Abstract It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate that by treating all "detainees" from Afghanistan under rules governing terrorists rather than those of Prisoners Of War as defined under the Geneva Conventions, the United States is effectively making null rules that help to make the inhumane human, to make the damages of war a little less brutal. The United States is making a mistake, one that it cannot afford.
Abstract Situation of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Afghani women as victims of "gender apartheid." Taliban regulations based on the Quran. Bans including wearing the burka, speaking loudly, education, leaving home unaccompanied. Violation of women including beatings, stonings, hanging, rape, inadequate health care. Some changes brought about by the Northern Alliance.
From the Paper "Afghani Women Under The Taliban
Long before September 11, 2001, the world community was aware that under the rule of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the situation of women was at best dire and at worst intolerable. Deborah Ellis (10) reported in March 2001 in a series of interviews she conducted with women living under the oppressive and brutal Taliban regime, that what was revealed was a story so horrifying and so terrible that it is difficult to understand why the civilized world allowed the Taliban to remain in power. This report will examine the conditions imposed upon women by the Taliban during their tenure - thankfully ended - and will argue that the distorted version of Islam practiced by this group was focused in many ways upon the containment and abuse of women, who were victims of what Noy Thrupkaew (18) calls "gender ..."
Abstract This paper examines how terrorism is a global problem that most Americans only vaguely recognized prior to September 11th. It looks at the changes in American policy regarding terrorism and what has become known as President Bush's "War on Terror." It examines initiatives undertaken such as freezing terrorist funding and "Operation Enduring Freedom" which dismantled the Al-Qaeda center of operations in Afghani capital city Kabul by expelling the Taliban and taking Qaeda combatants into custody. It evaluates the problems in dismantling international terrorist groups due to networking coordination and implication that the war on terror may be too big to fight in the fashion with which we have thus far pursued it.
From the Paper "After his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in the early 1980?s, bin Laden found a bastion for his views in the arms of the Taliban, hardcore Islamic governing body of Afghanistan. Bin Laden contributed largely to an Afghani resistance of Soviet incursion both from his own inheritance, an amount disputed to be anywhere between thirty and three hundred million, and with Reagan administration assistance, both in terms of finance and arms. Since that time, Al Qaeda has steadily grown in influence and economic strength. A rising Third-World disenfranchisement from and distaste for imperialist Western foreign policies has incited a healthy dose of international animosity, which in many ways is centered in the oft slighted Moslem populations of the world."
Abstract This is a question of perspective and of side. Depending upon the side you find yourself upon, your ideology, and your religion, determining who is fighting for the greater good and who is simply a terrorist is an impossibility of perception. Culturally, there is a great deal of support for freedom fighters. They are associated with the development of anti-oppression movements that we most closely associate with the American Revolution. To the British, the Boston Massacre was the suppression of terrorists, to the Americans, it was the massacre of innocents seeking nothing more than personal and communal freedom. This is how the world perceives Afghanis, members of Al Qaeda, and the combatants in Chechnya - as either terrorists or freedom fighters. It is the purpose of this paper to examine differences in perspectives on terrorism and how each group is perceived.
Tags: POLITICAL SCIENCE / TERRORISM, terrorists or fighters
Abstract This paper examines how "The Kite Runner" is a novel of irony and in particular, the irony of the immigrant experience in America, focusing on the experience of Afghani Muslim-Americans. In particular, it looks at how America acts as a place for the character of Amir to bury his memories and a place for the character of Baba to mourn his.
From the Paper "The novel's narrative structure circularity also gives it an additional level of irony, as Amir and Baba came to the United States for escape, yet they are pursued by their past nationality, religion, and in Amir's case, by a past of memories. Baba often seeks to immerse himself in memories of a past long gone, despite the potential for a new life in America. But Amir, even with his intense desire to cast off the memories of the old world of Afghanistan and his cruelties as a child cannot fully embrace the new life of an immigrant experience. "
Abstract This paper discusses how the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 was the culmination of years of Soviet policy and thrust that country into the maelstrom of the Cold War. It looks at how covert aid to those Afghanis resisting first the Communist takeover of the government and then the Soviet military began in the months before the invasion and continued until the end of the Cold War with the break up of the Soviet Union. It also examines how this support of the indigenous resistance by the United States first frustrated Soviet geopolitical aims in the region and then contributed to and exposed the weakness of the Soviet system. The paper includes an annotated bibliography.
From the Paper "Soviet control of Afghanistan, aside from issues of perceived global dominance, concerned the Americans as they viewed Afghanistan as a stepping-stone to Pakistan. This perception was shared by the Pakistanis. In a geopolitical sense, the control of Pakistan equalled control of the Straits of Hormuz, which control the Persian Gulf. Soviet control of Persian Gulf sea lanes meant a possible disruption of oil supplies, which meant control of Afghanistan was of key strategic importance to the US. Recognition of this concern was reflected in the covert aid supplied to the resistance even before the invasion, which is discussed below."
Tags: communism, united, states, Brezhnev, Doctrine
