Quotes of the Morning: It's Getting Better All the Time

“It's getting better all the time
I used to get mad at my school (No I can't complain)
The teachers who taught me weren't cool (No I can't complain)
You're holding me down (Oh), turning me round (Oh)
Filling me up with your rules (Foolish rules)
I've got to admit it's getting better (Better)
A little better all the time (It can't get more worse)
I have to admit it's getting better (Better)
It's getting better”
-The Beatles, “Getting Better”

“For the first time, young girls go to school in Afghanistan, thanks to the United States and our coalition.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, July 1, 2002

“That’s wonderful. Good to hear it.”
-Skippy

“We're helping with the reconstruction and the founding of a democratic government. We're making steady progress in Afghanistan. New roads are being built, medical clinics are opening, there are new schools in Afghanistan where many young girls are now going to school for the first time, thanks to the United States of America.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, August 14, 2003

“Like I said.. Good to know that the girls can go to school.”
-Skippy

“And it was hard leadin' up the Afghan elections, as you remember. There was the lot of talk about how the -- somebody was gonna get killed and they couldn't vote. And sure enough, when people were given a chance, millions of people showed up, and the first voter was a woman in a country where women had been savaged by the former government run by the Taliban. So, look, I know it's hard.”
-January 7, 2005

“Women are voting in Afghanistan too. Glad to know that is happening.”
-Skippy

“Inspired by Afghan women who have boldly shed their burqas after years of Taliban repression, Laura Bush urged more educational opportunities and greater rights for women Wednesday in this war-wrecked nation.”
-Associated Press, March 30, 2005

''The survival of a free society ultimately depends on the participation of all its citizens, both men and women."
-Laura Bush, March 30, 2005

“Agreed, agreed… I’m just glad to hear how well things are are going for women in Afghanistan.”
-Skippy

“Speaking to a gathering of women at Kabul University, Mrs. Bush said, ‘The United States government is wholeheartedly committed to the full participation of women in all aspects of Afghan society, not just in Kabul, but in every province.’
That last clause was an acknowledgement that women's progress has lagged in Afghanistan's rural areas. Indeed, as Bush celebrates the progress of Afghan women since the fall of the Taliban three years ago, observers say women in rural areas remain captive to stubborn traditions that severely limit their role in public life.
‘Women's rights in Afghanistan has come a long way in the last three years,’ says Asefa Kakar, a judge in Afghanistan's Supreme Court. ‘Girls are going to school and women are working. But this is mostly in the cities. Rural Afghanistan is a long ways away from much needed change.’"
-Christian Science Monitor, March 31, 2005

“So… Sure, good about the girls in school thing. Getting better all the time. Fantastic.”
-Skippy

“It's hard for the Western mind to even comprehend what life was like for people in Afghanistan, but this is a society in which young girls couldn't go to school. And if you objected to their point of view, you were taken into the public square and whipped, or sometimes assassinated.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, August 3, 2005

“Again with the schools? Do we have any other signs of progress? I mean, that is fantastic and all, but I’m not sure that the fact that people that support girls’ education aren’t assassinated anymore is really all that incredible a sign of progress. I would think that that would be the bare minimum expected from a country.”
-Skippy

“Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the southern provincial head of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside the front gate of her Kandahar home as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women’s ministry in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women’s rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent in the last several months.”
-Associated Press, September 25, 2006

“I take that back. Having people that support the girls’ educations avoid assassination would still be a plus in Afghanistan. Wow. Wouldn’t it have been nice to actually stabilize Afghanistan before invading a second country?”
-Skippy

“Taliban-linked militants have stepped up their attacks across Afghanistan the last several months, though attacks in Kabul are still much rarer than in the country’s south.
Attacks in the capital are mostly aimed at foreign military troops. On Sept. 8, a suicide car bomber rammed into a U.S. Humvee, killing 16 people, including two U.S. soldiers. The attack was Kabul’s deadliest since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban.”
-Associated Press, September 25, 2006

“I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I've tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max, and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq knowing what I know today.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, April 24, 2006