CHRISTIAN VALUES DRIVE THE FIRST LADY IN AFGHANISTAN
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
"’That dream is of a prosperous, peaceful, and above all, a free Afghanistan, where both men and women stand upright in equality,’" First Lady Laura Bush said.
Mrs. Bush was speaking in Afghanistan. She represented her President husband, the United States, and all freedom loving citizens worldwide. Visiting Kabul, she said that America "’is wholeheartedly committed to the full participation of women in all aspects of Afghan society – not just in Kabul, but in every province,’" according to American Forces Press Service’s Gerry J. Gilmore.
In an effort to encourage the Afghan government as well as local people in their planting a democracy, Mrs. Bush carried poise with power in her addresses particularly to the new Women’s Teacher Training Institute. What must it have meant to those present when listening to the wife of the most powerful head of state on the planet?
In other words, instead of the most powerful personage and wife giving their might to overpowering others, they give their daily energies to lifting up those less fortunate than the freedom-accustomed Americans. The Bushes see through their political and Christian convictions wherever they go. It is to spread liberties as far as those liberties can reach.
"Bush also announced that the United States is supporting the establishment of the American University of Afghanistan, with an accompanying multiyear commitment of more than $15 million. The new university ‘will aggressively reach out to young Afghan women,’ she said, and ‘will provide a modern facility with an international faculty to educate future leaders’ of Afghanistan.
"Bush noted that another education initiative, the International School of Afghanistan, ‘will provide Afghan children from kindergarten through high school with a first-rate education.’ She said $3.5 million has been earmarked to establish the school. Another initiative targeted to assist Afghan women, called Learning for Life, Bush said, will address the critical needs of literacy and healthcare. The program, she noted, ‘will help people learn to read with materials that are focused on health.’"
Though enemies attempt to thwart these worthy goals, Bushes do not cower. Those who agree with their values do not cower either. Instead, democracy believing people — great and small — have sacrificed in order to see such advances as those finding fruitage in Afghanistan.
"Bush, once a schoolteacher and librarian, spoke at the new Women’s Teacher Training Institute. She spent about six hours in Kabul where she also met with President Hamid Karzai and groups of Afghan women.
"The teacher’s training center and adjoining dormitory, she noted, came about as a result of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council telling the administration in 2003 that ‘there was a dire need for teachers’ in Afghanistan, especially in the country’s more remote and rural areas.
"Bush said the new training facility, a public-private partnership, ‘will allow women to come from every corner of the country and have a safe place to stay and study, so that they can return home and share one of life’s greatest gifts with their communities – the gift of an education.’"
This is a totally foreign and a new vision for females in Afghanistan. Muslim religion there has hampered regard for women, considering them less worthy than house pets. If a Muslim female shows her ankles, she can be beaten by her husband. If she is considered flirting with a non-Muslim, she can be shot. Islamic tradition states that the female from conception has ten curses laid upon her.
With that kind of Islamic teaching as horrific backdrop to Muslim women’s existence, to hear the US President’s wife give meaning to earthly life, let alone encouragement to become educated in order to teach, must have been an absolute dream lighting up their skies.
"Afghanistan had traditionally barred its women from attaining leadership roles and positions of societal and political heft. Yet, four years since fall of the ultra-traditionalist Taliban, Bush noted that Afghan women ‘have taken on leadership roles as teachers, students, doctors, judges, business and community leaders, and politicians.’"
While the Taliban kill and rape females, Bush freedom enthusiasts seek to liberate females in particular. Some believed that goal to be unbelievable, impractical. How can a nation steeped in the worst of a crazed male-centered religion ever turn around? How could captive women in the Islamic grip ever be set free so as to realize their own potentials?
Yet, if a person believes in miracles, the miracles are taking place every day in Afghanistan. Of course, they do not spring forth as the anti-Bush liberals say they should. However, to those persons I must say: Then you produce a quicker, more efficient miracle. It takes no intelligence to carp; it takes a lot of fortitude to stay the course in helping others reach their personal fulfillment.
Basically it is because of the Christian principles of Mr. and Mrs. Bush that his administration has forged forth with value-based programming. The political opposition gives their Christian faith no such credit; instead, they being Christians has been shunted by the liberal media, if not derided. Yet the Bushes persevere in the unabashed, practical faith, just as all believes persevere against the enemy.
Such commitment pays off, not only in the personal joy of the Bushes, but also in the lives of those people across the world — Afghanistan, for instance. What other major power on Earth has set its sites on aiding other nations as Bush-administered America has set its energies? What other countries with wealth and comforts come forth to lift the burdens from the backs of those less fortunate?
Yet it is America under the Bush leadership that daily sees through the Christian principle of laying down one’s life for another. That does not only mean being willing to die for another; it also means being willing to live in sacrifice for another.
"The new teacher’s institute ‘will yield great things,’ Bush predicted. Its establishment, she noted, represents a symbol of ‘the extraordinary leap forward Afghan women have taken.’ Bush pointed out that Afghanistan is ‘only a few years removed from the rule of terrorists, when women were denied education and every basic human right.’
"The Taliban regime has been replaced ‘by a young democracy,’ she observed, noting ‘the power of freedom is on display across Afghanistan.’"
Yes, it is on display for the world to see. It is on display also for the mainstream media to pick up on more energetically than it has. Why are there not documentaries constantly on American television giving out the specifics of these democracy advancements in Afghanistan? Instead, the anti-Bush press continues to muffle whatever pluses are forthcoming.
Nevertheless, God sees. And believers see. Therefore, they continue to pray for a believing President and wife who stand guard in the White House for liberty and freedoms evangelized wherever there is an open door.
This week Mrs. Bush continued to walk through that door in Afghanistan, opening it wider for all women attending her addresses. Surely they will be inspired to carry on more diligently even after the First Lady returns to America. It’s in the inspiration that future possibilities find their blossoming.
Thank you, Mrs. Bush.
For more: http://conservativeposts.us/ <http://conservativeposts.us/>
"’That dream is of a prosperous, peaceful, and above all, a free Afghanistan, where both men and women stand upright in equality,’" First Lady Laura Bush said.
Mrs. Bush was speaking in Afghanistan. She represented her President husband, the United States, and all freedom loving citizens worldwide. Visiting Kabul, she said that America "’is wholeheartedly committed to the full participation of women in all aspects of Afghan society – not just in Kabul, but in every province,’" according to American Forces Press Service’s Gerry J. Gilmore.
In an effort to encourage the Afghan government as well as local people in their planting a democracy, Mrs. Bush carried poise with power in her addresses particularly to the new Women’s Teacher Training Institute. What must it have meant to those present when listening to the wife of the most powerful head of state on the planet?
In other words, instead of the most powerful personage and wife giving their might to overpowering others, they give their daily energies to lifting up those less fortunate than the freedom-accustomed Americans. The Bushes see through their political and Christian convictions wherever they go. It is to spread liberties as far as those liberties can reach.
"Bush also announced that the United States is supporting the establishment of the American University of Afghanistan, with an accompanying multiyear commitment of more than $15 million. The new university ‘will aggressively reach out to young Afghan women,’ she said, and ‘will provide a modern facility with an international faculty to educate future leaders’ of Afghanistan.
"Bush noted that another education initiative, the International School of Afghanistan, ‘will provide Afghan children from kindergarten through high school with a first-rate education.’ She said $3.5 million has been earmarked to establish the school. Another initiative targeted to assist Afghan women, called Learning for Life, Bush said, will address the critical needs of literacy and healthcare. The program, she noted, ‘will help people learn to read with materials that are focused on health.’"
Though enemies attempt to thwart these worthy goals, Bushes do not cower. Those who agree with their values do not cower either. Instead, democracy believing people — great and small — have sacrificed in order to see such advances as those finding fruitage in Afghanistan.
"Bush, once a schoolteacher and librarian, spoke at the new Women’s Teacher Training Institute. She spent about six hours in Kabul where she also met with President Hamid Karzai and groups of Afghan women.
"The teacher’s training center and adjoining dormitory, she noted, came about as a result of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council telling the administration in 2003 that ‘there was a dire need for teachers’ in Afghanistan, especially in the country’s more remote and rural areas.
"Bush said the new training facility, a public-private partnership, ‘will allow women to come from every corner of the country and have a safe place to stay and study, so that they can return home and share one of life’s greatest gifts with their communities – the gift of an education.’"
This is a totally foreign and a new vision for females in Afghanistan. Muslim religion there has hampered regard for women, considering them less worthy than house pets. If a Muslim female shows her ankles, she can be beaten by her husband. If she is considered flirting with a non-Muslim, she can be shot. Islamic tradition states that the female from conception has ten curses laid upon her.
With that kind of Islamic teaching as horrific backdrop to Muslim women’s existence, to hear the US President’s wife give meaning to earthly life, let alone encouragement to become educated in order to teach, must have been an absolute dream lighting up their skies.
"Afghanistan had traditionally barred its women from attaining leadership roles and positions of societal and political heft. Yet, four years since fall of the ultra-traditionalist Taliban, Bush noted that Afghan women ‘have taken on leadership roles as teachers, students, doctors, judges, business and community leaders, and politicians.’"
While the Taliban kill and rape females, Bush freedom enthusiasts seek to liberate females in particular. Some believed that goal to be unbelievable, impractical. How can a nation steeped in the worst of a crazed male-centered religion ever turn around? How could captive women in the Islamic grip ever be set free so as to realize their own potentials?
Yet, if a person believes in miracles, the miracles are taking place every day in Afghanistan. Of course, they do not spring forth as the anti-Bush liberals say they should. However, to those persons I must say: Then you produce a quicker, more efficient miracle. It takes no intelligence to carp; it takes a lot of fortitude to stay the course in helping others reach their personal fulfillment.
Basically it is because of the Christian principles of Mr. and Mrs. Bush that his administration has forged forth with value-based programming. The political opposition gives their Christian faith no such credit; instead, they being Christians has been shunted by the liberal media, if not derided. Yet the Bushes persevere in the unabashed, practical faith, just as all believes persevere against the enemy.
Such commitment pays off, not only in the personal joy of the Bushes, but also in the lives of those people across the world — Afghanistan, for instance. What other major power on Earth has set its sites on aiding other nations as Bush-administered America has set its energies? What other countries with wealth and comforts come forth to lift the burdens from the backs of those less fortunate?
Yet it is America under the Bush leadership that daily sees through the Christian principle of laying down one’s life for another. That does not only mean being willing to die for another; it also means being willing to live in sacrifice for another.
"The new teacher’s institute ‘will yield great things,’ Bush predicted. Its establishment, she noted, represents a symbol of ‘the extraordinary leap forward Afghan women have taken.’ Bush pointed out that Afghanistan is ‘only a few years removed from the rule of terrorists, when women were denied education and every basic human right.’
"The Taliban regime has been replaced ‘by a young democracy,’ she observed, noting ‘the power of freedom is on display across Afghanistan.’"
Yes, it is on display for the world to see. It is on display also for the mainstream media to pick up on more energetically than it has. Why are there not documentaries constantly on American television giving out the specifics of these democracy advancements in Afghanistan? Instead, the anti-Bush press continues to muffle whatever pluses are forthcoming.
Nevertheless, God sees. And believers see. Therefore, they continue to pray for a believing President and wife who stand guard in the White House for liberty and freedoms evangelized wherever there is an open door.
This week Mrs. Bush continued to walk through that door in Afghanistan, opening it wider for all women attending her addresses. Surely they will be inspired to carry on more diligently even after the First Lady returns to America. It’s in the inspiration that future possibilities find their blossoming.
Thank you, Mrs. Bush.
For more: http://conservativeposts.us/ <http://conservativeposts.us/>
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