"When I came to Basra a year ago," he says, "two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."The killers enforcing their own version of Islamic justice are rarely caught, while women live in fear.
Boldly splattered in red paint just outside the main downtown market, a chilling sign reads: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you."
[snip]
After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Sawsan says, the situation was "the best." But now, she says, it's "the worst."
"We thought there would be freedom and democracy and women would have their rights. But all the things we were promised have not come true. There is only fear and horror."
Hasn't anyone told these women that the surge has worked?
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Well, well, well! This is my first ever posting. The problem all you have is the lack of understanding that the human species is imperfect. We claim to be smarter than other living sources, siting our conscious and ability to advance our quality of life. Compared to so many other living species the human being is backwards, driven by satisfaction of hurting other humans, mostly individualistic, unwilling to sacrifice for the common good, lives for the moment, foolishly creates super natural beings or entities to maintain a class society and subordinate equal rights, and utilizes this super natural beleif (god, god1, god to the nth) to justify his/her imperfections. Just use Bush's incredible abuse of power. His goal is the total dominance of the resources of the mideast. Freedom through democracy is outside control (US corporations) of their markets. He values this goal more than the lives of US military, mideast citizens, or religious zealots. And he sacrifices the future of life everywhere, including the United States.
Uh, it matters what Iraqi women think?
Gee, Open Eyes, etc. the human species is not perfect! Who knew? Thanks for setting us all straight on that. (Sarcasm off) The next time you see an animal, any animal, "sacrifice for the common good" let us know. Have you ever watched "Nature" and observed what the end of life is like for an antelope boxed in by a pride of lions? It's not much like hospice care. Do you know anything about the personal lives of spiders? Ever see how chimps deal with outsiders? Ever observed the pretty orcas having their way with seals? Quit watching Bambi and Thumper frolicking in the forest and look at the real world and you will see carnivorism, dominance and death at every turn. Get some slight sense of the tragic nature of real life before you deign to tell us what "...problem all of (us) have".
Women were, legally and practically, better off under Saddam. Unless of course, they were related to a political or ethnic enemy of his.
There, I've said it.
The Concerned Local Citizen's groups have taken the iniative away from Al Qaeda. The surge was simply a way to start the process. Their brutal tactics backfired on them. Blowing up women and children is not acceptable under Islam, and the only reason people kept quiet was out of fear, not out of accepting Al Qaeda's harsher precepts.
So things are better. For now. And I don't doubt that women had a lot to do with this. Women are influencers, even if they do not hold much power at most levels of Iraqi society. They influence their sons: a would be "mujahid" is expected in Islam to accept his parents' counsel on whether he should fight, where he should go, and what his role should be. His father may very well encourage fighting. His mother, understandably will be a little more cautious.
As for average Iraqis, they are simply sick and tired of it. The basic problem with Al Qaeda is it offers no true vision of the future. A Wahabi based functioning state is simply untenable in Mesopotamia. The only place where Sunnis are a majority is out of reach of water and oil revenues. And the rest of Iraq people, which outnumber the Sunnis by a considerable margin, would easily blockade an Islamic mini-state out of being.
Unfortunately, I am not sure Iraq's politicians hold much of a vision of the future either. Each group's goals is a nation in which THEIR group takes dominance. And they obviously can't all have that. I hope they realize and accept that, for the good of the nation, sooner rather than later. For neither the Sunni tribesmen, nor the American politicians, have much more patience left. The Sunnis demand an official place in Iraq's political process. The Americans cannot or will not maintain the presence they currently have.
This is not peace. It is a partial cease-fire. Which is a beginning.
Perhaps withdrawing another 20,000 soldiers will focus the minds of the politicians on both sides. It would mollify the political base in Iraq (to say nothing of the populations which provide the material and personnel for militant groups in Iraq) somewhat, without scaring everyone so badly that they return to arms.
But regardless, there is no doubt in my mind that we leave Christians and women worse off than before. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to reverse the trends that have begun for them.
Send these women some handguns and ammo...
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