OPINION

By SILVIO CANTO, JR.

It only took one year and the new Afghanistan looks a lot like the bad old days in Afghanistan.

This is from the BBC:

“In the year since the Taliban returned to power, it has issued various orders restricting the freedom of women — barring them from most government jobs, secondary education and from travelling more than 45 miles (70 kilometers) without a male guardian. In May, the militants decreed that Afghan women will have to wear the Islamic face veil for the first time in decades. If a woman refuses to comply, her male guardians could be sent to jail for three days, although this is not always enforced. There have been minor sporadic protests over the past year, but any form of dissent is being crushed. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that officially limits education by gender — a major sticking point in the Taliban’s attempts to gain international legitimacy. Girls have been banned from receiving secondary education, the ministry for women’s affairs has been disbanded, and in many cases, women have not been allowed to work.”

Frankly, I’m not surprised. Who believed all of that crock about a kinder and gentler Taliban anyway?

The United States fought bravely in Afghanistan to prevent the country from being a terrorist state.

One of the consequences of a presence there is that women had a chance to go to primary and secondary school, or even seek higher education.

One of the consequences of leaving as we did was to punish all of these young women who were learning in schools.

What happens now that the Taliban is whipping women again like they did in the 1990s?

I wonder if the kinder and gentler Taliban will soon start training terrorists to hit U.S. cities?

They did it before, and are probably training to do it again.