From the Stan

[costard]

Or there could be a good reason for including Women....they have to talk, meet and inspect AFGHAN women...and I"m sure its easier to have the villago cooperation when a woman questions/inspects a woman.

I'll bet dollars to donuts its a simple as that.

Hooray, common sense gets a go! If you have to determine the sex of someone wearing a burkha, it doesn't look good if men are doing the inspection. And, Afghan women are introduced to the idea that the way they have to lead their lives isn't necessarily the way other women lead their lives.

[Dietrich]

Or there could be a good reason for including Women....they have to talk, meet and inspect AFGHAN women...and I"m sure its easier to have the villago cooperation when a woman questions/inspects a woman.

Indeed, makes sense.

If you have to determine the sex of someone wearing a burkha, it doesn't look good if men are doing the inspection.

True. However, according to Sean Naylor (in Not a Good Day to Die), SOF operators would tell the burkha-wearer lift the hem just enough to show their feet; evidently the look of the feet (and the footwear) is a reasonably good indicator of the burkha-wearer's gender.

[Stalins Organ]

Costard the ruling class has always made it's own laws and changed them to suit....we're just realising that the ruling class is now the bankers/financiers, and not the politicians!

[dieseltaylor]

Costard -

I enjoyed your rant. I think the breakdown as you sketch it is true. The ethos of good works and honesty has been corrupted badly to the extent it is fading away as less and less people believe.

I do wonder if white collar crime is perhaps the most insidious and least well-punished which is framing the popular state of mind and leading to a wider degeneration of standards.

As for the better reasons to be in Afghanistan - yes I would like it to be more up-front and honest in what can reasonably be achieved. If we wish to change their society that is a very slushy sort of objective. Unless that is one gets really tough and go for concentration camps [pre-WW2 type], kill the menfolk takeover all the women and land has a pretty good success rate, pick up the population and transplant can also work ... I believe the US and Australia have some pretty grim land that would be suitable. Other than those methods changing a society from tribal religious to Western views I am sure is meaured in the multiple decades.

As for women in the 'Stan I agree with the search concept but do you need to employ armed female soldiers, nurses, Afghani women ..... there are other possibilities.