Tink's Rant

Tink's rant was so good, that I just had to preserve it here for future reference.

Link goes to the original black five thread and contains my response.

Comment below written by: Tink

"So, where are the feminists while we're doing this fight? Same places they've always been - sitting somewhere safe yapping about stuff that doesn't matter while good men and women die to protect them."

Warning, I'm gonna rant and ramble.

They were yelling loud and clear in the late 90's..

Personal story here. I was involved with a group that researched content for a major ISP. During research on "Women's Rights" in 97 was when I first learned about the Taliban - the stonings, the total lack of medical care because women couldn't be seen or touched by a male not a member of their family - but women were no longer allowed to be doctors. Their husbands dead, the women weren't allowed to work, weren't allowed out of their homes without a male relative escort - yet they no longer had male relatives, so they either starved or became ghostly beggars. They weren't allowed to have an education..

If any of the "rules" were broken, they were beaten or worse, assassinated in the soccer stadium, with their children forced to watch.

I could go on and on and on..

This group of women I worked with was FURIOUS that "we" (The US) weren't doing anything. So we wrote letters, we "raised awareness" - we posted our research on the content screens of this major ISP, we joined forces with some actors wife (I can't remember who anymore - sorry, brain cramp)to send supplies and support in through aid agencies.

Then came 9/11 and a few days later my husbands Guard Unit was activated..

I started to get email and messages from these same women who I was still working with - women who knew my husband was on orders and we didn't know what was going to happen. Those emails had little notes about how it wasn't the "right time" to go to war.

Women who knew good and well what the Taliban had done to their "sisters" (as they called them) over the last few years...

It disgusted me, but everyone had a right to their opinion..right? But Oh Dopey me couldn't understand why these women who were so furious that "we weren't doing something", we're all of a sudden so against everything we had talked about over the years.

Soooo, I continued to work with these women and I began to read daily news from all over the world, and Centcom, and press briefings, and found newspapers published by units in country. I dug for any and all information I could find - I wanted the info straight from the horses mouth, not some else's ideas of what that info was..

Those women? They got their friggin' "news" from "The Daily Misleader", published daily by Move-On.org. Seriously.

In 2004, when Hubs unit mobilized to Afghanistan - these women basically stopped talking to me about anything of consequence. All these people who I had supported over the years would only talk to me about How's the weather? . All those women, who back in the 90's were begging for the US to take action to oust the Taliban. They sure supported taking that country by force in the late 90's, we had talked about it hundreds of times.

But yeah, they were against it - now.

After the Afghan election in 2004 - I was so damned excited - In that same province in the news story above, a place where the womens polling place was smeared in human feces and they and their families had been threatened with death or dismemberment if they voted? Yeah, the women voters OUTNUMBERED the men.. Things had gone very smoothly, there was no violence in the polling places..

I was so proud of those people for fighting back..

And those women I worked with? All I heard was "yeah, buts" Basically, things weren't perfect yet and the US is bad, and Bush this and Bush that.

They didn't give a damn about those women anymore, it was all about Bush.

When Hook first started his shoe drive, I let them know..all these women who "cared" so much. The response? I don't want to be involved with military projects.

A guy collecting shoes for kids, but to them, it was a "military project"

Yanno, our guys were the first permanant US presence in that area, they built their FOB from scratch. In 4 months there had been HUGE progress. There wre people there who were willing to fight for their homes and families, and with a permanant US presence, they finally felt they had a chance.

Yet all those women cared about was that it wasn't perfect yet. More than 2 decades of war, and we hadn't fixed it in a couple of months. I was getting my info from troops right there on the ground, from the guys doing the actual work...and they would tell me it wasn't happening because that's not what they read in the daily misleader yanno...

That's when I submitted my resignation.

The "wrong" president was in office, they no longer gave a damn about anything.

All of those "good friends" of mine, people I worked with for 8 years, I never hear from them anymore.

(end of rambling rant)

Posted by: Tink | Nov 30, 2006 3:10:32 PM

Comment below written by: Ymarsakar

Yet all those women cared about was that it wasn't perfect yet.

For narcissists and self-fish people, Tink, it was always about themselves. Never about anyone else. But people do not exist as people to narcissists, simply as tools of expression, desire, and self-esteem for the narcissist.

All of those "good friends" of mine, people I worked with for 8 years, I never hear from them anymore.

Welcome back from the cult of personality, Tink. Few make it out, though those that do, are stronger for it.

Posted by: Ymarsakar | Nov 30, 2006 9:38:59 PM

Comment below written by: Tink

"In a nut shell, your saying the feminists no longer care about their Afghan “sisters” because W is the one who “freed” them, so to speak?"

I'm saying, this particular group of women sacrificed their beliefs for politics.

(Silly me, I had always thought you based your politics ON your beliefs)

They sacrificed the Afghan women for their politics.

They sacrificed friends for their politics.

And trust me, it sucks to say that about people you care about.

Posted by: Tink | Nov 30, 2006 11:01:06 PM

Comment below written by: Tink

it was always about themselves. Never about anyone else.

Ym, I never thought about it in that way. That's something I'm going to have to roll around in my head for a bit.

Such as these, are more concerned with the prevention of American error, than they are with the prevention of totalitarian INTENT.

Rich, I think you hit the nail on the head...it's frustrating. Very frustrating.

I read about people like Mr Halim, I think about the others that my hubs told me so much about, and it tears my heart out. There are some good people out there who deserve to make decisions about their own lives, who deserve to raise their children, who deserve peace..

It makes me want to take people like my (apparently) former friends, and shake them by the shoulders. What the hell has to happen to make them open their eyes and actually SEE what's at stake..instead of just pointing and saying "told ya we were doing it wrong"

I dunno, I'm rambling again...so I'll just say goodnight..

Posted by: Tink | Nov 30, 2006 11:23:10 PM

Comment below written by: Ymarsakar

Your rambling is quite enjoyable.

You share your frustrations and pinpoint what you see as the source and problem. But you don't do it in a way that says "it is ALL about Me, Me, Me" and you aren't bitter about it to the extent that it corrodes my ears.

I like reading what you have written because you obviously honestly care and value integrity far more than selfishness and convenience. I respect that.

To add to Rich's excellent summarization, I'll just say that it also includes why the Left loves talking about the "moral high ground" and "moral purity" and "don't become the terroists". You've heard that rhetoric before, I believe. In fact, most blackfive readers should have heard that rhetoric if only about GitMo.

These people on the Left, the fake liberals I call them, don't want to get their hands dirty. Why should they, it is not the innocents and the downtrodden that are important, it is them, their comfort, their purity, and their convenience that is really important. They must have the moral high ground, because even a hint of guilt just kills them, just kills them. Too uncomfortable by far, getting their hands dirty.

Moral purity, the same as sexual purity that honor killings are supposed to get rid of. They just can't stand the violation of their honor, of their status, of their reputation in the eyes of Allah. It ain't about their children, wives, or whatever. It is about them and how much better it can make them feel to kill and hang rape victims.

They just can't stand the idea that anyone can require THEM, to actually sacrifice and get their hands dirty, to be called bad names or be thought of as less than pure and perfect. In a choice between saving the innocent by slaughtering the evil, or sitting it out in a nice comfy chair watching Oprra, I think you'll know which one they will choose.

They always talk about, "oh no, you can't execute terroists, we would be as bad as them". What they really mean is. "I've spent millions of dollars elevating my social consciousness above the peons, I'm not going to risk it now for some village idiots in Afghanistan that the slubs in GitMo have been killing. Let them kill each other, I have a manicure to go to."

Fake liberals. They talk about human dignity and liberty, but what they were really interested in was how to elevate their own ambitions and alleviate their own guilt. They believe that America is nigh invulnerable. That they can throw the Marine Corps at the problem if it ever came to their shores, or maybe they'll just take a private jet and go to Europe for a year or two while things calm down. They believe they are invulnerable, that every war is a "choice", an "elected war". Just like protecting innocents is an "elected choice" to the fake liberals. They get to choose who to protect and fight, why can't Bush? They think.

Posted by: Ymarsakar | Nov 30, 2006 11:46:14 PM