Saturday, May 5, 2012

Obama's War on Women

This is an op. ed. written by former Loudoun County, VA Senate candidate Patricia Phillips. In 2004 Elinor Burkett published "So Many Enemies, So Little Time: An American Woman in All the Wrong Places" (http://www.amazon.com/So-Many-Enemies-Little-Time/dp/0060524421)that asked the question "where are all the feminists and why are they not supporting President Bush and Laura Bush as they tried to un-enslave Afghan women?" Burkett describes herself as a life-long feminist and part of the NOW crowd. Since she had seen the deplorable condition of many women in that area, championing any effort to alleviate those conditions was a no-brainer. The feminist retreat on women's rights started with Clinton's Monica when he broke the very law against sex in the work place that he had signed to much bally-hoo not long before. It continues to this day because Gloria Steinam et al were never so serious that they could abandon the Democrat party over little things like public be-headings for accused adultery. Now as then, the War on Women is being waged by Democrats.

On May Day, 2012, President Barrack Obama announced the reopening of the real War on Women. The President’s “New Chapter” in Afghanistan will surrender the women of Afghanistan to the atrocities of the Taliban. That is the bottom line in President Obama’s reiteration that the United States will finish withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan by 2014 regardless of the conditions on the ground.

Sure enough, hours after Obama left the country, the Taliban took credit for a suicide car bomb that killed 7 and injured 17, mostly children on their way to school. Are we so self-centered, so easily wearied from the arduous and difficult task in Afghanistan, that we will turn a blind eye to the slave-like treatment of 50% of the population - women and girls – under the Taliban? Because that is exactly what the US capitulation will do.

Following the 9-11 attack, in 2001 United States waged war against the Taliban-run government of Afghanistan because the Taliban refused to break with Usama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Once we became involved in Afghanistan, the full horror of the Taliban’s oppression became clear. Like the Holocaust in World War II, once we had boots on the ground, the truth and extent of the Taliban’s atrocities to their own people, and especially women, became undeniable.

Women will be completely oppressed, once again. Girls’ schools will be closed. The Taliban are so determined that girls should not learn how to read or write that they will violently attack the schools if they do not close “voluntarily”. They would rather kill girls than let them go to school. Women who don’t “choose” to wear the veil will risk having acid thrown in their faces, at best disfiguring them but likely blinding them for life. The choice to earn a living or choose a career will once again become only a dream, while the reality of their situation an unending nightmare. The void of music and dancing are insignificant compared to the truly slave-like existence they will live.

When we learned Elizabeth Smart had been abducted and hidden away, to be raped repeatedly, the nation was appalled, and her abductor was sentence to life in prison for his crimes. Yet we are neglectfully abandoning the entire female population of Afghanistan to a lifetime of Smart’s ordeal, by leaving the country ill-equipped to keep the Taliban at bay.

In the past decade, despite suffering numerous defeats on the battlefield, the Taliban has not moderated. It remains a dominant force in Afghanistan devoted to restoring an absolute rule that allows no opposition. It is waiting for our President’s self-imposed deadline to pass. Absent the United States, it will become the predominant force again. No matter what our President hopes will change, the Taliban’s gross mistreatment of women is part of its radical ideology and is unmovable.

The President is keeping a campaign promise he made to his base of supporters in 2008. The women of Afghanistan will pay for Obama’s promise in blood and tears. And we will pay again later, in the same currency.

I’m no expert in foreign affairs. This is just common sense based on what is known on the surface. I can’t remain silent and let this go by with comment.

Concerned,



Patricia Phillips

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