wrote in message
...

$1.5 billion? What's that equal to, the amount of money we waste each
minute on our military and private contractors and their continuing
misadventure turning Iraq into a democracy?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Uh, no, but you keep saying it and it will be true enough for TV news


If we spent more than $27.50 in Iraq, it just went down the toilet in yet
another way.

You may pretend you never heard GWB using the bad treatment of women as one
of the reasons we need to boot Islamic extremists out of power in various
countries (whichever one he's talking about at the moment).

Guess what we built in Iraq? We built an Islamic theocracy where there
wasn't one before. I wonder if the Bush**** understands this
at all.

Just what we needed. Another Islamic theocracy. This one may end up making
Iran look as dangerous as Rhode Island by comparison.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...n3605610.shtml

Iraqi Policewomen Ordered To Turn In Guns

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2007

Just in case there's anyone out there still unsure about the whether
nation-building is a bad idea, the Los Angeles Times brings a gem of a story
about how you can lead an Iraqi horse to the water of equal-opportunity
employment, but you just can't make him drink. Not even when your country is
paying the water bill.

The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for
redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, the Times reports.
The move thwarts a U.S. initiative to bring women into the nation's police
force.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, issued the order late last
month, according to ministry documents, U.S. officials and several of the
women. Probably sensing this was going to tick off the Americans, ministry
officials refused to pick up the phone or return messages when Times
reporter Tina Susman called asking for an explanation.

Critics say the move is the latest sign of the religious and cultural
conservatism that has taken hold in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam
Hussein ushered in a government dominated by Shiite Muslims. Other recent
signs include a dozen women killed by religious militants in Basra for not
covering their hair or dressing modestly. In Baghdad, once a secular
metropolis, it is rare to see women without scarves covering their hair.

U.S. trainers began recruiting women in early 2004 and were so swamped with
applicants they had to turn many away. By the end of that year, about 1,000
women had graduated. Since U.S. authorities handed over responsibility for
police recruitment and training to Iraqi authorities in February 2006, the
number of female recruits has dropped to virtually zero.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who has led the effort to recruit
female officers, said an official in the Interior Ministry told him:
"Females are taken care of by men in our country. They are not out there
being police officers."