Taleban Terrorize Afghan Schoolchildren

While the war in Afghanistan has basically become a footnote in the American press and the Canadian media strive mightily to highlight the Rumsfeldian type of Good News™ that might be reported from a battlefield, what is being missed is the true nature of the rise in power of the Taleban. And, the most obvious example of that is the effect they have had on schoolchildren.

We're all aware of the growing numbers of Taleban fighters that have surfaced since spring came to Afghanistan once again. The battle reports of casualties have been well-publicized. The press and governments even acknowledge the return to poppy crops as a mainstay of the country's underground economy - a front in the war that the coalition seems to be losing. But, these realities are portrayed against a backdrop of hopeful reconstruction projects and humanititarian efforts that don't tell the whole story.

Thursday's Independent reveals the growing influence of Taleban threats and violence that has shut down numerous schools and has even resulted in teachers being beheaded, according to a newly released Human Rights Watch report:

“Schools are being shut down by bombs and threats, denying another generation of Afghan girls an education and the chance for a better life,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, co-author of the report. “Attacks on schools by the Taliban and other groups that are intended to terrorize the civilian population are war crimes and jeopardize Afghanistan’s future.”

Human Rights Watch found entire districts in Afghanistan where attacks had closed all schools and driven out the teachers and non-governmental organizations providing education. Insecurity, societal resistance in some quarters to equal access to education for girls, and a lack of resources mean that, despite advances in recent years, the majority of girls in the country remain out of school. Nearly one-third of districts have no girls’ schools.

The Independent adds:

By the conservative estimate of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, 100,000 students have been terrorised out of schools in the past year. The number is certainly far higher and many teachers have been murdered, some beheaded.
[...]
This summer, across the south of Afghanistan, the Taliban have returned. They boast the same medieval world vision but their numbers are unprecedented, their weapons abundant, and their coffers full of money from wealthy Pakistani and Gulf State patrons and from the proceeds of drug trafficking.
[...]
In May, the coalition dropped bombs in Afghanistan on no fewer than 750 occasions, more than the ordnance dropped in Iraq. On Sunday night, bombs were again lighting up the sky, amid a dull rumble in Ghazni province.

The US war against the Taleban may have toppled their government, but the US's quick move from that country on to the illegal Iraq war certainly affected the way in which the aftermath of the Afghanistan mission was handled. And Afghans continue to suffer now hoping that NATO will be able to bring the security necessary for reconstruction and peace when it takes control of the situation.

Canada lost one more soldier in Afghanistan this week, bringing the total to 17. How many more will die due to the fact that Bush, Rumsfeld and their neocon warmongers failed to finish the job they set out to do?