I'll just respond to the second part of your post, because it seems more relevant. As an American citizen, my feeling is that whenever we attempt to force major social changes in a foreign country, we're going to face some serious roadblocks. The most obvious is HOW can we effectively make this kind of change happen? Pakistan and Afghanistan are sovereign nations, and the US government simply has no authority to dictate to them what laws they can or cannot pass. We can use economic pressure, the threat of force, or other measures to try to coerce these countries into changing their laws, but this doesn't always work out too well (just look at our ongoing debacle in Iraq). If we were to succeed in forcing a country like Pakistan to change their laws, the US plays into the role of being imperialists who are disrespectful of Islamic beliefs, and would continue to make enemies in the region. Besides, the US has made some pretty poor decisions in their foreign policy the past few years and usually do so in the name of fighting terrorism or defending the rights of individuals. A lot of times economic interests and political concerns are the real underlying causes of our involvement. It isn't necessarily credible for the US to claim we are acting out of good will, even if it is justified. Now, a multinational effort to police Human Rights on a worldwide scale may make sense philosophically, but this doesn't seem viable right now either. The U.N. appears to be controlled by a handful of powerful nations, and doesn't necessarily have a lot of power at that. The US in particular has really abused their role with the organization. I'd love if we could go in and make the situation for women in Pakistan and Afghanistan better, but international politics are never that easy. A sort of grassroots raising of awareness about issues like these that are going on in foreign countries seems valuable. It helps if internationally, people at least KNOW when serious human rights violations are taking place somewhere in the world. When it comes to really getting in there and solving these kind of pervasive social issues, though, I think people need to work from within the country. I know the US has plenty of domestic issues where we as citizens of this country really can make an impact. Race is just one of those issues. When I read these posts, I was reminded of that Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy song - "water piston man, full of ammunition, putting out fires on a worldwide mission, but did you ever think to stop and squirt the flowers in your own backyard?"

peace,
murph

peace,
murph