Thread: Terrorism that's personal

EDITOR'S NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT

http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2009/11 ... sonal.html

Text by Jim Verhulst, Times' Perspective editor | Photos by Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press

We typically think of terrorism as a political act.

But sometimes it’s very personal. It wasn’t a government or a guerrilla insurgency that threw acid on this woman’s face in Pakistan. It was a young man whom she had rejected for marriage. As the United States ponders what to do in Afghanistan — and for that matter, in Pakistan — it is wise to understand both the political and the personal, that the very ignorance and illiteracy and misogyny that create the climate for these acid attacks can and does bleed over into the political realm. Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times op-ed columnist who traveled to Pakistan last year to write about acid attacks, put it this way in an essay at the time: “I’ve been investigating such acid attacks, which are commonly used to terrorize and subjugate women and girls in a swath of Asia from Afghanistan through Cambodia (men are almost never attacked with acid). Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled. It’s a kind of terrorism that becomes accepted as part of the background noise in the region. ...

“Bangladesh has imposed controls on acid sales to curb such attacks, but otherwise it is fairly easy in Asia to walk into a shop and buy sulfuric or hydrochloric acid suitable for destroying a human face. Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies: They are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.â€

Horrible.


The geopolitical question is already hard enough: Should the United States commit more troops to Afghanistan and for what specific purpose?

No, bring our brave soldiers home and let the Middle East fight their own battles. This war is about oil, money and greed.

Afganistan. It's about poppies and heroin. Air America. I was reading an article some time ago that said once our troops went into Afganistan, poppy production increased something like 90%. So it's opium, and heroin trade and the money that can be made on it. Somebody is profitting quite well from it.

So it's opium, and heroin trade and the money that can be made on it. Somebody is profitting quite well from it.


Hylander, good point you brought up, I heard about that too. So horrible and disgusting that are brave and hard working troops are being sent over there and risking their lives to protect some rich criminals poppy fields.