Sunday, July 01, 2012

Hejira

W.G. Dunlop (AFP) reports, "Iraqi women face court-ordered virginity tests that often show they were virgins until marriage but shame them nonetheless, doctors at an institute that carries out the tests and a lawyer said."  You read that correctly: Court-ordered virginity tests.

At what point does the US government start taking responsibility for the hell they created for Iraqi women?

Not just with the Iraq War.  It was an illegal war.  It never should have happened.  But had the bombings and shootings and counter-insurgency ended instead of been integrated into the occupation (the ongoing occupation) Iraqi women might have stood a chance.  Instead it was install fundamentalist thugs who would scare the Iraqi people into submission while the US government could pursue the greed and desire for control.  And that didn't end with Bully Boy Bush. 

In 2010, Iraq could have been so different.  The Iraqi people said no the terror tactics Nouri al-Maliki used in the campaign and in spite of violence and other road blocks turned out to vote in the parliamentary elections and Nouri didn't win.  Bush wasn't in the White House then, Barack Obama was.  It was his decision to back Nouri over the will of the Iraqi people and it was his decision to sell the other political blocs on the Erbil Agreement which gave Nouri a second term as prime minister.  And the decision of Barack's not to enforce the Erbil Agreement after Nouri got his second term.

So stop blaming Bush for everything.  George W. Bush's rap sheet is lengthy enough, filled with crimes.  Don't risk losing the jury of public opinion on that by tacking Barack's crimes onto those Bush committed. 

There's a reason a number of Americans have advocated for the US to name a woman as Ambassador to Iraq.  It has to do with the message it would send.  Granted, at this late date -- three nominees -- all men -- two confirmed and one withdrawan -- Barack finally getting off his ass and nominating a woman would hardly have the impact it would have in 2009 or 2010.  But it might mean something.  And it could have meant something if he'd done it in 2009.

The end of 2010 and the start of 2011 saw some elements of Iraq try to get a female vice president.  This was in addition to the two men who already held the post.  They were going to have three vice presidents.  The argument against the woman was that Iraq didn't need three vice presidents.  But, of course, once the push for the woman ceased, Iraq ended up naming three vice presidents and they were all men.  (It's dropped back down to two due to a resignation in May of 2011.)

Where are the female ambassadors from Iraq?

Can't really complain to loudly about the lack of them when the US has had six US Ambassador to Iraq since the start of the Iraq War.  All have been men:



James Jeffrey
Chris Hill
Ryan Crocker
Zalmay Khalilzad
John Negroponte
Paul Bremer


Some don't consider 'viceroy' Bremer to have been an ambassador, some do. We will.  Six men and Brett McGurk nominated but nomination withdrawn.  In what modern world does that make sense?

None of the men, including McGurk, were known for their efforts on behalf of women.

Barack Obama didn't change a damn thing.  He rode the world to success with the world as it was and he'll leave it as it is.  No lives have been improved by his actions or policies.  He's done nothing for women which isn't surprising.  You don't run the sexist campaign he did in 2008 if you give a damn about women.  In 2008, you don't refuse to pick Hillary Clinton as your running mate if you give a damn about women.  You don't reward your staff for sexist comments and actions if you give a damn about women.  You don't play all male golf games and basketball games after you enter the White House if you give a damn about women.

He's never given a damn about women and he's like George McGovern in that regard -- flocked by a bunch of overgrown girls who protect him from the needed criticism he should be receiving.  And it's the same crowd that protected McGovern for the most part.  And it's women, if you didn't catch that.  It's women hurting women's interest in order to soothe the brow of some man.

Molly Yard may have been the last feminist leader we had who put women first.  These days it's all about supporting the male politician.

Picute an office where a prince works at a job he can't handle.  And all the women under him spend forever propping him up and soothing him.  And when he's finally out of the job because he's retired or fired, a man is installed.  Why?  Because women spent all their time -- wasted all their time -- propping up a man. 

Remember that when you look at the low number of women in the House and Senate still.  Remember that as the US continues to elect men as president but not women. 

Sexism exists and it is very real and it is very dangerous.

But don't fail to factor in the 'leaders' who refuse to lead as they instead rush to turn themselves into handmaidens for the figure head of the patriarchy.



I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US military people killed in the Iraq War stands at  4488.  Bushra Juhi (AP) reports 3 Tikrit bombings left 1 person dead and two more injured and, Saturday night for the rest, 1 Samarra suicide car bombing and 3 roadside bombings at a security checkpoint claimed the lives of 3 police officers while, in Mosul, a judge was shot dead.


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