Tuesday, July 19, 2005
No,no, Comrades...what our President really said was that he'd fire anyone guilty of a CRIME
cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail ...
Professor Juan Cole comments satirically:
"You can only imagine the 2006 newspaper headline: "Bush Pledges to Fire anyone Proven Guilty of Genocide."
Meanwhile, following the takeover and destruction that was justified in part by the nonsense Valerie Plame's husband had the temerity to reveal, Iraq looks closer than ever to the bloodiest of civil wars. The innocent - men, women, children, babies - are caught up in horrors that I can't really begin to imagine. It is there at the back of my mind all the time, however. I can't turn away from it entirely. That is why I go on writing - and reading. Hour after hour. If only it did some good...
I read this morning that "Just as Iraqi women were anticipating a new era of democracy and freedom, a wave of intimidation by extremist groups has arisen to crush their hopes."
Women in Iraq are suffering in ways that they were spared even in the days of Saddam Hussein. As this report from
opendemocracy.net shows, "there is silence from world leaders, religious leaders, politicians and the media."
With regard to the Karl Rove leak scandal, President Bush promised to fire anyone with responsibility for the leak of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame's name.
He now says that he would only fire the person if they were shown to be guilty of a crime.
Boston.com
- "....Bush, asked directly in June 2004 if he would dismiss someone who leaked the agent's name, responded: ''Yes." But yesterday, as the drama over Rove's possible involvement escalated, he seemed to subtly alter the standard for ousting the friend and longtime adviser who masterminded his two winning presidential campaigns."
Professor Juan Cole comments satirically:
"You can only imagine the 2006 newspaper headline: "Bush Pledges to Fire anyone Proven Guilty of Genocide."
Meanwhile, following the takeover and destruction that was justified in part by the nonsense Valerie Plame's husband had the temerity to reveal, Iraq looks closer than ever to the bloodiest of civil wars. The innocent - men, women, children, babies - are caught up in horrors that I can't really begin to imagine. It is there at the back of my mind all the time, however. I can't turn away from it entirely. That is why I go on writing - and reading. Hour after hour. If only it did some good...
I read this morning that "Just as Iraqi women were anticipating a new era of democracy and freedom, a wave of intimidation by extremist groups has arisen to crush their hopes."
Women in Iraq are suffering in ways that they were spared even in the days of Saddam Hussein. As this report from
opendemocracy.net shows, "there is silence from world leaders, religious leaders, politicians and the media."
- "....Violent oppression of women is spreading across Iraq, a weapon of mass mental and physical destruction. And yet there is silence from world leaders, religious leaders, politicians and the media.
Insurgents and religious extremists use rape, acid and assassination to force Iraqi women to wear the veil – the symbol of submission, first signal of further repression to come. Many Iraqi women have never worn the scarf. Now, dead bodies of girls and women are found in rivers and on waste ground with a veil tied around the head, as a message...
.... In 1948, Iraq had been one of the first countries in the middle east to have a woman judge; in 1959, Nazila al-Dulaima (of the Iraqi Communist party) became one of the first female government ministers in the Arabian peninsula. Even under Saddam’s regime, women were free to choose whether to wear western-style dress and make-up or the black abaya. Many wore western dress in their jobs for government departments and in schools and universities. Indeed, when the Ba’ath Party took control in 1968, one of its proclaimed goals was equality of men and women."
