Sunday, December 10, 2006

Mission accomplished, version 1:

...The Taliban gunmen who murdered two teachers in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday were only following their rules: Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach, must be killed.

The new list of 30 rules, decided on during a high Taliban meeting in September or October and since circulated over the Internet, ... contain a grave warning for aid workers and educators.

Rule No. 24 forbids anyone to work as a teacher "under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels." One rule later, No. 25, says teachers who ignore Taliban warnings will be killed.

Taliban militants early Saturday broke into a house in the eastern province of Kunar, killing a family of five, including two sisters who were teachers....

The two sisters brought to 20 the number of teachers killed in Taliban attacks this year, said Education Ministry spokesman Zuhur Afghan. He said 198 schools have been burned down this year, up from about 150 last year....


Late last month, The Independent had a story about a truly brutal killing of a teacher -- the killers literally had the teacher torn apart. The story is here, but I'm warning you, the details are grisly.

Afghanistan could have been the big demonstration project of the Bush Doctrine. But Iraq was the neocons' white whale, Oedipus Bush wanted to kill the guy his father didn't kill, and Rove wanted the mother of all wedge issues. So here we are.

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