Women in Iraq

Once again the administration is surprised at what is happening in Iraq. This time the Shi'ite strength and the possibility of a fundamentalist Iraq seem to be concepts not previously contemplated. (As I said a while back, is the intelligence that dreadful or are they just closed to ideas they don't like?)

Intelligently extrapolating on the fundamentalist notion, even Tom Brokaw reported this week on the possibility that women in Iraq will lose freedom under a new regime. (Hearing things on the evening news is one way I know that an idea has become an acceptable mainstream concept.)

Gretchen Cook has written a thoughtful piece for Women's eNews detailing the difference between what the administration is doing and saying. Among other indicators she points out that "the coalition-appointed legal team currently developing a new legal code for Iraq, is made up exclusively of male lawyers and judges."

In spite of protestations to the contrary, the current excuses for our invasion are sounding more and more like destroying the village in order to save it.