6/21/2006 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- When Maj. Wayne Vaughn looked down at the injured 12-year-old girl clinging to life on a litter loaded in his C-130 Hercules, he thought, "How can they do this? How can they try and kill a little girl?"
Taliban extremists had bombed a girls school in Herat in eastern Afghanistan on June 18, killing four and injuring 11.
The girl had a broken back and collarbone, head injuries and was in critical condition.
C-130 aircrew evacuates girl on Father's Day
If you don't understand already, this little girl meant nothing to the men who bombed her school. She had no more value than an old pair of shoes. Maybe less. This was not an accidental bombing of a school by a stray shell or the result of a battle against enemy forces or an attempt to get a high ranking or multiple actors of the enemy with children becoming accidental collateral damage. We are talking about deliberate acts.
The taliban believe that educated women are dangerous. The truth is, they are dangerous to the Taliban because women raise the children and if the women stop believing that the Taliban can control them, then Islamist ideology begins to slowly crash and burn.
In the end, it is not how much you are willing to brutalize people to make them accept your ideas, but how much you may reason with them.
Cutting off their heads and bombing schools probably doesn't have as great a return as the Islamists think. Even Genghis Khan eventually met his fate.
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