Focus! Focus! Focus!

Human Rights Watch has documented more than 200 attacks (Photo-AP)

A rise in attacks by the Taleban and other armed groups on Afghan teachers, students and schools is causing schools to shut down, Human Rights Watch says. In a report, it says advances since the Taleban defeat in 2001 are being threatened, with another generation of children being deprived of education. It says girls' schools have been hit particularly badly.

With all the fuss the Canadian media is and has been making over the return of dead soldiers like Cpl. Anthony Boneca you'd think that the Canadian government, or at the very least the Canadian public, would want to know a little more about the job we're doing over there in Afghanistan. Evidently, it isn't a very good one if we're trying to drag the country out of the Stone Age into a shiny happy Modern one. This goal, incidentally, isn't a State secret: "There is international support for building and staffing new schools to encourage education of both children and women. Access to education was severely curtailed under the Taliban regime." The debate surrounding the return of Capt. Nichola Goddard was especially nauseating. Hmmm...wasn't misogyny the theme of the last post?