Now who are you going to believe

A guy who has been on vacation for almost one out of five years and admits he doesn't read or the current and historical evidence that women under Shariah law have virtually no rights. Before we "liberated" the country from a despot, the Iraqi women had the most democratic rights in the Middle East. They could hold jobs not just medical or for religious reasons, but dress the way they wanted, drive, vote and had some measure of protection in the courts. Now it is beginning to look like a totally different story.

Secular Iraqis Say New Charter May Curb Rights - New York Times: "President Bush, in an appearance in Idaho on Tuesday, asserted that the Iraqi document guaranteed women's rights and the freedom of religion in a country that in recent decades had only known dictatorship.

Labeling the Iraqi constitution an 'amazing event,' he said, 'We had a little trouble with our own conventions writing a constitution."

What a crock! Sliding backwards is not progress, unless your goal is to return the world to a time when women and minorities were forced to obey without question. When Abigail wrote to her husband John Adams in March of 1776 she made a point of stating "remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice or Representation." Now I know that only 229 years have passed so there is no reason to think that the world might have changed in that period of time?

"Many Iraqis say they are already concerned at the strengthening grip of political Islam in many areas of southern Iraq, where alcohol is banned in many places, women are forced to dress conservatively and religious minorities often feel compelled to mimic those in the majority.

Most of the cities of southern Iraq have fallen under the sway of the same Shiite political parties that make up the ruling coalition in Baghdad, one that many people believe has a good chance at capturing a majority of Assembly seats in the elections scheduled for December."

"This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics," said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly. "I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around."

Intermittent running water and electricity, snipers, IEDs, suicide bombers, poor quality food and medical services, having to be accompanied by a male relative to travel outdoors, now that's what I call progress. The quality of life is such an improvement over what they had. They no longer have to worry about a single megalomaniac with friends and family that are disconnected from reality. Nope, now it will be any male that might be in a bad mood and feels the need to kick the dog.