And so it ends where it began. The front page of Tuesday’s Wall St. Journal reports that, “The U.S. is actively considering talks with elements of the Taliban, the armed Islamist group that once ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al Qaeda.” According to the story, Senior White House and military officials believe that when it comes to Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, engaging some levels of the Taliban could help improve security. It's a familiar story. Before 9-11, Washington adopted the same approach: The Taliban established probably the world’s most oppressive regime for women and girls. But despite pleas from global women’s groups and brave Afghan feminists first, the Clinton and then the Bush administration made peace with gender apartheid as a means to security. Just three months beore 9-11, the Bush administration, through the United Nations, sent the Taliban $43 million for poppy eradication and welcomed the Taliban Representatives in DC. Then of course, came the attacks on the U.S. followed by the U.S. invasion. Searching to beef up support for that, First Lady Laura Bush took to the airwaves in a much ballyhooed radio address: “Long before the current war began, the Taliban and its terrorist allies were making the lives of children and women in Afghanistan miserable. Seventy percent of the Afghan people are malnourished. One in every four children won’t live past the age of five because healthcare is not available. Women have been denied access to doctors when they’re sick. All of us have an obligation to speak out.” Well now the Taliban are back. Along with their supporters in Pakistan. A network of Taliban sympathizers recently posted warnings in parts of Punjab threatening that women who did not wear the hijab would have acid thrown in their faces. According to Reuters, just last week, militants blew up another girls' school. The US war on terrorism in Afghanistan never had much to do with anti-female terror. Seeking proxies to fight on their behalf, the U.S. worked with as many misogynist warlords as it toppled. And now the old mantra’s back. Security at any cost. The cost now isn’t so hard to tally. You can measure it in women’s lives. Just what was all that fighting for? Less