Think back to your childhood and the school days that were involved in that time of your life. Don't you remember arguing with your Mom about having to get up so early just to go to school? I do. I remember whinnying every morning Monday through Friday about why I have to go school? I would assume most of you out there felt that exact same way at one time or another and I would assume that the dailey morning fight with either Mom or Dad or both parents about going to school still hold true. Where I'm I going with this you ask?

Well, two days ago I came across this article on MSN.com about girls in Afghistan who are going to school under the most extreme circumstances and I thought about how much courage they must have to want to go to school that badly. These girls go to school under threats of death or their noses being cut off their face for disobeying the Taliban. The Taliban repeatly burns down girl schools in Afghistan simply because they do not want girls to be educated. The article talks of one 12 year old girl named Nooria who says she is not afraid of getting her nose and ears cut off because she wants to keep studying. Nooria has more courage then any one of us put together and a love for learning and knowledge that I never had at the age of 12 or most of us will ever have in our life times. Despite the odds she faces everyday she keeps going back to school because just a few years ago before the US came in to supposedly outst the Taliban she and other girls in Afghistan were not able to go to school. The Taliban is still causing trouble for the Afghan people who are just trying to move their country into the future. According to this particular article, in the last six months Taliban attacks and threats of attacks have interrupted or closed down more than 300 girl schools. Despite all of this there people there parents who feel like sending their daughters off to school is the most important thing they could do for them and for their country. Unfortunately, with these type of dangers out there the number of children going to school and girls especially going to school have dropped in recent months because there is no security for them.

Security forces are stretched to thin to assign guards to every school, even with US and NATO backup, villagers say they will post their own guards if they have to in order to try to keep their school safe. We here in the US thought we had security issues in our schools. I can't imagine trying to go to school under these kind of circumstances. There is so much work left to be done in Afghanistan, but all of our attention seems to focused in on Iraq and we have forgotten what we started in this country. The Taliban haven't left here and they are still very much a threat to the people there in Afghanistan and let's not forget the threat to the Afghan government that seems to be barely holding on by a thread. The Taliban sees education as a threat to them because they know that educated children will most likely NOT grow up to be extremist. Thank God for that! If we can somehow help the Afghan people educate their children today then tomorrow maybe there wouldn't be a Taliban to worry about.