Bob Johnson for Congress - Let's Try FREEDOM!
Girls have been going to school in Iraq FOR SOME TIME - did you mean AFGHANISTAN?
In a speech he gave in February of 2004, Sam Johnson seems to imply that the status of women is being made better off now that we're in Iraq: "HIDING IN A HOLE – CAPTURED ON TV - FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE HIM AS HE REALLY IS – A COWARD. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES, GIRLS WOULD GO TO SCHOOL, PEOPLE WOULD BE ABLE TO READ WHAT THEY WANTED AND DO WHAT THEY WANTED." This is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what's gone on, and was predictable. The Baathist state of Iraq under Saddam was a highly secular state as is currently true of the Baathist state of Syria. Women had much the same rights as men in the sense that their husbands couldn't simply beat them without legal recourse. Girls have ALWAYS been educated in Iraq. The premier scientist in the 'deck of 50 most wanted cards' concerning Saddam Hussein's regime was a woman. It is in the religious, anti-secular societies of Iran and especially formerly under the Taliban in Afghanistan where the status of women was highly restricted. It's obvious from the context, unfortunately, that he 'really was' talking about Iraq. Was he having a lapse and thinking about Afghanistan? Certainly there, women had ZERO rights and our invasion there allowed girls to go to school for the first time in almost a decade. Thus, Afghanistan, we not only had every right to invade (because the Taliban hosted the Al Qaeda murderers who did the 9/11 tragedy) but also because of their grotesque oppression of half their humans. However, with Iraq, we not only had no right to invade in our own interest, but women's status under the new Shia-dominated government is likely to be worse. What we'll have is girls still being allowed to go to school as was the case under Saddam, but when they grow up, they can be beaten by their husbands or murdered in honor killings. Why doesn't Sam GET this? This wasn't a state secret in 2004, and it was no secret that a fair election would give us a Shia-dominated government similar to the one in Iran, where there is also a Shia majority. So perhaps Sam Johnson was thinking of Afghanistan. Or perhaps he really is that stupid and/or ignorant. Or perhaps he thinks WE'RE that stupid and/or ignorant. Or perhaps he was misquoted - though I doubt it.