Yeah, Saddam killed thousands of his own every year, then the US by aggression killed over 15,000 more - innocent women and children. We had god's blessing.
Reporter's Notebook: Path of Afghan Women
Friday, March 11, 2005
By Scott Heidler
PHOTOS
Reporter's Notebook: Slice of Home in AfghanistanReporter's Notebook: Afghan Air Disaster ?- Not If, But WhenReporter's Notebook: Afghan Waiting GameReporter's Notebook: Afghans Look ForwardReporter's Notebook: Ballots, Bullets, Barflies
KABUL, Afghanistan ?- Debbie Rodriguez's "girls" are at the forefront of an Afghan cultural change, one where women play a stronger role in this nation's economic fabric.
This week, as many in the world reflected on the achievements made by women around the globe, Rodriguez's beauty students kept their expectations low.
Tuesday was International Women's Day, meant to be "a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements" of women. Celebrations in Afghanistan were muted.
The beauty profession is one of the best ways for women in Kabul to earn a living. Rodriguez, who came to Afghanistan from Michigan three years ago as an aid worker, is teaching them the trade, as well as and small-business basics.
Most of the women who graduate from her Kabul Beauty School go on to become the main breadwinners of their households.
I recently did a story for FOX News about the school, and this week took my computer to Rodriguez and her students to show it to them.
They watched from swivel salon chairs and giggled when they saw their faces on the screen. There was a feeling of hope, but like the many women I have interviewed, they agree there is still territory to cover.
"The women still have a long, long way to go. It's like every step they take forward, men are pulling them six steps back, " Rodriguez said. "Some of the girls who work here dress modern, but have to cover up when they leave, because they are scared what men will do if they see them. God forbid one of her neighbors sees her."
Over the last year and a half, I have interviewed nearly 50 women in and around Kabul on their lives in this nation struggling to shed the shadow of an abusive Taliban government.
I have talked to housewives, teachers, soldiers, actresses, politicians, TV video jockeys, journalists and road workers. All of them have amazing stories of triumph, some big, some small. Here are just two examples:
?- One woman escaped an abusive life from her husband's family. Just after her wedding, they pinned her down to tattoo her face with tribal markings. She was forced into the marriage and is deaf and can't speak, but with the help of her father, she's now fighting for a divorce and against the oppressive social norm of forced marriages.
?- One grade-school teacher does not make her four daughters do housework, because she wants them to spend every free moment studying or reading. Two of the four, one an aspiring photojournalist and the other a writer, are trying to go to the West for school.
These are the people who are shifting the paradigm for women in Afghanistan.
As Massuda Jalal, a former presidential candidate and the current minister of women's affairs, told me, "There are mountains of duties that still need to be done in the rural areas of this county. Most of the achievements so far have been in urban areas with educated women."
For progress to truly take hold, major change needs to take place.
According to Suraya Parlika, executive director of the All Afghan Women's Union , the women of this country are working hard on that change. The high hurdle will be to get Afghan men to see women as active participants in the country.
"Right now we have three women in cabinet positions," Parlika said. "Forty-one percent of those who voted in the in the presidential elections were women, and we only have three women in the cabinet representing them. But these appointments were just symbolic and not based on a systematic selection."
Women here have to worry about both young men acting with blind bravado, swerving on the road to hit puddles and splash girls for kicks, and ancient cultural norms, such as honor killing and forced marriage.
A milestone was reached this week as the first-ever woman provincial governor took her post. Habiba Sorabi (search), a former Minister of Women's Affairs, was appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to be the governor of the central province of Bamiyan.
Sorabi admits that in Afghan society, implementing change is the big task at hand.
"There are equal rights for women on paper. The challenge is to put those into action," she said.
For women of Afghanistan to rise above second-class status, experts and average women agree that education will be the key.
It's a two-step process: first, teaching women of this country about their rights in the new constitution, and second, educating Afghan men that if they continue to prevent women from becoming a true part of society, they are cutting the potential of this country in half.
ican711nm wrote:Do any of you believe that al Qaeda did not reconstitute its base in northern Iraq in 2001?
<hand in the air>
haven't seen any proof, ican....
Maybe you can provide...
cicerone imposter wrote:Did you also know that Bush at the 2001 SOTU address told us he would reduce the national debt? He probably didn't know that was a lie either, so it's okay to mouth it to the country. He's now claiming the national debt will be reduced in half by 2009. Isn't that two years after his current term in office?
Fraud and incompetence are two different things. Knowing the truth and saying otherwise is fraud. Not knowing the truth is incompetence.
Do any of you have evidence that when President Bush stated Saddam's regime possessed ready-to-use WMD that he knew that Saddam's regime did not possess WMD?
I think your answers are no!
Do any of you have evidence that President Bush is incompetent?
President Bush
is not now claiming the
national debt will be reduced in half by 2009. He
is now claiming the
national annual budget deficit will be reduced in half by 2009. He knows or ought to know that the adoption of his tax reduction bill has resulted in a growing economy, that has in turn resulted in increased annual tax revenue, such that current annual tax revenue now exceeds what it was prior to his tax reduction.
Note: The
national debt and a
national annual budget deficit are not the same things. A
national annual budget deficit increases the
national debt. The
national debt is the sum of past
national annual budget deficits minus the sum of past
national annual budget surpluses.
cicerone imposter wrote:Yeah, Saddam killed thousands of his own every year, then the US by aggression killed over 15,000 more - innocent women and children. We had god's blessing.
You'll have to repeat that 15,000 post a lot more times than that to catch up to Saddam's treachery, CI... but I'm sure you'll manage.
ican711nm wrote:Do any of you have evidence that when President Bush stated Saddam's regime possessed ready-to-use WMD that he knew that Saddam's regime did not possess WMD?
Well... remember what Powell said in Cairo on 24 February 2001
Quote:We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...
You mean to imply that there's a difference between what other tyrants do to kill their citizens vs what the US does to kill innocents? I miss the logic of that one, so please enlighten me. And PLEASE don't say we attacked Iraq for the Iraqi people.
old europe wrote:ican711nm wrote:Do any of you believe that al Qaeda did not reconstitute its base in northern Iraq in 2001?
<hand in the air>
haven't seen any proof, ican....
Maybe you can provide...
I haven't seen any
proof either. I have seen some
evidence.
For example:
General Tommy Franks in "American Soldier," 7/1/2004, alleged the following:
1. In 2003, the US attacked and defeated the AaI al Qaeda in northern Iraq; page 483.
EVIDENCE RELATED TO OTHER QUESTIONS
2. Over 1,000 weapons and munitions dumps, some containing very high explosive materials, were found scattered throughout Iraq by the US in 2003 and 2004; page 522.
3. Thousands of buried, murdered Iraqi citizens were discovered throughout Iraq by the US in 2003 and 2004; page 543.
www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_Report_Key_Findings.pdf Charles Duelfer's Report, 9/30/2004, alleged that Saddam Hussein intends to redevelop and reassemble WMD when UN sanctions on Iraq are lifted and/or become sufficiently ignored.
www.9-11commission.gov/report/index.htm The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Report, i.e., The 9-11 Commission Report, 8/21/2004, alleged the following:
1. Osama bin Laden in 1998 declared war on both civilian and military Americans with the objective of killing all of them wherever they be found;
2. President George Bush on 9/11/2001 declared to the National Security Council the United States would not just punish the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Americans but also those who harbored them;
3. President Bush declared to the nation on TV the night of 9/11/2001 that we would make no distinction between the terrorists who committed terrorism against Americans and those who harbor them.
4. President Bush declared to Congress and to the nation on TV the night of 9/20/2001 that our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them… Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but does not end there … Our war on terror will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.
5. The al Qaeda are a confederation of multiple terrorist groups led by Osama bin Laden.
6. Osama bin Laden aided a group of Islamic extremists encamped in northern Iraq.
7. The Al Qaeda encamped in northern Iraq, suffered major defeats by Kurdish Forces in the late 1990s.
8. In 2001, the Al Qaeda remnant in northern Iraq, with Osama bin Laden’s help, re-formed into an organization called Ansar al Islam (AaI).
3/10/2005: Pakistan Admits Khan Helped Iran
If you've been paying attention to the news of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and his Islamic nuclear black market, you're already aware of the numerous connections between Khan and the mullahs of Iran; but today Pakistan openly (and somewhat belligerently) admitted that Khan supplied Iran with centrifuges for enriching uranium. (Hat tip: warbicycle.)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Mar 10, 2005 ?-After years of denials, Pakistan admitted Thursday that its top nuclear scientist sold crucial equipment to Iran, but said it knew nothing of his activities when they occurred and insisted he will not be turned over to another country for prosecution.
The admission by the Pakistani information minister was the first public acknowledgment that Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran's secret nuclear program with centrifuges, a crucial component needed to enrich uranium and produce nuclear material for warheads.
"Dr. Abdul Qadeer gave some centrifuges to Iran," the minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He helped Iran in his personal capacity, and the Pakistan government had nothing to do with it."
Ahmed initially made the admission at a seminar in Islamabad organized by a local newspaper group, in which he stuck by Pakistan's insistence that Khan would never be handed over to a third country for prosecution. The scientist is considered a hero by his countrymen for nearly single-handedly producing atomic bombs for Pakistan to counter rival India's nuclear arsenal.
"I support the idea that the government should tell the people about these sensitive matters," Ahmed said at the seminar, according to an audiotape obtained by the AP. "I am not a spokesman for a cowardly nation. Yes, we supplied Iran the centrifuge system. Yes, Dr. Qadeer gave Iran this technology. But we are not going to hand over Dr. Qadeer to anyone. We will not."
It's well known that Saddam had WMD pre-91, RR...
ican711nm wrote:6. Osama bin Laden aided a group of Islamic extremists encamped in northern Iraq.
7. The Al Qaeda encamped in northern Iraq, suffered major defeats by Kurdish Forces in the late 1990s.
8. In 2001, the Al Qaeda remnant in northern Iraq, with Osama bin Laden's help, re-formed into an organization called Ansar al Islam (AaI).
Haven't seen proof for that, neither.
Have you read anything about Kerkar at all, ican?
Gelisgesti wrote:Quote:Just Another Bush Lie?
Saddam's Capture
By MIKE WHITNEY
The account of American troops capturing Saddam and pulling him from his subterranean hovel has turned out to be just another Bush lie.
Sergeant Nadim Abou Rabeh, who participated in the operation that netted Saddam, was quoted in the Saudi newspaper "Al-Medina" saying that the Iraqi leader was actually captured the day before and that "the public version of his capture was fabricated." The entire event was apparently choreographed by a Pentagon public relations team.
"I was among the 20 man unitwho searched for Saddam for 3 days in the area of Dour near Tikrit, and we found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced," Rabeh admitted. (UPI )
"Not in a hole"? You mean Saddam actually stood up and faced American Marines?
"WE CAPTURED HIM AFTER FIECE RESISTANCE DURING WHICH A MARINE OF SUDANESE ORGIN WAS KILLED," he said.
Uh, oh. This could be trouble. After all, the American version presented Saddam as trembling coward cringing in his spider-hole afraid to face the American warriors. Now, Rabeh is saying that he stood and fought "like a man". This is not the image that the Washington spin-meisters wanted to convey. They wanted to humiliate the deposed tyrant by showing him recoiling from the American ubermenschen. That way they could show the virtuousness of the invasion and bolster the importance of the White House chicken-hawks who follow the campaign from their bunkers on the Potomac.
Unfortunately, the entire story turned out to be bogus. Saddam may be a genocidal maniac, but anyone who knows the details of his personal history, knows he's no coward. He scaled the ranks of the Ba'ath party through audacity, coercion and treachery. No one gets to the top spot on the Ba'ath food chain through squeamishness. The portrayal of Saddam as disoriented and fearful is pure performance-art; just like the suggestion that he was living underground is probably just a sham. (That part always seemed fishy) Most likely, he was drugged and dumped in the "spider-hole" to meet the requirements of (Bush's) Hollywood production team. In fact, members of the Kurdish Peshmerga, who were operating in the vicinity at the time, disputed the administration's sketchy narrative from the get-go. Their story was much more consistent with Sergeant Rabeh's.
So, we can add another fairytale to the Bush chronicle of deception. The Saddam capture will feature prominently along with the other wartime fictions like Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch, the phantom WMDs, and the toppling of Saddam's statue in Fidros Square. Every one of these was skillfully fashioned by a Bush PR team trying to maximize public approval by creating a storybook narrative. It's 100% baloney.
The whole incident smacks of Rumsfeld's "Strategic Information" program; a new department entirely devoted to stage-managing events like Saddam's arrest. Apparently, the War Dept wants to downplay the daily carnage by orchestrating phony "docu-dramas" for the folks at home. Well, they'd better turn it up a notch. Bush's clumsy vaudeville may be designed to draw more support for the war, but box-office flops like this can really take a chunk out of one's credibility.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at:
[email protected]
Paranoia runs deep in Liberaland...
I think it is too soon to dismiss the story and also too soon to say it is true unless confirmed by more information from other sources.
It is interesting though.
What puzzles me is how some people can swallow propaganda hook line and sinker time after time. Even when it is clear they've been lied to, they come back for more, eager to believe.
They must be either psychotic, unable to distinguish between fact and fantasy, or lazy in not bothering to think.
Or it could be that they know exactly what they are doing. They might be involved in the production or dissemination of propaganda. Or as ordinary citizen, they feel somehow they have a duty to demonstrate belief, not believing or even scepticism being equated with disloyalty.
