1 Wow, I read that last night, via someone else.  I was completely shocked.  I vaguely remembered hearing something about a woman having acid thrown in her face, but I didn't know it was a REGULAR occurrence over there.  God have mercy . . .

2 This makes me so angry. It's just unf***ing believable...sorry, I think the swearing justifiable here. I can't believe that we turn such a blind eye to this for the most part. I caught a clip on Oprah yesterday where they were talking about how many women in the world die in childbirth, and if it were men, there would be a lot more done about it...just like now that it's men that are starting to get raped in Darfur, it's becoming a huge UN issue.

3 Tell me, again, how this is the religion of peace?

And we're the godless infidel.

4 I have no words.

However, it is unfortunate that in many parts of this planet men simply are not men.

It is stories like this and images like this that keep me driving forward in our adoption of our daughter.  Her part of the world is not a safe place for her and I'm bound and determined I will bring her home come hell or high water.

5 I posted a link to that on my fb.  I've got quite a few liberal friends on there (mostly people from back in HS).  Curious to see the reaction I might get...

6 Cass wrote,

It's your choice, Mr. President. But if you can look into those eyes and abandon these women to the rule of monsters, then honor is dead.

The War on Terror is hard enough. How can the US also fight a War on Misogyny? Have our military serve as an international human rights police?

They require local police who can speak the language as natives, know the people as natives [...] Furthermore, this is an open-ended commitment. The need for police has never ended in New York City. It will never end in Baghdad either. That’s another reason why the police must be local, not a GI from Indiana or a Marine from New Mexico.

Set up reeducation camps for men across Central and South Asia? How do you change those who don't want to change?

There is no amount of money to spend, infrastructure to build, schools to provide, hospitals to heal, or good will that Americans can display toward the Afghan people that will produce a lasting effect.

Anyone remember the Helmand Valley Authority?

The Muslim world has its own ... approach toward acid attacks:

In 2002, Bangladesh introduced the death penalty for throwing acid and laws strictly controlling the sales of acids.

Under the Qisas law of Pakistan, the perpetrator may suffer the same fate as the victim, and may be punished by having drops of acid placed in their eyes. This law is not binding and is rarely enforced according to a New York Times report. Iran has a similar law, and sentenced an attacker to be blinded in 2008.

The attacker can still see:

However, the court overruled the application of the sharia laws in the case, canceling Movahedi's blinding.

An eye for an eye? Horrifying.

The world outside the West can be nightmarish. Once the whole world was that way. But the West got its act together, and other countries like Japan and Turkey managed to modernize themselves.

Conservativism is about self-reliance, not dependence. If we oppose welfare at home, shouldn't we oppose welfare abroad too? Only the Third World can fix itself.  Perhaps someday Afghanistan will have its own Ataturk to lead it out of ignorance. Or not. Either way, it's out of our hands.

John T. Reed uses Darfur to illustrate apathy toward distant suffering:

Ask a man on the street if he is concerned about genocide in Darfur and he will say he is. Ask him what he’s going to do about it, and he will shrug. Push him on whether he would serve in the military there or send his child to serve in the military there and he will say no. Ask if he wants his taxes raised to pay for some sort of help to Darfur and he will probably react negatively.

Although the American people are willing to pay lip service about such things, the bottom line fact is that they really do not care enough to support any action. The same is true of the rest of the world.

If the tables were turned, would the people in Darfur care about us?

Politicians talk about such suffering to show they care. The media knows disasters mean ratings. We watch, we listen, we feel bad for a moment, and then we go on with our lives, while the suffering also goes on, out of sight, out of mind ...

I wish it were otherwise.