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---------External Article Links of Interest
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Watching the War on Terrorism Unfold: Defining Victory The campaign enduring freedom has managed to push the Taliban out of North Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance continues talks to try and get the Taliban to surrender. They are also reported to be entering Kabul despite promises to remain out. They are taking advantage of the impact of the war effort. They are already attempting to gain a position of power. Meanwhile attempts are being made to figure out what will replace the Taliban. What kind of government? How will it be structured? Who will be in control? The Northern Alliance, the U.N. and other Afghan nations are supposed to discuss the status and future of Afghanistan at the end of November. In this struggle to rebuild a new nation n Afghanistan organizations like the Feminist Majority Foundation are working to ensure that as these talks proceed that women are included. Included not only in the talks but in establishing a new regime, one that will stop the violation of the basic human rights and dignities of women. Laura Bush is even joining in on the opposition of the status of women under the Taliban regime. Bush is quoted as saying “They (women) had a very important role in Afghanistan before the Taliban ... 15 percent of their legislature were women.” Ironically enough, Bush is the first first lady to take the microphone from her husband to deliver the weekly presidential radio address which she used to focus on women in Afghanistan. Also on the
home front some of the changes in the airline industry were announced in
November, including the federalization of airport screening.
A year from now all the 28,000 passenger screening positions will be
filled by federal employees, with higher salaries and better training than the
current minimum-wage workers who now staff airport checkpoints. Unlike the
current screeners, all of the new employees must be U.S. citizens. However this
will not necessarily last long as, after three years has passed, any airport can
switch to the private system. The Anthrax
threats continue and traces of Anthrax have now been found in Missouri, Indiana,
Indiana, Florida, Virginia, D.C., New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.
However the incidents of people being affected by Anthrax appears to have
slowed. We also
continue to face a backlash on our basic civil liberties.
One report cited colleges and universities as being unpatriotic and
possibly even dangerous with all of the discussion of peace and talks of reasons
why nations may have issues with the United States.
The government is also using what has been deemed a “dragnet” wherein
the Justice Department plans to pick up and interview at least 5,000 foreigners
-- all men ages 18 to 33, from mostly Middle Eastern countries -- who entered
the United States on non-immigrant visas from January 1, 2000 to the present.
While not the internment camps created for the Japanese during WWII, this
racial herding seems more like a punishment for being a young Middle Eastern
male than a true quest for information. If something were gathered in the process it would probably
be more of a fluke than anything else. |