Even our politics are taking hold in Afghanistan!

Afghan leader accused of bid to 'legalise rape'

Choice exerpts:

In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.

"The law regulates personal matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and sexual relations among Afghanistan's minority Shia community. "It's about votes," Ms Karokhail added. "Karzai is in a hurry to appease the Shia because the elections are on the way."

Even the law's sponsors admit Mr Karzai rushed it through to win their votes. Ustad Mohammad Akbari, a prominent Shia political leader, said: "It's electioneering. Most of the Hazara people are unhappy with Mr Karzai."

Glad to see, much like America, politics seem to dictate the day in Afghanistan. Glad to see this is the democracy we get in Afghanistan (and don't get me wrong, it is democracy; sadly, it doesn't look all that different than the Taliban rule that everyone hated so much). Maybe this will wake people up to the fact that "democracy" isn't some abstract, kumbaya, cute bunnies and feel-good TBS movies cure-all. If you disagree with the fundamental beliefs of a society or culture, throwing a little democracy on top isn't going to solve that. I truly wonder if this salient fact is resonating with anyone who keeps wonder why our experiments in nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't going as planned.

Maybe next time we decide to venture out in the world to try and spread democracy and our way of life we'll think twice and make some investments here at home instead. I think we might get a better return on our tax dollar.