LOL no

[Cain]

Apparently Kabul is "safer for children" than "many western cities".

Presumably this standard of safety does not include the possibility of being kidnapped and turned into a sex-slave by a warlord's lieutenant, or walking into the wrong area the same time as a suicide bomber.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11807382

Children may be safer growing up in Kabul than they are in London, Glasgow or New York, a Nato official has said.

Mark Sedwill said the Afghan capital, as a "city of villages", was better for youngsters than many Western cities, despite dangers posed by the conflict.

The senior civilian representative told CBBC's Newsround: "Most children can go about their lives in safety."

But some Kabul youngsters spoke of their fears, and Save the Children said the claim was "wrong and misleading".

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council also said Mr Sedwill was "wrong" to include the city in his comments.

Kabul has borne the brunt of the war in Afghanistan and although the security situation there has improved of late, it is still deemed a dangerous place to live.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office website advises against all but essential travel to parts of Afghanistan, and that nobody visits the areas worst-hit by fighting.

It says Kabul has witnessed a "significant escalation in the number of suicide and rocket attacks in the last year. Since late August 2009, there have been 14 'successful' suicide attacks in the city, with at least five further suicide attacks known to have been thwarted."

Several young people interviewed by Sonali Shah, a presenter for BBC children's channel CBBC, spoke of their fear of violence.

Christ, I've walk through London drunk, at 2am and unarmed, and I'd gladly do that again before I'd walk through Kabul, in kevlar, sober, armed and with several likeminded companions.

[Suu]

I walked down the streets of Providence sober at 2am downtown full of people and had people try to solicit me and grab me.

But I've also cognitively woken up at 7am at the Skylight Diner on the west side of Manhattan totally unharmed and wondered how I got there, so...

But no way in HELL would you catch me doing that in Kabul.

[BabylonHoruv]

Apparently Kabul is "safer for children" than "many western cities".

Presumably this standard of safety does not include the possibility of being kidnapped and turned into a sex-slave by a warlord's lieutenant, or walking into the wrong area the same time as a suicide bomber.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11807382

Children may be safer growing up in Kabul than they are in London, Glasgow or New York, a Nato official has said.

Mark Sedwill said the Afghan capital, as a "city of villages", was better for youngsters than many Western cities, despite dangers posed by the conflict.

The senior civilian representative told CBBC's Newsround: "Most children can go about their lives in safety."

But some Kabul youngsters spoke of their fears, and Save the Children said the claim was "wrong and misleading".

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council also said Mr Sedwill was "wrong" to include the city in his comments.

Kabul has borne the brunt of the war in Afghanistan and although the security situation there has improved of late, it is still deemed a dangerous place to live.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office website advises against all but essential travel to parts of Afghanistan, and that nobody visits the areas worst-hit by fighting.

It says Kabul has witnessed a "significant escalation in the number of suicide and rocket attacks in the last year. Since late August 2009, there have been 14 'successful' suicide attacks in the city, with at least five further suicide attacks known to have been thwarted."

Several young people interviewed by Sonali Shah, a presenter for BBC children's channel CBBC, spoke of their fear of violence.

Christ, I've walk through London drunk, at 2am and unarmed, and I'd gladly do that again before I'd walk through Kabul, in kevlar, sober, armed and with several likeminded companions.

One important difference is that you are not an Afghani child.

[Cain]

Yes.  Which further decreases my chances of being kidnapped by an Afghan warlord looking for sexytime.

[Jenne]

Yeah, no, no way in hell.  ETA:  they tend to protect their own quite a bit, but that's not the same thing, though they think it is.  But then, Afghans tend to have an overinflated sense of their own sense of anything...uh...positive about Afghans or Afghanistan.  

Do you KNOW how many times my husband's relatives have offered to squire me over there, because, didn't you know, IT'S PERFECTLY SAFE OVER THERE NOW, REALLY, TRULY, SO MUCH BETTER THAN IT WAS.  In my mind I say back, "FUCK NO ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Your own UNCLE/BROTHER/FATHER was kidnapped a couple of years ago and held for ransom...fuck off!" but instead I say, "Oh, that's ok, but thanks for the offer."

Ugh.  You know, that was one thing the Talibs did well:  they kept child slavery and pedarasty down to a minimum.  But once they were driven from Kandahar--OUT came the BACHA BAZI.

[Iason Ouabache]

If they had said Detroit, Gary, and Oakland I might just barely have believed them.