[quote=Zeitgeist]I am very concerned about the rights of all Americans and how they are being rapidly eroded by this power grab in the name of emergency. Check out some of the postings on “The Big Takeover”. The links are a real eye opener. I have always been a huge supporter of women’s rights, especially the ones in Iraq who now are voting. Bush was widely maligned and yet in essence he freed an entire generation of women from an oppressive government.[/quote]
Actually, in Iraq, women were in a better situation (largely) under Hussein. The same can be said for religious minorities. In much of Iraq now (especially the Shia south), there’s been a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism (that Hussein, being a secular Sunni, largely kept tamped down). It’s not as bad as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan was (and still is in many places), but it’s definitely placing women in second class status. Iraqis may technically be freer – but that also means they are freer to choose to live under severe Islamic laws which treat women as second class citizens. The fact that in many areas the local militias wield as much power as the local governments doesn’t help much.
Now Afghanistan is better than it was – if only because it couldn’t have been worse than it was. Unfortunately, it’s trending back towards Taliban fundamentalism in much of Afghanistan, at least for the moment. We took our eye off the ball there in order to concentrate on Iraq.
