Reason #5930 for the invasion of Iraq, liberating Iraqi women, has been thoroughly debunked.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.
The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.
"Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."
Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs....
"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."
That pretty much redefines freedom and democracy in Bushspeak. It means freedom for private contractors to exploit this war for every dime they can get. I'm not sure where the democracy fits into the picture, but it pretty much means fear and horror for everyone else involved who isn't a profiteer. Which Saint McCain thinks is just hunky-dory.
(H/T Crooks and Liars)