[GCFL-discuss] Support our troops!

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

Our troops deserve our support even when we are not certain of the wisdom
of the mission they are being sent on. Their sacrifice is no less, our
need to have someone serving in the armed forces is no less, and the
troops, by definition, do not get to choose their mission. If they are
enthusiastic about their mission, so much the better for them. If they
come home disillusioned, nobody has more credibility to correct public
understanding of what went wrong. (Vietnam Veterans Against the War did
more to end the war than all the college students in the country
combined).

But I wonder who was really inside that burkha. Iraqi women do not wear
burkhas. The most religiously observant seldom wear more than head
scarves. They have for 30-50 years been the most educated women in the
middle east, the most heavily involved in the work force, the most
independent of male accompaniment and the most secular in their outlook.
Even Iranian women do not wear burkhas -- they wear chadors. (Iran has a
very different culture and language than Iraq -- even the Shia ayatollahs
have a very different outlook). The burkha is specific to the Pashtun
tribes of southern Afghanistan and neighboring parts of Pakistan. Also,
most Iraqis living in the U.S. were enthusiastically supportive of
military action to dump Hussein al-Takriti. I really wonder who was in
that burkha?

Siarlys


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