Afghan women’s organization RAWA says about this video:
Feb.18, 2010: According to reports by Afghan media, ordered by a local warlord called Fazl Ahad, two Afghan women were publicly flogged in Ghor province in Western Afghanistan.
Spokesman of Ghor’s Governor, Abdul Hai Khatibi said these women were forcibly married in Dolina district, but later they both ran away from their husbands’ houses. Police in Herat arrested the two in Chasht district while wearing men’s dresses. The women were then returned to their village and handed over to their husbands.
In light of a decree issued by local clerics, Khatibi said, the two women were subjected to 45 lashes each in public and they were flogged in presence of a large number of people. The footage of the scene was aired by some local Afghan TV channels. …
Deputy Dolina police chief Jahan Shah said to Pajhowk Afghan News that the two women were punished by a former jihadi commander named Fazl Ahad. …
Another police officer, who did not want to be named, said Fazl Ahad was involved in many such incidents. Tolo TV reported on Feb.18 that this warlord also flogged a man for having argument with a Mullah and imprisoned him in his private jail.
Remember George W. Bush’s Afghan war propaganda about supposedly bringing democracy and women’s rights to Afghanistan?
Nine years, many thousands of dead, still more thousands of wounded, still more thousands of refugees later, there is a government of warlords like Fazl Ahad, of corruption, of drugs trade, and of election fraud in Afghanistan as allies of NATO. To paraphrase the song by The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again“: Meet the new boss, same as the old Taliban.
From Ireland:
The Galway Alliance Against War will mark International Women’s Day on Friday evening with a fundraiser for women organisations in Afghanistan, whose members risk life and limb on a daily basis to offer young girls an education. It has to be done in secret, as the ruling warlords, like the Taliban, oppose schools for girls. So, GAAW will hold a fundraiser for these women groups in Woodquay’s Rowing Club on Friday 5th March starting at 9pm. Admission to this ceili/disco is only €5.
DEMONSTRATIONS will be staged in eight different countries today, from Britain and the United States to Poland and Italy, demanding the release of British soldier Joe Glenton, the first soldier in Europe to publicly refuse to fight in Afghanistan: here.
A hero of the anti-war movement has been jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan – while his boss boasted of writing a blank cheque for the illegal Iraq invasion: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
‘Military link risk to aid workers’
2:05am Wednesday 3rd March 2010
© Press Association 2010
Working alongside soldiers in Afghanistan is putting aid agency staff in “much more” danger, a charity said.
Save the Children said its “impartiality” was being threatened by the link-up.
The charity, which is launching a humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, warned the UK and Nato’s current approach to the conflict was “blurring the lines” between military and humanitarian objectives – and putting the lives of aid workers and civilians in jeopardy.
“Funding soldiers to carry out humanitarian work, such as rebuilding schools, threatens the impartiality of aid agencies working on the ground and makes it much more dangerous for us to operate in the country,” said Patrick Watt, Save the Children’s director of development policy. “It could also turn hospitals or schools, rebuilt with military help, into targets and put children’s lives at risk.”
Mr Watt said aid should be passed on in “close and trusted consultation” with Afghan civilians – and without military involvement. “If aid is to be effective it must be planned and carried out in close and trusted consultation with affected communities,” he said.
“It is clear that soldiers involved in the conflict in Afghanistan should not be carrying out sensitive and complex humanitarian work with vulnerable communities. It is only through impartial aid organisations, such as Save the Children, that essential rebuilding can be done safely and successfully.”
The charity said its fundraising appeal was vital to help those affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country. Unicef figures, published in November last year, showed Afghanistan had the world’s highest mortality rate for children under the age of five, with an infant dying every two minutes. Last year saw 1,050 children killed in suicide attacks, air strikes, explosions and cross-fire – the highest annual total since the conflict began in 2001, according to the Afghanistan Rights Monitor.
“Afghanistan’s children are facing a massive humanitarian crisis,” said Mr Watt. “Despite the millions of pounds that have been spent on winning hearts and minds in the fight against the Taliban, Afghan children now have the worst chance in the world of surviving to their fifth birthday.
“Helmand is among the most heavily aided places on earth per capita, yet tens of thousands of families living outside the immediate conflict zones are struggling to keep their children alive because they can’t get medical treatment or provide clean water or nutritious food to keep them healthy.”
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General: Demands of Iraq, Afghan wars hurting Army’s ability to train its forces
Published: Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 10A
The Army’s ability to train its forces is “increasingly at risk” because of the nation’s protracted commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the general in charge of training has told the Army’s chief of staff.
In a Feb. 16 memo to Gen. George Casey, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, says the Army has lost thousands of uniformed trainers because of troop demands in Iraq and Afghanistan, has had to put junior officers in charge of some key training functions and has delayed initial instruction for nearly 500 pilots because it doesn’t have enough trainers.
Only 30 percent of the instructors at Army training schools are in the military, Dempsey says, with the Army increasingly dependent on outside contractors.
“We are behind in integrating lessons learned, developing training and updating doctrine,” Dempsey wrote in the memo, a copy of which McClatchy obtained. “We are undermanned in our efforts to design the future Army.”
–McClatchy Washington Bureau
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
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Nato chief visits Czech Republic
Czech Republic: Nato’s chief has visited the Czech Republic, where Communist and Social Democrat MPs are preparing to torpedo government efforts to boost the country’s military involvement in Afghanistan.
Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Czech leaders to press on with their plan to deploy 55 more troops to join the 440 Czech soldiers who are already there.
But the plan, which still needs parliamentary approval, is strictly opposed by the left-wing parties which together control 100 seats in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/87588
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