Freedom in Iraq......
Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 03:33:25 PM PDT
Remember back when the Bush administration started their phony war? How they were going to save all those "wimmen and chiluns" from the EVIL that was Saddam Hussein? Recall how they planned to spread democracy across the land, to make sure there were pop tarts in every cupboard, and Western Style freedoms (Malwart shoppers?)
"Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers."—President Bush, remarks to 2003 Republican National Committee Presidential Gala, Oct. 8, 2003
A UN report issued last week, tells another story of course; the stories not included in General Betrayus' report.
For women, things have gotten progressively worse, they are afraid to leave their homes, they cannot be seen in public without head scarves, and they are now being punished under the archaic Islamic fundamentalist laws, that always assume women are guilty for every "dishonour" that comes past them.
The U.N. report warned of an increased rate of violence against women, particularly "honor" killings, in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. In the first half of the year, regional government statistics counted 23 women killed by "blunt objects," 195 by burning and 37 by gunfire.
There are also incidents of "Collateral damage", killings of Women and Children by US forces, like the one that occurred last Thursday.
A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday - one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.
- snip -
`After securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed''
I ask myself in these instances, how the US forces are so sure the Men were all "insurgents"? Was it the gun in their hands? The guns that are carried by many Iraqi's in an attempt to protect their families and whatever they have left?
Wrong place, wrong time?
It was certainly that for those women and children. The US Military made a trite statement with a pathetic apology.
The statement also issued regret ``that civilians are hurt or killed while Coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism.''
The War on Terra. No one gets in the way......
"One thing is for certain: There won't be any more mass graves and torture rooms and rape rooms."—Bush, press availability in Monterrey, Mexico, Jan. 12, 2004
So we know that Iraqi women are now prisoners in their own homes, prisoners of a society that is slipping back into the dark ages, and a Government that has been given the Bush seal of approval. We know that they are brutally murdered, but the Women of Iraq also have more to suffer.
Can you imagine being a mother and not being able to feed your children? Not being able to get them healthcare? (Sadly, there are many Americans who know of this too) Iraq was already hard hit by sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf war.
But for all the flowers that Bush has strewn on their path, Iraqi children are faring even worse.....From 2005:
A new report released to the UN Human Rights Commission found that malnutrition among Iraqi children under the age of 5 years have doubled to nearly 8 percent since the US invasion of Iraq as a result of lack of clean water, food, and adequate sanitation. The report is supported by previous studies of the crisis in Iraq since the Occupation.
A report from May 2007 from US-based NGO, Save the Children says that in 2005, 122,000 children died before their fifth birthday, more than half of those were newborns.
Compare that to Canada, 2004: 5.3 infant deaths per every 1,000 births.
But as we have all figured out, George Bush only cares about you before you are born. After? Your on your own.
As Terry Jones said, Let them eat bombs.
A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.
This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.
During any kind of war or occupation, the Women and the children are always the real victims.
Lastly, there is this story from Iraq, that I cannot personally ever forget. A young girl, who never reached womanhood, still a child. Another casualty of George Bush's war.
Brutally raped and murdered, while her family was executed in the next room. This is one story we know of. How many more are there that we don't?
Freedom in Iraq, it has a different meaning to the Bush admin and the corporations making a killing in more than one sense. Obviously.
Crossposted at A Creative Revolution....A Community blog for Canadian, US, and world politics.
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