"We have stated very clearly that we object to this law. But I want everybody to understand that our focus is to defeat al Qaeda and ensure that they do not have safe havens from which they can launch attacks against the Alliance."—President Barack Obama, on the Afghanistan law that legalizes rape against women, sets the marriageable age of girls at 16, and requires women obtain their husbands' permission before seeking work, education, or healthcare.
So, please understand, ladies: The president objects, but the main focus is defeating Al Qaeda (even though it was not Al Qaeda but our puppet government who passed the law), even as the treatment of women is still used as a primary justification for the continuing military action there.
It is the height of audacity to use Afghanistan women as a rationale for our occupation and then say their rights are not the focus of the effort. As Matttbastard says bluntly, Obama "basically said that the war effort trumps human–women's–rights."
And thus, contra popular war rhetoric, suggested that women's rights and quashing Al Qaeda are mutually exclusive goals.
Insert your own joke here about how a female president could multitask.
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