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Taliban accused of gas attacks on girls high schools in Kabul
ayrshireman
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(excerpt)
'The Taliban Mystery Gas
by James Dunnigan
September 10, 2010
On August 25th, for the eighth time this year, students and staff at a girls high school were injured by some kind of poison gas. In the latest incident, nine teachers and 46 students were hospitalized. They were all dizzy, and a few were unconscious. But there did not appear to be any permanent damage. The first of these attacks occurred last year, and there have been eleven so far. Blood tests do not indicate what the poison agent could be. American chemical weapons experts were involved in some of the investigations, but have not announced any findings. There have been suggestions that this might be some kind of mass hysteria, but since it also involves adults as well, and all tell the same story of smelling something strange before falling, the hysteria angle is unlikely.
Most doctors at the hospitals agree that it was some kind of poison, but have not been able to identify it yet. All the victims smelled something odd while at school, then fell ill, with some of the students and teachers losing consciousness. The Taliban have been known to attack girls schools, including injuring or killing students with gunfire, explosives and, in at least one case, acid thrown into the faces of students. Now it appears that poison gas has been added to the Taliban arsenal.'
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/The-Taliban-Mystery-Gas-9-10-2010.asp
'The Taliban Mystery Gas
by James Dunnigan
September 10, 2010
On August 25th, for the eighth time this year, students and staff at a girls high school were injured by some kind of poison gas. In the latest incident, nine teachers and 46 students were hospitalized. They were all dizzy, and a few were unconscious. But there did not appear to be any permanent damage. The first of these attacks occurred last year, and there have been eleven so far. Blood tests do not indicate what the poison agent could be. American chemical weapons experts were involved in some of the investigations, but have not announced any findings. There have been suggestions that this might be some kind of mass hysteria, but since it also involves adults as well, and all tell the same story of smelling something strange before falling, the hysteria angle is unlikely.
Most doctors at the hospitals agree that it was some kind of poison, but have not been able to identify it yet. All the victims smelled something odd while at school, then fell ill, with some of the students and teachers losing consciousness. The Taliban have been known to attack girls schools, including injuring or killing students with gunfire, explosives and, in at least one case, acid thrown into the faces of students. Now it appears that poison gas has been added to the Taliban arsenal.'
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/The-Taliban-Mystery-Gas-9-10-2010.asp
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(excerpt)
'A girls' school in Kabul appears to be the latest to be targeted by the Taliban in a suspected gas poisoning attack. At least 46 students and nine teachers from Totia high school in Afghanistan’s capital were taken to hospital following the incident on Wednesday morning .
As reported on The First Post, the Taliban is suspected of previous poisoning attacks on girls’ schools as part of its drive to prevent females being educated.
In June, 20 students were taken to hospital after falling ill - with suspected poisoning - in the northern Sar-e-Pul province. Other intimidation techniques used by the Taliban - who banned girls' education when they were in power between 1996 and 2001 - include dropping off threatening letters and propaganda to students' homes.
In the latest incident, up to 18 people slumped to the ground unconscious as hundreds of others - mostly students aged between 16 and 18 - tried to flee their classrooms. Doctors said some of those taken to hospital remained unconscious for several hours, while others were vomiting and suffering from severe nausea.
An official at Kabul's education ministry, Mohammad Asif Nang, blamed "the enemies of women's education" for the "apparent poisoning" attack.'
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/67768,news-comment,news-politics,taliban-accused-of-gas-attack-on-girls-school?lost=1
I'm not sure which comes over more - their cowardice or their shocking inhuman carelessness for their own people.
Any weaker than the "brave" US warriors, "fearlessly" killing Taliban soldiers and citizens while sat safely at a computer screen, hundreds of miles from the front line?
Imo yes but that doesn't mean you can't condemn it.
"how long till Gwrx gets here and starts his terrorist apologetics"
Looks like he beat me to it.
PS: There's no such thing as Taliban Civilians. The Taliban is not a country so it has no citizens; it is an armed insurrection and so all members are enemy combatants.
The article states that the usual tactic is threatening letters and propaganda. That suggests intimidation is the aim rather than killing. Coupled with the fact that no poison was found. I'd go with the theory that somebody chucked a crude smoke bomb through the window to frighten those inside and it had adverse effects. As opposed to the Taliban are using chemical weapons.
I'm playing devils advocate. I would absolutely condemn it but i also want to see them in the world of pain they deserve for doing it. How else do we stop this sh*t from going on if we're not there? The UN?
Even if your theory is true it doesn't change the end result or the fact they see educating girls as a practice that shouldn't be undertaken and they would discontinue.
And do we draw up a list of 'acceptable behaviour' for all nations and then roll in there if they fail to meet our standards. Its a thorny issue when you start down that road.
Oh well that's all right then. I mean it's not as if those nice Taliban people were trying to terrify them or anything. :rolleyes:
I am not a terrorist apologist. I have various parameters for what I define as a right or wrong action, and I apply those standards across the board to determine whether I agree or disagree with a certain action. It's a redundant argument to call me a "terrorist apologist" simply because I point out that the US army do something that the Taliban also does (stay out of the line of fire and fight from a safe range).
If the article is true, I condemn the attack. In a war, one side should only fight the opposing sides soldiers. In the Taliban's case, the enemy combatants are the British Army.
After 9 years of being there we haven't stopped it and the government of Afghanistan even passed a law allowing men to demand their wives have sex with them. Imo we should withdraw and stopping shit from going on would take us into countless countries.
True. And whats that law about? Is it a common Sharia Law thing or is it an Afghan thing?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8204207.stm
Hmmm, not sure thats what our fight to bring freedom is meant to about.
Show me where in my post I was condoning this.
I'm not. I'm pointing out that what gets reported isn't necessarily what happened.
No it most certainly isn't though I thought our reason for being there is security not to ensure Aghan girls get an education or Afghan women aren't forced to have sex with their husbands whenever they want them to.
Basically we seem unable to bring the whole sorry exercise to an end without some semblance of a dignified exit claiming we have achieved our goal whatever that was.