Update: Three suspects in the shooting of Malala Yousafzai have been arrested.  They range in age from seventeen to twenty-two.  Upon questioning, the police believe the murder was ordered by a man named Attaullah.  Sirajuddin Ahmad, Swat spokesman for the Taliban said, “We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop (speaking against us).”  He said the Taliban had a meeting a few months ago unanimously decided to kill her.  What cowardly pieces of filth are these animals that they could decide to murder a young girl.  If any good has come from this, there is outrage throughout Pakistan and the school, which Malala attends and her father owns and operates, reopened on Friday.  That is the greatest weapon against terror.

Most of the world recognizes the Taliban to be a brutal, militant group of religious fanatics that need to be dealt with harshly.  The Taliban has no redeeming qualities and no negotiations are possible or should be attempted.  President Obama, who would like to be the great healer of world conflict, has, with our military, been killing their members in an attempt to thin the herd.  But what the Taliban did in shooting a fourteen year old girl, Malala Yousafzai, who was nominated for an international peace prize, is simply reprehensible.  She was sitting in a school van and was shot after the cowards had asked her classmates to identify her.  None claimed to know her however, as they knew about the threats on her life.  Malala was targeted for execution simply because she expressed her views of a better world and for praising President Obama.  In her blog she described life in Swat Valley under the Taliban; no education for girls, public flogging and dead bodies hung in the street.  On Tuesday, Taliban Spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan responded, “We wanted to kill her as she was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban and more important she was calling President Obama as her ideal.   She was young but was promoting a Western culture in the Pakhtun populated areas”.  It’s about time countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan join the free, developed and civilized world and begin standing up to these types of atrocities and the Taliban in particular.  If one person, in this case a young girl, can be the target of such a crime, no one in Pakistan is safe.  This attempted murder should raise the ire of every person in Pakistan and all civilized, peace-loving  people throughout the world.  If not, it’s a terrible blemish on humankind.  It’s just one more reason to be thankful to be living in the United States.  This crime has brought shame and dishonor to Pakistan.  If it is a peace-loving, democratic state, then justice must be served.  The free world is watching.