While the
Guardian reports that the US and UK mission to bomb Afghanistan is on hold pending a repair of the ‘alliance’, many in the US are just learning where to place Afghanistan on the map. We know little about the people and history of the country that
Afghanistan Online calls "The Friendliest Country in the World, Possibly the Universe."
It is hard for many of us to imagine dropping bombs on a people who already find themselves terrorized by an enduring civil war, millions of whom sought to escape and now populate the largest refugee camps in the world. The much-vilified Taliban only came into power in 1996 after the US backed mojahedin coalition self-destructed due to in-fighting after first driving out the Soviets [history and analysis].
Now millions more Afghani’s are attempting to flee the country and the feared US retribution. As if this nightmare is not enough; the region is facing a food shortage where many, according to the UN World Food Program risk starvation. Aid agencies were forced to pull out, and as always the withdrawal of aid effects the most vulnerable [plight of Afghani Children]. A Los Angeles relief effort was revealed in an October 1 LA Times story.
Meanwhile the plight of Afghani Women is receiving renewed attention as a BBC documentary on the Revolutionary Association of the Woman of Afghanistan [RAWA] is re-broadcast on CNN; as if the subject is only now timely.
[ Alternet: Ten Things You Should Know About The Middle East] ]
