Dear Editor:
In your October 18th editorial titled “Education - Worth the Risk”, you wrote about Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban in her pursuit of education. You rightly condemned the Taliban’s terrorist tactics and repression of women, which hinder education opportunities. Absent from your piece was any mention of U.S. drone strike policies, which are also condemnable and also have negative impacts on education opportunities for young women and men in Pakistan. A Stanford/NYU report shows evidence that drone strikes have killed over 800 Pakistani civilians, including as many as 176 children. (See http://www.livingunderdrones.org) Many have been injured physically and psychologically to where they can’t attend school. Are those children any less deserving of the right to an education? Is the blood of children spilled by the Taliban somehow more valuable or newsworthy than the blood of children spilled in U.S. drone strikes?
Jeff Zurawski
Marlinton