Clay Bennett for September 01, 2021

The Taliban interpretation of the Koran leaves out many important parts which they do not think they need.

America shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Let the corporations deal with it.

You can’t be putting a guilt trip on us, Clay. It’s not the only place in the world where people of various statuses are abused.

We just went through a few days of solemnity for the last 13 killed in this 20 year muckup. If it’s like Vietnam then it will not be long (measured by generation) before we are buying products made there or group tours being scheduled.

It’s Die or Buy —- Corporations make sure that young Americans die and if that gambit doesn’t work to get control then they work to make sure their consumers buy. Nothing personal…just business, eh?

Sad and scary.

For 20 years nobody cared, now it’s the most important thing in the world.

Would that I could wave my magic wand and bring justice, love, and peace to the world. But I thought that was God’s job,

It’s odd, but prior to Biden’s keeping his pledge to remove the US from Afghanistan, the plight of women didn’t seem to be on the minds of the normally Repub cartoonists. I wonder had Trump kept his pledge to remove us from Afghanistan would these cartoonists even noticed the plight of women.

But, the plight of women there is still in doubt. While it’s likely that the women will go back to their jailed status, if the Taliban hopes to get the kind of aid its country will need to survive, it may need to relax its old hardline on the female gender. Time will tell.

I was watching footage of Afghan refugees arriving at Philadelphia airport. There was a woman in a burqa totally shut out from the outside world. I hope she will now feel able to get out of it soon and wear some other form of acceptable attire.

So Texas leaves America. Texas has made abortions virtually impossible and voting more difficult.

@bmburns “The government, the military, and most of the population of Afghanistan are unwilling to fight for their own country.”

I see what you mean, or at least what I think you mean, and I agree with most of it.

However, my interpretation of events is that a lot of them WERE willing to fight, but not for the kind of country that well-meaning people in the USA want them to have. They were willing to fight and die for the kind of Afghanistan they want. Fighting invaders is what they do. The Greeks, the Persians, the Indians, the British, the Russians, and latest the Americans, all have been thrown out of the country. More than two thousand years of sacrifice.

The Afghans won’t change. They don’t want to change. If the day ever comes when they want to change, it will be because they decide on something they see as better.

You might like to think that Afghani women were free just because of the American presence, That would be incorrect, like it or not, most were still subject to some form of Sharia law.

I don’t understand why so many are upset about a Taliban theocracy being re-established in Afghanistan. After all, the GOP is all about establishing a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Male theocracy for the United States. It’s only a matter of degree, isn’t it? /s

America would do well to defend the status of women at home before they attempt it in other nations. To wit.. Texas new abortion regulations.

Is that an Afghan Refugee in Texas??

If we could only get rid of the rabid politicians focusing to bring America back to the 40’s …..threatening companies and corporations is the new thing with GOP! Evil doers need to go! Plus there’s some evil doers in the DEMs side also! Why does any president put up with their crap?

Now what are all those militaristic TV shows going to base their shows on?

Alternative title: America Continues Its Alliance With Saudi Arabia.

What do a:MusicianTeacherPregnant single womanA rape victim A guy teenagerAnd a Christian have in common ?They all were executed (literally) august 31 in Afghanistan Now ask again “what have we been doing there for 20 years?” Now you all care? And if any of you you mention trump or bush just proof have not really involved or cared for 20 years I respect your talent as an artist I just wish you had the same talent to study facts from non-bias sources

*gay teenager

Murca leaves Texas.

Women in the US are finding out that rights are hard to win and easy to lose thanks to conservative state legislatures and a conservative SCOTUS.

Re: The burqa. Don’t be too quick to denigrate it. There is a theory in psychology called Prospect-Refuge theory that states there is evolutionary benefit to see others without being seen yourself. That can be very comforting.

Great artwork

So, were we supposed to just stay there and fight for people who in our absence just gave up? Meanwhile back home, today is the first full day in the lives of Americans born sine September 11, 2001 that the United States wasn’t at war.

Well good morning Judge, yes I’m back againI’m in trouble, so it’s back to the pen

Sleepy Joe drops the ball again.

Religion, aka fantasy, is responsible for this.

No guarantees for Afghan women in draft U.S.-Taliban deal

The proposed U.S.-Taliban deal, which the Trump administration said Friday will be signed Feb. 29 after a partial truce goes into effect, would set out a timeline to withdraw American troops in exchange for the Taliban’s renouncing terrorism and entering into peace talks with the Afghan government. But the agreement provides no guarantees to preserve women’s rights or civil liberties enshrined in the country’s constitution, which the insurgents do not recognize.

The U.S. said safeguarding Afghan women’s rights was part of the reason to fight the Taliban. Now rights advocates fear women’s hard-won gains are at risk.

Feb. 23, 2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/no-guarantees-afghan-women-draft-u-s-taliban-deal-n1140471

Are we sure that this isn’t Texas today?

Mr. Bennett,

I have a suggestion for tomorrow’s cartoon. Have a woman in a full burqa being dragged and have her screaming: “Please, don’t send me to Texas!”

Imagine if the media had this much concern for Afghan women from 2003 through 2021, inclusive.

Yup, just the way things were when we went in. It’s proof that military force is useless in changing customs/cultural norms that are strongly held. Well, we could have assigned an armed member of the military to every Afghan. For 24-7 year round coverage we’d need at least 3 per Afghan plus more to cover time off. Oh, lots of weapons too.

Um, at this point, shouldn’t the Afghan men be responsible for fighting to ensure the rights of Afghan women?

The cartoon above depicts the women’s plight in Afghanistan. and yet the latest law in Texas depicts what is happening in the US along the same lines. Better to worry about about the extremists in your back yard rather than the ones half a world away.

As I seem to have to keep repeating: After 20 years of building up their education system to include women to become college educated, politically engaged, and journalists. For many of the men to accept them in those roles, combined with training and supplying the Afghan Army, giving both them and their government the tools to hold onto their country as it had become. For the President of Afghanistan to flee the first day and many other politicians to flee soon after, and most of their soldiers to lay down their arms and embrace the Taliban. As the prisoners released by Trump, that had been promising those soldiers great things if they joined them ever since Trump’s really bad ‘peace’ deal. They merely marched across the country to take it over most of it. There is one region that is prepared to keep them out, at least for now, but depending on how much aid the Taliban are getting from Russia and other neighboring countries, only time will tell if they can hold them out of the Panjshir Valley.

Remaining wasn’t an option. To send back tens of thousands of American military putting more soldiers at risk of being killed or maimed by roadside and car bombings, would have been irresponsible. Which of course, is exactly what the Republicans were hoping to bully President Biden into doing. He took the responsibility, but didn’t take the bait. It thing. Sanctions and world wide political pressure will do far more. The Taliban having to deal with an even more extreme version of themselves (hard to believe) will have the Taliban in a quagmire of their own making.

It was time to bring the US military home. Much as it was sad to lose 13 brave and honorable members of our military last week. Who were committed to protecting all those around them. Hopefully they will be remembered as the last soldiers to die honorably in the Afghan War.

Biden can hold his head high, as he has the fewest soldier deaths in Afghanistan of any President before him.

America’s failure.

Is that in Texas?