in keeping the area free of militant influence.

The scenic valley — nicknamed the Switzerland of Pakistan — was once a popular tourist destination for Pakistanis, and honeymooners used to vacation in the numerous hotels dotted along the river running through Swat. But the Taliban's near-total takeover of the valley just 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the capital in 2008 shocked many Pakistanis, who considered militancy to be a far-away problem in Afghanistan or Pakistan's rugged tribal regions.

Militants began asserting their influence in Swat in 2007 — part of a wave of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters expanding their reach from safe havens near the Afghan border. By 2008 they controlled much of the valley and began meting out their own brand of justice.

They forced men to grow beards, restricted women from going to the bazaar, whipped women they considered immoral and beheaded opponents.

During the roughly two years of their rule, Taliban in the region destroyed around 200 schools. Most were girls' institutions, though some prominent boys' schools were struck as well.

At one point, the Taliban said they were halting female education, a move that echoed their militant brethren in neighboring Afghanistan who during their rule barred girls from attending school.

While the Pakistani military managed to flush out the insurgents during the military operation, their Taliban's top leadership escaped, leaving many of the valley's residents on edge.

Kamila Hayat, a senior official of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, praised Malala for standing up to the militants and sending a message across the world that Pakistani girls had the courage to fight for their rights. But she also worried that Tuesday's shooting would prevent other parents from letting their children speak out against the Taliban.

"This is an attack to silence courage through a bullet," Hayat said. "These are the forces who want to take us to the dark ages."

The problems of young women in Pakistan were also the focus of a separate case before the high court, which ordered a probe into an alleged barter of seven girls to settle a blood feud in a remote southwestern district. Such feuds in Pakistan's tribal areas often arise from disputes between families or tribes and can last generations.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry began proceedings into the allegations, which were first reported in the local media. The alleged trade happened in the Dera Bugti district of Baluchistan province between two groups within the Bugti tribe, one of the more prominent in the province.

A tribal council ordered the barter in early September, the district deputy commissioner, Saeed Faisal, told the court. He did not know the girls' ages but local media reported they were between 4 and 13 years old.

However, the Advocate General for the province could not confirm the incident.

Chaudhry, the chief justice, ordered Faisal to ensure that all members of the tribal council appear in court on Wednesday, as well as a local lawmaker who belongs to one of the two sub-tribes believed involved in the incident.

The tradition of families exchanging unmarried girls to settle feuds is banned under Pakistani law but still practiced in the country's more conservative, tribal areas.

[CountDeMoney]

This just makes me sick. I'm trying so very hard to understand why we aren't just swarming Afghanistan and killing every last one of those fucking Taliban. I know, I know. Knee-jerk reaction with insane consequences, but this has to stop. It just has to.

It should, but it won't. 
Women's issues are not a major foreign policy concern for the United States.   Hell, they're not even a domestic policy issue, so what makes you think we'd do anything about it in Islamistan?

[merithyn]

This just makes me sick. I'm trying so very hard to understand why we aren't just swarming Afghanistan and killing every last one of those fucking Taliban. I know, I know. Knee-jerk reaction with insane consequences, but this has to stop. It just has to.

It should, but it won't. 
Women's issues are not a major foreign policy concern for the United States.   Hell, they're not even a domestic policy issue, so what makes you think we'd do anything about it in Islamistan?

No, I'm sorry, but you don't get to compare this to what's going on in the US. There just is no comparison. These women aren't worried about getting the pill with their insurance. They're not even second-class citizens. They're brood animals to the Taliban, to be auctioned and traded and killed as necessary.

They are the slaves of the Taliban.

[MadImmortalMan]

This makes me want to punch somebody in their beardy face.

[Valmy]

This is all the same crap they were doing in Afghanistan in the 90s.

[Admiral Yi]

'm trying so very hard to understand why we aren't just swarming Afghanistan and killing every last one of those fucking Taliban.

Isn't that what we've been trying to do?

[merithyn]

'm trying so very hard to understand why we aren't just swarming Afghanistan and killing every last one of those fucking Taliban.

Isn't that what we've been trying to do?

This happened in Pakistan. Last I checked, we weren't doing much (and the Pakistani don't seem to be doing much, either) in regards to the Taliban there. And by 2014, we'll be out of Afghanistan.

Before you ask, no, I've never been for pulling our people out of Afghanistan. It's one of the few recent wars that I firmly believe that we should be in, and that we should finish rather than just pull out.

[Neil]

Because this is to be expected of them.  This is what we've been fighting for.

[Admiral Yi]

This happened in Pakistan. Last I checked, we weren't doing much (and the Pakistani don't seem to be doing much, either) in regards to the Taliban there. And by 2014, we'll be out of Afghanistan.

Before you ask, no, I've never been for pulling our people out of Afghanistan. It's one of the few recent wars that I firmly believe that we should be in, and that we should finish rather than just pull out.

I happen to agree that protecting Afghan women from savages is one of the few worth-while activities in that country.

But do you sincerely want to spend a hundred billion dollars and a couple thousand dead GIs to protect a few random Afghan women?

[merithyn]

Do you sincerely believe that the Taliban affect only "a few random women" in Afghanistan? And you know what, if we're going to spend billions of dollars on our military, make it do something worthwhile other than sit in the fucking ocean playing chicken with the fucking Irani.

I believe that if we're going to waste our resources (including the young men and women serving in Afghanistan), then it should be doing something worthwhile, and this is absolutely worthwhile. So, yeah, I do sincerely believe that it's fucking worth it.

[CountDeMoney]

No, I'm sorry, but you don't get to compare this to what's going on in the US. There just is no comparison. These women aren't worried about getting the pill with their insurance. They're not even second-class citizens. They're brood animals to the Taliban, to be auctioned and traded and killed as necessary.

They are the slaves of the Taliban.

Then I'll repeat what I said: Women's issues are not a major foreign policy concern for the United States.

We don't fight wars against Islam, remember?

[Admiral Yi]

Do you sincerely believe that the Taliban affect only "a few random women" in Afghanistan? And you know what, if we're going to spend billions of dollars on our military, make it do something worthwhile other than sit in the fucking ocean playing chicken with the fucking Irani.

I believe that if we're going to waste our resources (including the young men and women serving in Afghanistan), then it should be doing something worthwhile, and this is absolutely worthwhile. So, yeah, I do sincerely believe that it's fucking worth it.

The hundred billion for an extended deployment is *on top* of what we're already "wasting" on the military.

Don't forget the KIAs.  And the maimed.

[mongers]

No, I'm sorry, but you don't get to compare this to what's going on in the US. There just is no comparison. These women aren't worried about getting the pill with their insurance. They're not even second-class citizens. They're brood animals to the Taliban, to be auctioned and traded and killed as necessary.

They are the slaves of the Taliban.

Then I'll repeat what I said: Women's issues are not a major foreign policy concern for the United States.

We don't fight wars against Islam, remember?

Pity I was looking forward to 'Operation Equal Vehicular Privileges', as US F15-E carpet bomb the driver registration offices in down-town Riyadh.   

[merithyn]

Then I'll repeat what I said: Women's issues are not a major foreign policy concern for the United States.

We don't fight wars against Islam, remember?

I just don't get why so few people are even talking about this as a major issue. How can women, especially, just ignore that this is happening?

I'm the last person to say that we should go to war, but this is no less imperative, in my mind, than fighting the Nazis. The Taliban are looking to enslave half the population and murder those (men and women) who speak out about it. I'm struggling to see how this is different.

As a rule, I don't discuss this here because I just can't stand the idea of it being mocked, but this is one of the very few items on my "No Compromise" list. There can be no compromise when it comes to the Taliban. It's not just women, it's anyone who chooses to think for themselves. The Taliban need to be destroyed, and I'm pretty comfortable saying, "Send in the troops."

(Mind you, my son is planning to join the military so I could be sending my own son to his death by advocating this. That makes me sick to my stomach to think of it, but at least he would be dying for something worthwhile.)

[DGuller]

What are we going to do, invade and occupy Pakistan?