Myrtus

So who exactly wants the US military out of Iraq?

Well, the Iraqi Kurds certainly don't and neither does the Iraqi government it seems like. 

Let's see what the KRG's Prime Minister has to say about this.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)

We Kurds understand and share America's frustration with the pace of political progress in Iraq. We are doing all we can to create security, stability and prosperity. While progress has not come fast enough, Iraq remains a worthy cause.

As Americans debate the future of the US role in Iraq, allow me to say that America's mission remains vital to the stability and security of our region. A precipitous withdrawal of US forces could be calamitous. We welcome a US presence in the Kurdistan Region as part of any redeployment of forces.

The Kurdish people of Iraq suffered under Saddam Hussein. And we fought and died alongside Americans to liberate our country. There is no ambiguity about the depth of gratitude that Kurds feel for America's sacrifices in Iraq. Americans who have been killed or wounded in Iraq are heroes to me and to all of Iraq's Kurds. We will never forget what you have done for us.

Well, whatever the case may be, it sounds like the Iraqi Kurds are succeeding where most of their neighbors have failed.....building a democracy that works, slowly but surely.

For a closer view from within the region, please go visit the very fine blog of my fellow compatriot Ahmed T.

Al-Sadr's Militia's War Against Women

It is despicable to abuse and/or murder women for not doing what they are told. (How sad that I actually need to state the obvious.) Although it goes generally unspoken, the fact of the matter is that women are by far the largest victims of hate crimes across the globe. We see brutality against women and girls occur for so many reasons ... and I don't see why it is still relatively tolerated in a cross-section of societies, whether through silence or even outward support.

For whatever it's worth, you may be interested to know that Abby Ferber from the University of Colorado, has written a book called, Homegrown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism, in which she demonstrates that male anxiety toward women drive racist and bigoted tendencies. It's a rather interesting concept. I don't want to do her research misjustice by boiling it down to a cheap soundbyte, but essentially she stipulates that anxiety towards women creates internal hostilities in some men, which come out against "the other," in dysfunctional ways. Read it yourself and make up your own mind.

This latest stint comes from Irin News:

Residents of a western Baghdad neighbourhood have said militant groups in the area are hunting down women and killing them, and have appealed to parliament to do something, a member of parliament (MP) said on 22 April.

"Over the past six months 15 women were killed in al-Salam neighbourhood for religious reasons or because they had criticised the militants, or because of their previous affiliation to the Baath Party [disbanded party of ousted President Saddam Hussein]," MP Safia al-Suhail told IRIN.

Al-Suhail, who is also a woman activist, said the latest incident occurred in the past 10 days when gunmen shot dead a woman in front of her house because she had criticised the militants.

The next day, when her husband erected a huge tent near his house to receive mourners, the gunmen ordered the husband not to hold funeral rites, and torched the tent, al-Suhail said.

Yeah, there's more to the story. Read it here.

Iraqi Policewomen Armed Again

 

If Iraq has any hope of democratizing, they will have to allow equal access for women into all of their governmental institutions. And although it's true, their outfits aren't conducive to policework, at least progress is being made.

From the Los Angeles Times:

BAGHDAD -- Police officials said today they had rescinded an order requiring all policewomen to turn in their weapons that had angered women's activists and U.S. officials trying to bring females into the security forces.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, said the order was revoked after objections were raised both within the ministry and from outside. A memo dated Jan. 17 said the ministry had "reconsidered" and "decided to return all the pistols" to the policewomen.

Col. Saddoun Abulollah said few policewomen had abided by the order in the first place, but that all who did had their weapons given back to them. He described their number as "a handful" of the roughly 1,000 women who have qualified as policewomen since U.S. forces introduced female recruitment efforts in late 2003.

Despite the revocation of the original order, there is no guarantee the women will be able to overcome the hurdles facing them in the police force, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who has led the effort to recruit female officers. Phillips, who oversees the U.S. program to assist in training, equipping and developing the Iraqi police, had blamed the original order on the growing influence of religious conservatives in Iraq.

"In my two-plus years in Iraq, I have never seen any of the over 1,000-plus female Iraqi police performing law enforcement duty," he said today in an e-mail. "They are relegated to administrative roles and used as searchers of other females" entering government or other protected buildings.

Phillips has said that many of the women he recruited and guided through the police academy had come to him after being hired at the Interior Ministry, complaining that they were being prevented from working as police officers. Now, Phillips said he believes "only a portion" of the original female recruits still are employed at the ministry.

The ministry said it does not have the number because it does not categorize its police officers by gender.

Critics of the original move had noted that it came at a time of heightened threats from female suicide bombers, who normally would be searched by female officers but who could pass through checkpoints undetected if there were no women officers deployed to frisk them.