Posted on 12/11/2007 4:57:43 AM PST by RDTF
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, thwarting 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. It affects all officers who have earned the title "policewoman" by graduating from the police academy. It does not apply to men in the same type of jobs.
Critics say the move is the latest sign of the religious and cultural conservatism that has taken hold in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster ushered in a government dominated by Shiite Muslims. Now, that tendency is hampering efforts to bring stability to Iraq by driving women from the force, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who has led the effort to recruit female officers.
-snip-
Without policewomen, Phillips said, there will be no officers to give pat-down searches to female suspects, even though women have joined the ranks of suicide bombers in Iraq. Last week, a female bomber killed at least 16 people north of Baghdad, at least the fifth such attack in Iraq this year.
-snip-
Policewomen say the decree also will leave them unable to protect themselves at work or off duty. Scores of police employees, both officers and administrative workers, have been killed by insurgents. Men and women have traditionally been allowed to carry their Glock pistols with them after hours for security.
"We are considered policewomen. We face kidnapping. We could be assassinated. If anyone knew where we worked, of course they would try to do something to us," said a 27-year-old interviewed Sunday.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This is very sad news. In a game of inches toward a stable government this could be a decisive setback. The Iraqi government’s boys over there need to grow up a bit.
It seems that followers of the false prophet are just too insecure in their manhood and idiotically will not allow women the ability to defend themselves.
That's exactly what the bast**ds that issued this order intend to happen. Don't know how many weapons are involved but I hope the U.S. provides a gift weapon to each individual policewoman
“Don’t know how many weapons are involved but I hope the U.S. provides a gift weapon to each individual policewoman”
We bought the weapons that are being taken away. Just how many “gift” weapons are we to provide these nut cases? The only thing wrong with Iraqi’s is that they are Muslim. Until we can change that, they will always be insane.
It’s hard for the barbarians to gang-rape the women if they can’t depend on all of them not being armed.
On one hand, it appears the surge is working and at least some Iraqis want a stable representative government.
OTOH this stuff makes me wonder if any Mooselimb nation is a lost cause in this regard.
Despite the huge amount of US aid flowing into the country, the Iraqi government is also buying a lot of stuff too, including weapons.
My point was to arm the policewomen via a direct gift so the weapons were their personal property and cannot be taken back by their government. (A $700.00 GLOCK is just too expensive for them to afford on their own.)
As far as you comments about Islam being the source of the problem, let me just say that these GUYS were SOBs in the days of Abraham and will probably still be SOBs when the Kaaba in Mecca falls to dust. Islam merely is the latest enabler for what was already a pretty nasty male dominated culture.
You know, I think all of this has been part of an experiment we are conducting with the rest of the free world with respect to Islam.
There’s no saving Islam from themselves. As for the US, we need to find an independent method of powering our vehicles, because we can generate our own electricity just fine.
Wall it off, cut off their funds, and let them go back to being nomads.
There’s a bumper sticker in a bar in Seattle which reads, “Please God, send us another oil boom. I promise not to piss this one away this time.”
I’d like to see that sticker in a bar in Jeddah. Oh, yeah, there aren’t any bars in Jeddah.
We made a huge mistake not setting a MacArthur-style military regency firmly into place the moment the real war eneded in 2003. Iraq needed ten years of de-Islamification before any democratic experiments were attempted.
Its our BLOOD and money that has given the Iraqis a chance at Freedom, THEY need to do it our way when and how we tell them to.
We are not there to fight for islam. F**K islam.
This could be the lowest KIA month ever. The lowest one before was in Feb 2004 when we lost 23KIA and in that month by the 11th day we had lost 11 men whereas thus far this month we have lost 7.
And one morning I came in..., it was ten a.m. and General Whitney [head of the government section] called us into a meeting room. It was too small for all of us. Some of us had to stand because there were about 25 of us. And he said, “You are now a constituent assembly.” You can imagine how we felt. “And you will write the Japanese constitution. You will write a draft and it will have to be done in a week.” Well, I mean, we were stunned of course. But, on the other hand, when you’re in the army and you get an order, you just do it. You just go ahead.
Their work resulted in a thoroughly progressive document. Although the emperor was acknowledged as the head of state, he was stripped of any real power and essentially became a constitutional monarch. A bi-cameral legislature with a weak upper chamber was established, and with the exception of the Imperial family, all rights of peerage were abolished. Thirty-nine articles dealt with what MacArthur called “basic human liberties,” including not only most of the American bill of rights, but such things as universal adult sufferage, labor’s right to organize, and a host of marriage and property rights for women. But the most unique and one of the most important provisions came in Article 9, which outlawed the creation of armed forces and the right to make war. It’s not clear whether or not the “No-war clause” originated with MacArthur, but it certainly would not have been included without him, and its presence in the constitution has had an enormous impact on Japan’s postwar history.
But of course in those days we didn’t have our President saying fascism was an ideology of Peace.
The comparison to MacArthur does not work. We didn’t wait 10 years before letting the Japanese vote. Japan had its first democratic elections after the war in 1946 and it was held under the old imperial constitution! A socialist won.
There are a lot of urban legends here about the MacArthur “regency.” It was not some sort of one man master plan. Unlike the Iraqis, the Japanese were ready for democracy immediately after the war and showed it with their votes. In fact, they voted even earlier than the Iraqis did (1946) in an all-Japan election. An antiwar Socialist was elected Prime Minister. Second, they have been perfectly free to change their constitution since the 1950s and have chosen not to do so. Had we established a similar “regency” in Iraq, the Iraqis would have been free to vote in 2003!
Where is NOW and the femanazi outrage over this?
Where is the outrage from the pro-war folks? They were the ones who sold this war as one for liberty and democracy after all, weren’t they?
Didn’t the President say give people the choice and they’ll chose democracy every time? I didn’t think far enough ahead to consider what versions of democracy he was talking about.
Bring our troops home now. Not one more son or daughter sacrificed for Islam.
I’m outraged. My panties are in a definate wad.
It seems that we have a moral relativist on this thread.
Where? I’ll break out my beeber to defend us all from the scurrilous scorge of moral relativism!
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