<p>My heart goes out courageous Malala and her family. How lucky we are that girls are not only encouraged, but required to attend school in the West.</p>
<p>I’m surprised she wasn’t killed a long time ago. </p>
<p>We in the West think of the assaults by these people on us when of course the locals are the ones who bear nearly all the evil. And it’s evil done in the name of God.</p>
<p>This is made even more unfortunate by the fact that she was so passionate about her education and about changing her world. She is what the middle east needs; a powerful woman, even at a young age.</p>
<p>Six Pakistani children in Waziristan were killed yesterday for advocating…nothing.</p>
<p>The killers never saw their faces. </p>
<p>“We in the West think of the assaults by these people on us when of course the locals are the ones who bear nearly all the evil. And it’s evil done in the name of God.”</p>
<p>What is so disturbing about Malala’s shooting to me is that she is so passionate about learning, improving her country, rights for girls, that it made her a target for heartless men with a distorted agenda and who really are creating hell on earth.</p>
<p>mini, I’m not a fan of drone warfare either. It’s useful in specific cases but it has become, in our typical fashion, an ad hoc system that has grown large without any noticeable discussion of why and what it means. You have a weapon, so you use it. I think it likely strengthens the enemy and encourages them to be more ruthless. Use drones against specific targets, yes. But there is an idea from the old play The Front Page where Hildy Johnson tries to plant the idea in a poor man’s head that a gun is made for use so you just use it. That’s the problem with drones.</p>
<p>But I don’t think it’s always right to point to another’s faults when discussing one wrong. What the Taliban do to women is terrible in the absolute. It doesn’t need to be tied to other rights or wrongs.</p>
<p>But it IS tied to other rights and wrongs. The only reason that the Taliban has any significant hold on Pakistanis are the actions of the U.S. government. </p>
<p>In 2010, there were 9,800 reported violent deaths in Pakistan. This includes all the terrorist and Taliban killings. More than 4,000 of them were from drone and bombing attacks. </p>
<p>The Taliban had a reason - a very, very bad reason - for their shooting of a child. What exactly was the reason for killing the six children in Waziristan? I think you supplied the answer:</p>
<p>“We in the West think of the assaults by these people on us when of course the locals are the ones who bear nearly all the evil. And it’s evil done in the name of God.” </p>
<p>We just have a different God, one who protects our sacred right to buy stuff.</p>
<p>I read that 5 children died in Waziristan this past week due to measles. Apparently the Taliban controls vaccinations as well. Mini, these people are evil. Comparing their motives to ours is a bit of a stretch.</p>
<p>^^chashaoboa, all you need to do is google that sentence written by limabeans and you will come up with 327,000 results.</p>
<p>To add onto that,
"PESHAWAR, Pakistan A Taliban ban on polio vaccinations will put 240,000 children at risk in troubled northwest Pakistan if an inoculation campaign cannot start next week, officials warned Friday.</p>
<p>Local Taliban and Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose followers are fighting Western troops in Afghanistan, have banned polio vaccinations in the northwestern tribal region of Waziristan to protest against US drone attacks.</p>
<p>They have condemned the immunisation campaign, which is slated to begin on Monday, as a cover for espionage."</p>
<p>So maybe mini has a point about drone attacks, though I disagree with his usual analysis that everything is the United States fault, as we are evil and selfish (paraphrasing here, but not quite sure, that’s the impression I have). But apparently the Taliban is being affected by the drone strikes enough that they are willing to risk the lives of so many children, just in case, using the drone attacks as an excuse to make more civilians suffer. True heroes, aren’t they?</p>
<p>I am not here to debate some political point about the drone attacks, or why some killings of innocent child/children are more defensible than others, or whether vaccination was used as a cover for espionage.</p>
<p>I was just trying to learn more about the tragic and preventable deaths of 5 children from measles, as stated in post #16:
</p>
<p>I will appreciate it very much if you can give me a link to any report about the specific events.</p>