On Afghanistan, We Need a Policy, Not a Macho Hissy-Fit

tantrumA small delegation from the women’s peace group CODEPINK spent last week in Kabul, on a kind of listening tour, to refine their understanding of what women in Afghanistan want to see from the US.

They’ve returned saying just what MADRE has been saying since 2001: that the US needs to withdraw its military from Afghanistan and do so in a way that addresses the needs of people there. For MADRE, US obligations stem from the fact that Afghanistan’s poverty, violence against women, and political corruption are, in part, results of US policy over the past 30 years.

So why is CODEPINK’s co-founder Medea Benjamin being raked over the coals for allegedly “defecting” from the peace movement? The catalyst was a snarky article in the Christian Science Monitor that characterized Medea as “disappointed” when some of the women she met with in Kabul didn’t support CODEPINK’s call for a US troop withdrawal. (Remind me again why all women are supposed to have the same political views?)

Full Story: On Afghanistan, We Need a Policy, Not a Macho Hissy-Fit | CommonDreams.org.

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