This Upsets Me, What About You?

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by GPK

Jessica....so...because there where "no bombs killing hundreds and thousands" of people, you surely would have enjoyed living over in Iraq under Suddams dictatorship, right??? Your body fully covered from head to toe...told when and where to speak...being treated worse than a second class citizen because your a women????? Surely you would like to rethink your statements??

Kev, I loves ya, and you're right about the citizens Hussein killed, but this statement about women in Iraq is not entirely accurate. Hussein was a tyrant, but he was a secular tyrant. For the majority of his dictatorship, living conditions for women in Iraq, even under Hussein, were actually better than in most of the Arabic nations-- in Iraq women were doctors, lawyers, etc. Education for both sexes was required by law. And no burkas were required. After the first Gulf War, with sanctions from the international community on Iraq trashing the economy, and with pressure on him from various religious factions, to consolidate his power he permitted more Islamic rules to come into governing, and the rights of women steadily declined. That said, even at the time of the invasion, they still had more than in many Arab nations. And now, with Iraq in chaos and the radical Islamics gaining power, the rights continue to decline.

Again, not defending Hussein, but he was an entirely different animal from Bin Laden and the religious zealots.

I don't think KRIM was saying Iraq was a paradise; she was saying what's up with spending all this money on this war we created, while we're slashing programs for our own fellow Americans to pay for it? (Correct me if I'm wrong, KRIM, I frequently am). Not that we actually are paying for it; gov't has swelled in size the past six years. God help our kids and grandkids when the bill comes due. All the slot machines in the world aren't going to cover it.

I don't know enough about the slots issue in Ohio to have any insights-- though I wonder if the tuition assistance goes to all colleges, or just the state-funded ones, and to students who go to school out of Ohio or just ones studing in state? Anyone know?