Bush's Midas Touch

By The GroupNewsBlog
A dark pool of dried blood and a fallen red scarf mark the place where Ronak, who had fled to a woman's shelter in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah when she was accused of adultery by her husband, was shot three times by a man hiding on the roof of a nearby building.

The first known case of sex recorded on a mobile leading to murder was in 2004. Film of a boy making love with a 17-year-old girl circulated in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Two days later she was killed by her family and a week later he was murdered by his. -- The IndependentThey are burning women alive in Iraq. Pouring paraffin over them and letting the die a horrible death because they have had sex. Shaira law is spreading in Basra and in other areas of southern Iraq. After decades there are men fighting in the streets in Lebanon again. Turkey has all but permanently invaded northern Iraq. The fallacy that Bush has made America safer is only valid if you don't include losing New Orleans or protecting our civil liberties. Or if you believe that "hasn't happened yet" equals "not going to." But, it is extremely clear that the middle east is not only a much more dangerous place, it has descended into religious terror and violence across the region.

Remember when our foreign policy was all about maintaining peace in the region? Remember fears of setting the middle east ablaze? Like many things from the reality based community that concept went out the window with reverse midas Bush. I am sure that Israel thought our invading Iraq and posting 100,000 troops next door in Iraq was a good idea, but as more and more goes wrong in more and more places, I suspect that that feeling of safety is running on par with Bush's polling numbers.

Our inability to win the "peace" as the pentagon's Orwellian phrase goes is a major factor in this. This is now beyond a military solution and has been for years. Having less people with guns around is a good first step. Nobody notices the sniper on the roof across from the womens shelter because that's normal.

Picture this, you fool

A young man is accused of raping a girl. He is hunted down bay armed men with dogs. When found, he is beaten to within an inch of his life, before being hauled to a nearby large tree. All the "good folk" of the town come out with torches. The assembly develops a carnival atomsphere while men with pillowcases over their heads throw a sturdy rope over one of the branches and tie a noose in it. The young man has is head placed in the noose, and despite his pleas that he didn't do it, and cries for mercy, a box is kicked out from under him. As he struggles and his eyes bulge out, a hooded man steps forward and disembowels him with a knife as he dies.

Arbil? Nope. Kuwait? Nope. Pakistan? Nope. Iran? Nope. The American South. The scene was captured on paper (no photographs were allowed) by Bill Mauldin, an editorial cartoonist, from descriptions given him by witnesses. And oh yes, among those present was the local sherriff, in uniform.

Muslims are not the only people capable of cruelty. You ever read the story of King David's wars in ther Old Testament?