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The August 9 issue of TIME magazine presented the story of an 18 year old Afgani girl who suffered the cruelty of the Taliban.

The article purported to indicate what the Taliban rule portends to the Afghan people. Some American journalists, it is claimed, have criticized the magazine for not focusing on the drama of the story but, instead, raising the question “what happens” if the US and its allies leave Afghanistan. They even reveal that the author of the article is married to an Afghani who works as a consultant to the Americans and the Afghani Government in Afghanistan which, to them, indicates a personal benefit in the prolongation of the American presence in Afghanistan. SO WHAT? Do the critics of the author and of TIME want that the US and its allies pull out of Afghanistan and leave its people to the mercy of the merciless –inhuman– rule of the Taliban?

Criticism for its own sake is journalism? NO. Constructive criticism IS. The question should be: Is protracted military action the only way to bring the Afghani women out of their Burghas, the country to make Human rights the foundation of its social structure to instill a sense of “nationality” in the place of tribalism? The answer is no. Military action does not address the problem which by now is obvious. The people of Afghanistan have an inexcusably high rate of illiteracy. They sorely lack even rudimentary education. They live in intellectual darkness. This “darkness” allows the Taliban ways to take root and create a mind set of submissiveness to them. Therefore, if half the billions spent to step up military pressure on the Taliban are, instead, spent on educating the people of Afghanistan, this type of “offensive” will eventually uproot the influence of the Taliban from Afghanistan. There are ways and means to mount such an “offensive” of knowledge. Enlightened people are the worse adversaries of the “dark age” Taliban. This, coupled to military pressure on the Taliban, can bring results. Of course it will take time, but so will military action alone.