651 Afghan Schools Close This Year Due To Terrorist Activity

The number of teachers and students killed in the past 10 months has nearly doubled the total casualties of last year, authorities in the ministry of education said.

This year 651 schools were closed in southern provinces; 141 teachers and students were killed since beginning of the year; and 173000 students dropped off schools, spokesman for ministry of education said.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[pvo]

At the time where schooling is the fundamentally empowering institution that can help to rebuild lives, bridge differences, and ultimately, reduce poverty and injustices....

When will politicians recognize that schools and hospitals/ health care clinics will help fight terrorism far more effectively than air strikes and bombs?

I certainly am looking forward to some concrete changes in direction with the new administration.

[Hirnlego]

See? Fundamentalists are anti-knowledge and anti-intellectual...

[pvo]

you're jumping to conclusion without looking at the reasons behind these atrocities....
Fundamentalists didn't just sprout up yesterday. ...There's a reason (not necessarily good ones) for everything that happens in any situation and you'll need to look at both sides of the cause and effect equation

[Mogamboguru]

A lecture from the Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz, in his groundbraking book "On War" ("Vom Kriege") of 1832 -

Quote:

"You cannot "win" an occupation. As long as there is only one single person left in an occupied territory, who regards himself in opposition to the conquering army, the resistance to the occupation will prevail."

Unquote.

Ant there are still 12 MILLION people living in Afghanistan, who regard themselves in opposition to the (in their eyes) conquering US-Army. Name it, like it is, folks: Afghanistan is a lost cause.

The Afghans will NEVER, EVER accept the western role-model of democracy for their country. NEVER. Therefore, Afghanistan will forever remain a bottomless pit forthe USA. Every further Dollar spent, every s.h.o.t f.i.r.e.d, every life lost in Afghanistan will be lost in vain - like they have been lost in vain until now, already

I say, get the H.e.l.l out of there and forget, that a country named Afghanistan even exists.

Let them over there sort it out like they want and let everybody mind their own businesses.

[SiberianRat]

This breaks my heart. I know people who helped set up these schools. God bless Afghanistan.

[Daniboy]

Let's pull out and let Taliban kill all the teachers-sounds like a plan to me. Bomb the Taliban with flowers---and love. Maybe Taliban will just give up when Obama becomes president.

[motoGpifupleez]

Schools closing, 141 teachers killed, starvation running rampant, and then there's the Taliban, not only stronger in Afghanistan but extending their influence into nuclear armed Pakistan.

What a brilliant idea it was to invade Iraq and save us from Saddam's WMD's which were cocked, locked, and ready to rock.

[MESGAIN26]

if you prop up corruption this is what happens another bush failers

[marleysghost]

Terrorism is the result of fanatical religious tunnel vision coupled with tribal political ideas. Until the Arab nations and the moderate Islamic community reject their midieval mindsets they will continue battle against a secular future that accommodates others in the body politic. And, if they continue to rant and rave against the education of women, hatred of outsiders "Infidels", and insist upon the the rule of kings (supporting a vast oil wealth shared only within the family), they will be left behind as the rest of the world wearies of their invocation's that everything is either the will of God, or against the will of God.

Human misery and its effects are not the will of God, but due directly to the will and actions of Man. No sane God would have anything to do with this madness.

[lisa12345]

What a good post this is. I wonder what the solution is, though. How do they move forward and overcome fanatical religious tunnel vision, and tribal ideas? Do they need help and if so how do we help them.

[cayuse]

I have a bad time with words being use in bad ways

Terrorist vs. Resistence vs. Freedom Fighters vs. Occupiers. My dictionaries don't mean what he media, administration say they are?

[MagisterLudi]

Taliban and Al Qae.da and LeM and Pa.kistani Intelligence Services must be contained and/or destr.oyed and/or subverted. This is one of the primary challenges of incoming Democrats.
Russia and India could be very helpful in this, if handled correctly.
NATO must be compelled to do more.
Rich Ara.b states must be compelled to bankroll the rebuildiong of the area. Without string attached ( like those pathetic mad.rassas).

What P- and A-stan need is technical schools, primary education, roads, hospitals and Internet.

[CosmicChaos]

Peace Corp Teachers are desparately needed in places like Afganistan, Iraq, Gaza, Dafur, and any other region of the world that believes that Ignorance makes for great followers.

Frankly, I believe in training an army of Teachers would be much more affective than training an army of Soldiers.

[dmyron]

I seem to remember a similar scenario was what drew the USSR into their quagmire........

[MagisterLudi]

Well, USSR did a pretty good job of lifting their Mu.sli.m populations out of the quagmire of illiteracy and relig.ious oppression, superstition and hopeless backwardness.
The world would've been better off if Chin.ese and Americans and Ar.abs would've refrained from arming mujahed.din in the misguided attempt to destroy Afghan secular socialist government.

[lungfish]

Yea, we can all see what they did for Afghanistan.... and if I recall correctly, the CIA armed the Mujihadeen to fight the Russians.... Your history sense is a little lacking, Magisterludi.... and your ad hominum aproach isn't helping your image either...

[wadenelson1]

Poverty, ignorance, and desperation lead to terrorism.

I said after 9-11 we should bomb the country with books, invade with Peace Corps workers, and feed the people. Build schools and hospitals.

Pay willing Americans fabulous wages to go teach there, or run clinics.

Instead we pay Blackwater types fabulous money to kill people.

[MagisterLudi]

"I said after 9-11 we should bomb the country with books, invade with Peace Corps workers, and feed the people. Build schools and hospitals."
Now pay attention.
Taliban would NOT allow books, NOT allow Peace Corp, NOT allow schools for women etc.
The ONLY education Taliban allowed is religious: for men only. It was a country taken back to Dark Ages.
In addition:Taliban WAS supporting Osama and refused to give him up.
When and if Taliban and other Islamic extremists are contained, ONLY then a serious reconstruction is possible.
Not before. This news item is clear proof of that.
Think about it.

[kasukabe]

Rubbish

Osama Bin Laden was rich, well educated and hardly desperate.

What he was and is is a religious fanatic possessed of the resources to inflict his genocidal beliefs on people with no wish to submit to his extreme view of Islam. What Afghanistan has is an abundance of religious fanatics who feel it is their sacred duty to burn every book that is not a Koran. Who feel that it is their sacred duty to spray acid in the eyes of girls who want to go to school and to kill the people who want to teach them. This is a barbarism that we have not countenanced in the west for a thousand years.

There are many parts of the world where people live in poverty, where they have no education but they do not resort to terrorism because it is not a central tenant of their religions to subjugate those of different beliefs.

[RoseBlue]

Saddest story of the year so far.

[lungfish]

Mission Accomplished!!!

[PepsiHooligan]

What is the point of these sort of comments exactly? That this is the fault of the American soldiers fighting there? They're not doing enough? Just mocking anything going wrong under a Bush administration?

Backward culture killing teachers that teach girls - they've been doing it forever and they'll continue to do it. Not even The Decider can do much about that really. Unless he increased soldiers by hundreds of thousands and imposes western values on all of afghanistan - then you'll be back here decrying 'imperialism' and making sarcastic comments defending those poor oppressed afghans who can't be left alone and live like animals peacefully.

[MagisterLudi]

Lungdisease, if you got nothin' original to say, shut d fk up.

[lungfish]

I didn't support a war in Afghanistan, it wasn't the right answer to getting Osama bin Laden, which is the alleged reason why we are there now....
It isn't our soldiers fault, its the fault of the President and the democrat and GOP enablers that supported it. Any fool could have seen that without a sane and solid approach to chasing down bin Laden we would end up in a mess like this. Nobody ever successfully occupied Afghanistan and if anyone is going to change things there it will require far more resources and dedication than Dubya and co have shown. They basically "back burnered" Afghanistan to deal with the beehive they kicked in Iraq....

I'LL say it again, with even more sarcasm,

Mission Accomplished!!!