Women for Afghan Women are watching in alarm as American support for the war wanes, and the group is reluctantly calling for an increase in troops.
That puts WAW members in the decidedly uncomfortable position for calling for war in order to help women.
Dating Jesus 
It’s so hard to sort out what might be best for Afghanistan from here even for those that are paying attention. Not many are. According to the latest news alert, Karzai declared himself re-elected since no one is running against him. What does that really mean to the people and to the women. Just when you think you know, it changes. What first looks better, turns bad. That seems to be the pattern. I hope the well-being of the women is something that the US takes into consideration when choosing what to do next. It’s very confusing.
It is confusing. I was reading today that Abdullah Abdullah, the man who pulled out of the presidential election, is now saying the election was fradulent. I mean, who do you believe?
I know. It’s especially hard when we hear it 5th (or so) hand. The fact that the CIA has links to Karzai’s brother(?) makes us look like we might have our hands in it, too. Is it a Charlie Wilson like effect maybe? Are we/are we not influencing things without all of us even knowing about it? Does the CIA work together with the military? I don’t even know.
And we may not ever know, but we need to be asking those questions, I think.
Really, a person like me, an individual, has little or no power to ask such questions of the ones in charge. I rarely get any responses from my letters and when I do they’re form letters. It doesn’t stop me, but I have yet to have any confirmation that it does anything at all. Public outcry has to come from more than scattered individuals.
The media has leverage and can hold people accountable in a public way. Thank goodness for good journalists who do that on this and on other issues (like you).
Oh, stop. There are far more effective journalists out there. I hope they continue what they do because you’re right: It’s hard to get a call back when you’re a regular person. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
We do know, however, that life for Afghan women is better without the Taliban. Young women are immolating themselves to not get married. They can’t go to school. They can’t see doctors. Seems to me almost anything has to be better than being a woman in the Taliban’s clutches.
That’s too true, isn’t it? And how do we deal with this without making things worse?