... if she refuses!
 

An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has become law. :yikes:

This and the rapes in the Congo make me feel so useless and helpless to make a difference.

And we have people over there dying.

I have a feeling we won't like the country, even if they "lock out" al Quaida.

I realize we can't bring our troops home just yet, and I realize that it's their country their decision; but you know, kind of makes me wonder why we didn't just flatten them all and get it over with.

Because you went to help the good guys get free of the Taliban and help quash terrorism in the region. You didn't seem to realise that "good guys" is a relative term.
Flat, black and glowing was only ever an option in your dreams.

Well this is a place that still thinks it is 1250AD.

Nothing that modern. If you're past 900AD, you're suspect.

Here’s a story – apocryphal, no doubt, but it should be true – told by many Saudi expats.

The BA flight from Heathrow to Jeddah is about thirty minutes outside of Saudi airspace, and the stews have locked up the booze cabinets and are cleaning up the now empty drinks.

The pilot’s voice comes over the PA system. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is your pilot speaking. We are approximately thirty minutes from our destination of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”

“The temperature in Jeddah is a balmy 27 degrees Celsius or about 80 degrees Fahrenheit for our American friends. The sky is clear with a light breeze coming in from the Red Sea to the West.”

“We have started our final approach to KAIA, so please put you seats in the upright position and fasten your seat belts.”

“The current time in Jeddah is 8:23 AM, so for those passengers whose watches are set to Greenwich Mean Time, you’ll need to set them back about twelve hundred years.”

“Thank you for flying British Airways.”

:rant: I find the thoughts attempting to process the inequities and inescapable irreconcilable differences created by the newer modern technologies embraced by the countries that refuse to grow passed their past and away from archaic ideologies to live more harmoniously amongst themselves in regard to the ways men and women are separated for the double standards they've live for so long a time to be such heavy traditions and customs that can scarcely be denied or put to rest. :jedi:

How deeply we can interfere in cultures which we find distasteful or just plain "wrong" is sadly limited. Whether we should interfere with someone who is as right in his mind as we are in ours is a monumental decision. Without Bin Laden's attack on the Twin Towers, the Taliban would still be in full control of Afghanistan and perhaps Pakistan by now.

And then they would have had nukes.

It is indeed, and taking action should be reserved for only extreme situations. Some would claim that anyone’s “take” on the world is just as valid as any other. I would disagree with them, but I recognize that is a double-edged sword. If I claim the right (as I do) to judge and find wanting an Afghan’s entitlement to starve his wife into sexual submission, then I must, to be fair, extend to him the same right to criticize the norms of my society.

One entitlement I will not grant him or anyone else is a claim that this or that facet of some society is beyond criticism.

We are drifting dangerously close to the World War 1 riddle where Germany and Great Britain both had God with them, just check their belt buckles.

As the Universal Soldier said, "I respect your right to believe this, but I'm going to kill you anyway".

Soldiers have the easy the easy part. They're told who, where, and when to blow stuff/people up. They don't have to ask why. I don't mean to sound like I'm belittling the troops (my countries or otherwise), I support them completely because they are doing they're job like they're supposed to............but still.

One could argue though that the problem is that we are no longer allowed to fight wars in the way they need to be fought. You cannot fight a war based on popular opinion. We have tried to make war a pretty thing that plays well on the evening news so one side or the other can politically speaking domestically can show how their ideas are the best or the other sides in the worst. When in reality "war is a means to a political end" and you do what ever needs to be done (short of torture, and out right cruelty) to win.

Wars are not something to be entered into lightly and I feel that the conflicts we are currently entered into were done so very very lightly. No consideration was made to how to get out, and what could be considered a victory. No thought or planning was in place at the start of these wars. The American public was not willing to accept what needs to be done to win these wars.

I'm done rambling now.