By Angie Vogt, political commentary

Annie, get your gun… or your petition.

Yeah, that’s the ticket. A petition to the United Nations, that usually works. I recall in the late 1990s getting impassioned e-mails from women’s rights groups protesting the treatment of women in Afghanistan. The plea came with an electronic petition attached. After describing the inhumane treatment of women by the Taliban regime, I was asked to support the cause of women in Afghanistan by — get this — signing my name on the petition.

Nothing frightens ruthless, unelected dictators more than a band of feminists carrying their petitions and megaphones. Now fast forward to the post 9/11 era and the American military fighting in two countries in the Middle East. The Taliban was run out of power, and women and little girls are going back to school and even risking their lives to show up at the voting booth. American men and women are still risking their lives protecting the rights of little girls, women and the men who love them.

I’m expecting any day now for the National Organization of Women to sponsor a parade celebrating our brave, selfless soldiers for their swift and mighty retribution against the unjust oppressors. Victory is even sweeter since many of those soldiers were women themselves. Hmmm, come to think of it, I haven’t heard a word of gratitude from American feminists. In fact, the only mention of the military on the NOW web site is an appeal to drop the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and demands that American military hospitals provide abortion on demand.

American feminists are out of touch, old guard, 1960s throwbacks who have replaced an agenda set on advancing the interests of women with left-wing politics. They are crawling on American college campuses, especially Ivy League. This is hardly the venue of oppressed people. They spend their time fighting for more women’s studies programs (even though women outnumber men in both universities and professional schools), more paid maternity leave (even though more professional women than ever are opting to take a break from their careers to stay home) and a host of other benefits and perks for American women.

They see themselves as protectors of oppressed little girls (even while boys are more likely to suffer from depression, commit suicide, drop out of school and engage in risky social behaviors). They decry the unfairness of standardized testing since girls typically score lower in math and science (even though boys proportionally score lower in verbal and writing).

The last thing I want to do is seem ungrateful for the work that so many courageous men and women have fought for, regarding women’s rights. I look back at my military career, my decisions as a woman of the 1980s, ‘90s and now in the first decade of a new millennium. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the freedoms I enjoy that my grandmother, and in many respects my own mother, have not enjoyed.

These are all due to the work of early visionaries such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and later pioneers like Sally Ride and Condoleeza Rice. It seems to me that the focus should be on most of the world that still does not enjoy such progress.

Last week, the world watched in horror as two victims of kidnapping and gang rape in Saudi Arabia were sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the company of the opposite sex who were not spouses.

We also watched a lunatic frenzy in Sudan, as Muslim masses demanded the execution of a middle-aged British schoolteacher who had the audacity to allow her young students to name a class teddy bear “Muhammed.” Another generation of children were traumatized (and no doubt scared into full submission to Taliban-like extremism) as they watched their beloved teacher get run out of the country by pitch fork wielding mobs.

One brave child tried defending his teacher by saying he suggested the name and was only naming the teddy bear after his friend

(with such bravery, this child has the potential of being an American soldier).

All of these events were horrifying reminders of what most of the world’s women live with. What was worse was watching the silly, bimbo discussions on morning talk TV, especially “The View,” where celebrity, ivory tower narcissists actually blamed the teacher, saying “she should know better, cuz, like when I went over there, I wuz warned about their beliefs, ya’ know, so, that teacher, should have known better than to name that bear Muhammed.”

Gun, or petition? If you were the British schoolteacher, which would you choose?

Federal Way resident Angie Vogt can be reached at vogt.e@comcast.net.