TIME magazine cover shows Taliban atrocity

TIME Cover Depicts the Disturbing Plight of Afghan Women

Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years. Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story by our own Aryn Baker on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban - and how they fear a Taliban revival. (See pictures of Afghan women and the return of the Taliban.)

I thought long and hard about whether to put this image on the cover of TIME. First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha's safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover. She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban.

[...]

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them. In the end, I felt that the image is a window into the reality of what is happening - and what can happen - in a war that affects and involves all of us. I would rather confront readers with the Taliban's treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the U.S. and its allies should do in Afghanistan. (See the cover story "Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban.")

The much publicized release of classified documents by WikiLeaks has already ratcheted up the debate about the war. Our story and the haunting cover image by the distinguished South African photographer Jodi Bieber are meant to contribute to that debate. We do not run this story or show this image either in support of the U.S. war effort or in opposition to it. We do it to illuminate what is actually happening on the ground. As lawmakers and citizens begin to sort through the information about the war and make up their minds, our job is to provide context and perspective on one of the most difficult foreign policy issues of our time. What you see in these pictures and our story is something that you cannot find in those 91,000 documents: a combination of emotional truth and insight into the way life is lived in that difficult land and the consequences of the important decisions that lie ahead. [...]

Seeing is believing:



More on Aisha's story:

The Grossman Burn Centers Provides Care and Hope for Bibi Aisha from Afghanistan

At 16, her father promised her hand in marriage and she was handed over to a large family, who she claims were all members of the Taliban in Oruzgan province. "I spent two years with them and became a prisoner," she says. Tortured and abused, she couldn't take it any longer and decided to run away. Two female neighbors promising to help took her to Kandahar province. But this was just another act of deception. When they arrived to Kandahar her female companions tried to sell Aisha to another man. All three women were stopped by the police and imprisoned. Aisha was locked up because she was a runaway. And although running away is not a crime, in places throughout Afghanistan it is treated as one if you are a woman. A three-year sentence was reduced to five months when President Hamid Karzai pardoned Aisha. But eventually her father-in-law found her and took her back home. That was the first time she met her husband. He came home from Pakistan to take her to Taliban court for dishonoring his family and bringing them shame. The court ruled that her nose and ears must be cut off. An act carried out by her husband in the mountains of Oruzgan where they left her to die. But she survived. And with the help of an American Provincial Reconstruction Team in Oruzgan and the organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW), she is finally getting help. The United Nations estimates that nearly 90 percent of Afghanistan's women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse. "Bibi Aisha is only one example of thousands of girls and women in Afghanistan and throughout the world who are treated this way. Aisha is reminded of that enslavement every time she looks in the mirror. But there still times she can laugh. And at that moment you see her teenage spirit escaping a body that has seen a lifetime of injustice. [...]

Such monstrous, unnecessary cruelty. She is being brought to the US for reconstructive surgery. And, I hope, to make her story more widely known.

I'm not a big fan of TIME magazine, but their decision to feature Aisha's story on the front cover, does literally put a human face on what is happening there. And yet, what is the best way to do something about it? That will be the debate.
     

Iranian clerics want a Taliban style government?

According to Mansoor Moaddel, Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University, that is exactly what the clerics are trying to do:

Iran’s Crisis and the U.S. Option: Support Mousavi now or fight Ahmadinejad tomorrow

The current civil uprising in Iran reflects not just a protest against a rigged election. Nor is it primarily a symptom of contentions for power or clashes between opposing perspectives on the nature of the Islamic regime. It is, rather, resistance against a political coup, whose engineers plan to impose a Taliban-style Islamic government on Iran. The coup has been organized by an alliance between the supreme leader and the most militant and fundamentalist faction within the ruling establishment, backed by the Revolutionary Guard.

The political attitudes of one of its most notorious ideologues, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, demonstrates the danger Iranians and the world would be facing should this militant faction get its way. Mesbah Yazdi does not believe in the republican aspects of the Islamic regime, but rather views Islamic law as supreme and must be unquestionably followed. The supreme leader, he says, is not elected but rather discovered by the clerics. For him, Ayatollah Khamenei is the exemplar of such a leader. He has characterized the ideas of representative government and legislative functions as belong to the decadent system of Western liberalism. He has likened reformist ideas to the AIDS virus. He has publically endorsed the construction of a nuclear bomb.

These ideas have much appeal for Ahmadinejad, who claims that the past governments were corrupt and deviated from the Islamic path.

[...]

The outcome of the current civil uprising is certainly consequential for the development of democracy in Iran. It has also far reaching implications for regional stability, international peace efforts, and the security of the United States. At this point, the regime cannot secure its rule without unleashing a reign of terror. And if this coup succeeds, the regime will forge ahead with its expressed plans for nuclear development and support for religious extremism abroad.

It would be a mistake to think that people like Ahmadinejad are reasonable. It is counter productive to base policy on the untenable premise that he would be amenable to a cost-benefit analysis on the nuclear issue. Time and again he has announced that the nuclear issue is off the table. To believe or hope otherwise would be a profound and resonant error. [...]

Read the whole thing. We have nothing to gain by worring about offending the Mullahs; they are not going to "talk" with us. But our Democrat Administration seems to have blinders on to all this.
     

Why we NEED to FIGHT, not turn and RUN

This is one of the sickest videos I have seen. From The Jawa Report, A Taliban video, in which a 12 year old boy beheads a man, while other children watch and cheer:

Most Shocking Video Ever: 12 Year Old Taliban Boy Beheads Man (Uncensored Version)

[...] It's so bad that there was some debate amongst ourselves whether to show it or not. Yesterday we put up a link to a video showing al Qaeda in Iraq burning hostages alive. Allahpundit, speaking of that same video says:

Not for those with weak stomachs; not really for those with strong stomachs, either. But force yourself, as none of Cordesman’s charts, as impressive as they are, will drive home to you like this will what it means in practical terms that far fewer of these subhumans are walking around Iraq today than last year. They deserve every misery inflicted upon them.

Indeed. No, the Taliban aren't the "Iraqi resistance" which some on the fringes of the left seem to love so much, but they're just as bad.

Strongest possible content warning: You are about to see the true face of our enemies. This is not an American propaganda video, it was made by the Taliban themselves. This is why we fight. This is why we must win.

The boy slits the man's throat as he begins cutting, sawing through the neck with great difficulty, while the other children cheer him on; the neck bones are especially difficult, but he eventually severs the man's head completely, and holds it up proudly for the camera and cheering children.




I'm pretty sure the man was dead already, as the blood didn't splurt out, and there was no blood coming from his nose or mouth, which would have happened if he were breathing. Some might argue that it's not so bad then. I would say, practicing on cadavers is preparation for a real live execution. Desensitizing children at an early age is essential, and a stepping stone for worse things still.

If you can't see the video, you can see sequential photos from it here (scroll down when you get to the page).

The savages who made this video want us to see it. They make these videos for two purposes; to encourage each other in their insanity, and to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who would resist. They want people to be afraid, and SUBMIT.

And it's not just the savages in the Taliban. Al Qaeda in Iraq are just as savage:

Al Qaeda in Iraq BURNS Hostages ALIVE!

Warning extremely graphic

Hillery Clinton has said that she would withdraw our troops from Iraq within 60 days. Barack Obama also believes in setting a withdrawal date. The Democrats as a whole want to see us fail in this war, and will insure that it happens as quickly as possible.

Islamo-fascism is spreading like a cancer, and with every retreat it grows stronger. If we leave Iraq too soon there would be a bloodbath worse than anything we've seen thus far, and it wouldn't stop there.

I believe John McCain would fight with resolve, and fight to win. He advocated the surge years ago. Soldiers don't like protracted wars, because they don't like to see their fellow soldiers killed. They do what's needed to get the job done and WIN.

I'm fed up with conservatives complaining how they won't support McCain, because he's not conservative enough. Has nearly everyone gone insane?

The Democrats want to ignore Islamo-fascism in favor of "free" health care and more government, a Nanny state to change their diapers. Conservatives are saying they want to "sit this one out" while they worry about gay marriage and Mormon underwear, and wait for a Presidential candidate in some imagined future election that's more like themselves.

If such conservatives cannot see and appreciate the gravity of the dangers facing us, then they are no better than the Democrats, and I cannot support them anymore than I can support the Democrats. Why? Because supporting either of them will have the same ending; Clinton or Obama in the White House, with all their WEAKNESS, and all the horrors that will follow on that.

I don't enjoy watching these videos, or posting them. It makes me sick, but I forced myself to watch them. It's ugly and horrific, but it's not going to go away by ignoring it; ignoring it is exactly how it's gotten as bad as it has. Continuing to ignore it will insure it grows worse still. Let's put someone in the White House who is up to the task of dealing with it. Let's insure we have a future that is bright, and not a Sharia based-nightmare.

Let's insure we HAVE a future.


Hat tip to Pat, who told me about the links this morning. Here's a link to his post:

Video: Taliban boy beheads hostage