Left I on the News

Exhibiting the typical American insensitivity to the depletion of the planet's resources, Laura Bush flew halfway around the world to spend five hours in Afghanistan. While there, Bush had this to say:

"It's very hard to imagine the idea of denying girls an education, of never allowing girls to go to school."

Indeed. Let's turn back the clock to 1978, when a revolution led by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan took control of the country. At the time, female illiteracy was 96%. One of the first acts of the government, which was in power until 1992, was to set up extensive literacy programs, especially for women, and in a multitude of ways bring women into public life.

And what brought that period to an end? You all know the answer. The United States government, working through the CIA, put together a reactionary fighting force, the Mujahedin, in which Osama bin Laden played a key role, which eventually took power, defeating the armed forces of the Soviet Union which had come to the defense of the Afghan government. That led directly to the rule of the Taliban, and the complete reversal of all the gains that women had made under the Communist PDPA government.

So Laura, can I imagine denying girls an education? Yes, I can imagine it, only, unlike you, I remember exactly who is responsible for that state of affairs. The U.S. government, including not just Republicans like your father-in-law and your husband and their associates, but Democrats as well, like Jimmy Carter and his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.