The Myths & Facts According To Juan Cole

Flopping Aces ^ | 12-26-07 | Curt

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Juan Cole has written a embarrassing post which just proves to me that liberals are so invested in the defeat of our country that they will ignore reality and instead pawn off myths as some kind of facts, and facts as myths. 

This time he lists the "top 10 myths" about Iraq.  Some of his doozies are that there really is no reconciliation going on in Iraq between the rival factions.  Of course this ignores recent studies that show a majority of Sunni's and Shia describing themselves as Iraqi's above all else and almost no one inside Iraq believe separating Iraq would be a good thing:

Sixty-two per cent of Iraqis still say Iraq should have a unified central government, and 98% say it would be a bad thing for the country to separate along sectarian lines.

Cole argues that attacks against civilians still continue, which should shock no one since attacks against civilians inside our own country still continue, and will continue to the end of our days.  Unfortunately a utopia has yet to be found.  Hell, in New York state (population 20 million) there were close to 1,000 murders in 2006 and 84,000 violent attacks. 

Fact: in the past 6 weeks, there have been an average of 600 attacks a month, or 20 a day, which has held steady since the beginning of November. About 600 civilians are being killed in direct political violence per month, but that number excludes deaths of soldiers and police. Across the board, Iraqis believe that their conflicts are mainly caused by the US military presence and they are eager for it to end.

Of course they are eager for us to leave.  We are eager to leave.  But they also recognize that we must stay until they can deal with the security situation themselves  Pointing out that Iraqi's want us to finish the job and leave proves nothing whatsoever.  It's common sense. 

One of his more idiotic "facts":

6. Myth: The US overthrow of the Baath regime and military occupation of Iraq has helped liberate Iraqi women. Fact: Iraqi women have suffered significant reversals of status, ability to circulate freely, and economic situation under the Bush administration.

According to the article he links to women have it worse off because of their men are being killed off and because the ability to move about freely is hindered due to the violence that is raging. 

Nevermind that the violence described had dissipated immensely.

Nevermind that Juan ignores other studies that show it was much worse for Iraqi women before we got there including the fact that by 2000 less then 25% of Iraqi women were literate:

Women and girls have also suffered from increasing restrictions on their freedom of mobility and protections under the law.  In collusion with conservative religious groups and tribal leaders, the government issued numerous decrees and introduced legislation negatively impacting women's legal status in the labor code, criminal justice system, and personal status laws. In 2001, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Violence against Women reported that since the passage of the reforms in 1991, an estimated 4,000 women and girls had been victims of "honor killings."

~~~

In 1998, the government reportedly dismissed all females working as secretaries in governmental agencies.30 In June 2000, it also reportedly enacted a law requiring all state ministries to put restrictions on women working outside the home. Women's freedom to travel abroad was also legally restricted and formerly co-educational high schools were required by law to provide single-sex education only, further reflecting the reversion to religious and tribal traditions.  As a result of these combined forces, by the last years of Saddam Hussein's government the majority of women and girls had been relegated to traditional roles within the home.

Dr. Sanity notes a fact overlooked by Juan:

Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of "Fedayeen Saddam," the paramilitary organization led by Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, have beheaded in public more than 200 women throughout the country, dumping their severed heads at their families' doorsteps. Many families have been required to display the victim's head on their outside fences for several days. These barbaric acts were carried out in the total absence of any proper judicial procedures and many of the victims were not engaged in prostitution, but were targeted for political reasons. For example, Najat Mohammad Haydar, an obstetrician in Baghdad, was beheaded after criticizing the corruption within health services. (Amnesty International Report, Iraq: Systematic Torture of Political Prisoners, August 2001; Iraqi Women's League in Damascus, Syria)

In fact I would suggest an excellent book for Juan to peruse

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6. Myth: The US overthrow of the Baath regime and military occupation of Iraq has helped liberate Iraqi women. Fact: Iraqi women have suffered significant reversals of status, ability to circulate freely, and economic situation under the Bush administration.

Uday's rape rooms are out of service. There are no prisoners' pregnant wives being disemboweled in front of prisoners to make them talk (or alternately as punishment).