Ollie North’s Delusional Take on the Liberation of Women in Iraq
We heart Christine over at Our Bodies Our Blog for this one:
“Liberating Iraqi Women: Andrea Lynch at RH Reality Check has a great post on an article penned by “veteran feminist Lt. Col. Oliver North,” who argues that “if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were really interested in promoting women’s rights, she would be vigorously promoting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, since ‘the principal protectors of Muslim women today [are] the Armed Forces of the United States.’”
North asserts: “Thanks to young Americans wearing flak jackets and helmets, hundreds of schools have been built for Muslim girls, millions of women have the right to vote, scores of female health care clinics have been opened, and hundreds of thousands of women now work, have their own bank accounts, use cell-phones — even serve in elected office.” But this New York Times story paints a less-rosy picture.”
Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities
The most interesting this about this statement by Ollie North is the total disregard of the history of the women he is speaking about. I know an Iraqi woman who was very vocal in the struggle for human and women rights in US supported Saddma era Iraq. She eventually had to leave Iraq over threats from Saddam. She spoke of how far the women had come in Iraq and how much has been reversed by the current occupation and previous invasion. This blatent idiotic nationalism and disrespect of Iraqis and the women of Iraq (and the US) by these type of comments only serves to further fuel the fires of Iraq. If anything, US troops leaving will only help the situation, as many Iraqi women have already said. Is Ollie listening or is he only interested in telling them how good they have it?