9 thoughts on “A picture is worth a thousand words…”
This has been an amazing day. So glad that I’ve been able to share some of this amazing history with everyone. God bless our troops. And you over there in Korea, John.
If I had to wear that thing I’d cry too. If I knew that in the first and perhaps only election my country was going to have, that my choices would result in the continued need to wear that thing, which I only had to start wearing in the past 18 months thanks to the abolishment of the previously secular society, and possibly the implementation of Sharia then I would definitely cry. There is freedom and then there is freedom. That being said, I am really pleased that the election went so well and by all accounts it went better than expected. This marks a wonderful opportunity for the Iraqis to have a stable country where people are not constantly uprising against the government as under Hussein, the quality of life can improve in terms of basic necessities like water and electricity. I am sorry for the women though. While I hope they have the same freedom they had under the B’athist government my reading of several Islamic Community Forums this morning leads me to believe that this will not be the case. Already the arguing for Sharia is beginning and Sharia reduces women to chattel-very few legal rights for women under Sharia. Well one can hope. One can also hope that this will in fact signal the beginning of the end of our occupation.
News flash Carol. Lot of women choose to wear the burka out of deeply held religious belief. If you had looked at the other pictures I linked to you would have seen women decked out in western style clothing.
Carol,
Your kidding right?
“”While I hope they have the same freedom they had under the B’athist government “”
You may need to spend less time in those lopsided Islamist/Bathist forums, and more time checking out the latest Zogby(Arab himself) poll which shows that well over 65% of all Iraqis including Shia want freedom of religion.
It’s ironic that you would be concerned about these women now, when something tells me that pre-invasion you probably thought about them with the same frequency you thought about the dust-crud in your belly button.
That picture is great on the first look, because as a U.S. citizen the first thing it brings to mind is freedom. My second thought was of the burka. She very well may have deep religious conviction. However, that conviction is that women are bad and must hide themselves so as not to tempt men. How sad. While I really, really hope that this is the beginning of a democratic and free society where these people can have what we have-I have my doubts. I am not PC and I won’t pull any punches here-their culture is very different from our own. I don’t think they would ever gotten this close to democracy without American intervention and I don’t know if they can handle it. Hell, we can barely handle it-even in America some want to enshrine in law thetheft of other’s rights or money. I believe that Iraq will fall into chaos within the next 10 years with a group like the Taliban in power. Islam is about obediance not self-reliance. I will very happily eat these words if I am wrong.
Sure I saw a few women wearing western style clothing; however, that used to be the norm not the exception. Being a woman I might be a little more hypersentsitive about the issue of women’s rights in Iraq. From a woman’s point of view Iraq was the best country in which to live in the Middle East. I am not counting Turkey in there because I never know if should be placing Turkey in the Middle East. So yes Hans operating from this point of view I was loathe to go to war in Iraq without exhausting other possibilities, which I didnt’ feel that we had done. Make no mistake though, now that we have committed ourselves to this undertakign I have no desire to leave the job half done or undone as was the case in Vietnam. Losing is not an option at this point. Unfortunately, I fear Ashley may be correct. She is definitely correct that these folks are not ready to handle democracy. They are going to requrie years of ahnd holding and we are goign to have to operate with the utmost integrity. Basically that means no lucrative oil deals or at least not exclusive lucrative oil deals. It is going to take a lot of money and we are going to be there quite a while. We are going to have to reprioritize what is important to us in America sothat we can make the sacrifices necesaary to continue this war in a manner tht is winnable. We will probably need to raise taxes and institute a draft. Of course if we do then support fo rthe war will probably bottom out. folsk will be willing to convince themselves that we did what we needed to do or else that its not worth it and abandon Iraq to fall into civil discord. Time will tell.
The Iraqi police have investigated a case in the village of al-Mudhariya, which is just south of Baghdad. The villagers there say that before the election insurgents came and warned them that if they voted in last weekend’s election, they would pay.
Now the people of this mixed village of Sunni and Shia Muslims, they ignored the threat and they did turn out to vote.
We understand that last night the insurgents came back to punish the people of al-Mudhariya, but instead of metering [sic] out that punishment the villagers fought back and they killed five of the insurgents and wounded eight. They then burnt the insurgents’ car. So the people of that village have certainly had enough of the insurgents.
This has been an amazing day. So glad that I’ve been able to share some of this amazing history with everyone. God bless our troops. And you over there in Korea, John.
If I had to wear that thing I’d cry too. If I knew that in the first and perhaps only election my country was going to have, that my choices would result in the continued need to wear that thing, which I only had to start wearing in the past 18 months thanks to the abolishment of the previously secular society, and possibly the implementation of Sharia then I would definitely cry. There is freedom and then there is freedom. That being said, I am really pleased that the election went so well and by all accounts it went better than expected. This marks a wonderful opportunity for the Iraqis to have a stable country where people are not constantly uprising against the government as under Hussein, the quality of life can improve in terms of basic necessities like water and electricity. I am sorry for the women though. While I hope they have the same freedom they had under the B’athist government my reading of several Islamic Community Forums this morning leads me to believe that this will not be the case. Already the arguing for Sharia is beginning and Sharia reduces women to chattel-very few legal rights for women under Sharia. Well one can hope. One can also hope that this will in fact signal the beginning of the end of our occupation.
News flash Carol. Lot of women choose to wear the burka out of deeply held religious belief. If you had looked at the other pictures I linked to you would have seen women decked out in western style clothing.
Carol,
Your kidding right?
“”While I hope they have the same freedom they had under the B’athist government “”
You may need to spend less time in those lopsided Islamist/Bathist forums, and more time checking out the latest Zogby(Arab himself) poll which shows that well over 65% of all Iraqis including Shia want freedom of religion.
It’s ironic that you would be concerned about these women now, when something tells me that pre-invasion you probably thought about them with the same frequency you thought about the dust-crud in your belly button.
That picture is great on the first look, because as a U.S. citizen the first thing it brings to mind is freedom. My second thought was of the burka. She very well may have deep religious conviction. However, that conviction is that women are bad and must hide themselves so as not to tempt men. How sad. While I really, really hope that this is the beginning of a democratic and free society where these people can have what we have-I have my doubts. I am not PC and I won’t pull any punches here-their culture is very different from our own. I don’t think they would ever gotten this close to democracy without American intervention and I don’t know if they can handle it. Hell, we can barely handle it-even in America some want to enshrine in law thetheft of other’s rights or money. I believe that Iraq will fall into chaos within the next 10 years with a group like the Taliban in power. Islam is about obediance not self-reliance. I will very happily eat these words if I am wrong.
Sure I saw a few women wearing western style clothing; however, that used to be the norm not the exception. Being a woman I might be a little more hypersentsitive about the issue of women’s rights in Iraq. From a woman’s point of view Iraq was the best country in which to live in the Middle East. I am not counting Turkey in there because I never know if should be placing Turkey in the Middle East. So yes Hans operating from this point of view I was loathe to go to war in Iraq without exhausting other possibilities, which I didnt’ feel that we had done. Make no mistake though, now that we have committed ourselves to this undertakign I have no desire to leave the job half done or undone as was the case in Vietnam. Losing is not an option at this point. Unfortunately, I fear Ashley may be correct. She is definitely correct that these folks are not ready to handle democracy. They are going to requrie years of ahnd holding and we are goign to have to operate with the utmost integrity. Basically that means no lucrative oil deals or at least not exclusive lucrative oil deals. It is going to take a lot of money and we are going to be there quite a while. We are going to have to reprioritize what is important to us in America sothat we can make the sacrifices necesaary to continue this war in a manner tht is winnable. We will probably need to raise taxes and institute a draft. Of course if we do then support fo rthe war will probably bottom out. folsk will be willing to convince themselves that we did what we needed to do or else that its not worth it and abandon Iraq to fall into civil discord. Time will tell.
Update: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6913272/
Just as I feared.
Ashley, just as I had hoped:
The Iraqi police have investigated a case in the village of al-Mudhariya, which is just south of Baghdad. The villagers there say that before the election insurgents came and warned them that if they voted in last weekend’s election, they would pay.
Now the people of this mixed village of Sunni and Shia Muslims, they ignored the threat and they did turn out to vote.
We understand that last night the insurgents came back to punish the people of al-Mudhariya, but instead of metering [sic] out that punishment the villagers fought back and they killed five of the insurgents and wounded eight. They then burnt the insurgents’ car. So the people of that village have certainly had enough of the insurgents.
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