Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

From Marjorie Regan:
I am sending a link to this column by Thomas Friedman from the NY Times since its about the book, Three Cups of Tea, we will be reading for October.

Also, since we read Lolita a few years ago, you may want to catch the movie. It's on PBS this Sat. July 25th at 9pm. It's 2 1/2 hours long.

Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "I watched Greg Mortenson, the famed author of “Three Cups of Tea,” open one of his schools for girls in this remote Afghan village in the Hindu Kush mountains. I must say, after witnessing the delight in the faces of those little Afghan girls crowded three to a desk waiting to learn, I found it very hard to write, “Let’s just get out of here.”"
...
"It is no accident, Mortenson noted, that since 2007, the Taliban and its allies have bombed, burned or shut down more than 640 schools in Afghanistan and 350 schools in Pakistan, of which about 80 percent are schools for girls. This valley, controlled by Tajik fighters, is secure, but down south in Helmand Province, where the worst fighting is today, the deputy minister of education said that Taliban extremists have shut 75 of the 228 schools in the last year. This is the real war of ideas. The Taliban want public mosques, not public schools. The Muslim militants recruit among the illiterate and impoverished in society, so the more of them the better, said Mortenson."

Read the whole column to learn Friedman's rationale for why our work isn't finished in Afghanistan.

What do you think?