Chuckles Online as CNN Runs Article Claiming US Troops Will Protect Women's Rights in Afghanistan

As the 20th anniversary of the US war on terror approaches, the CNN broadcasting company offered Washington a change in tune so as now to wage war on women. In CNN's opinion, the White House does not need to look for a new target for its troops to shoot at – they simply need to stay in Afghanistan, contrary to popular demands and a treaty to finally pull the American military out of the country.

The broadcaster claimed in its piece, published on 10 April, that a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, after an excruciating and unsuccessful war against the Taliban "could risk progress on women's rights" achieved in the country over the last 20 years. CNN's insists that, instead, American soldiers should stay, fight (and potentially die or worse) in the country without a return deadline - until "the conditions on the ground are right".

This notion finds little support among netizens, however, who see it as another attempt at justifying "endless wars".

Some didn't mince words, outright accusing the authors of the idea of hypocrisy and double standards.

Others had a problem with the way CNN proposed to uphold women's rights in Afghanistan and suggested that shooting guns and bombing the country is probably not the best way to do it.

Some Twitterians went even further, arguing that forcibly imposing western values upon the Islamic population of Afghanistan by of the military will have the exact opposite effect.