Women's "liberation" in Iraq

So George Bush and company keep reminding us that they have "liberated" Iraq. With the Surge having greatly reduced the violence in Baghdad, we are being told it is truly a new day. Well, not quite truly, not quite new. While this quasi-country continues to be ruled from the Green Zone, millions of Iraqis are still external or internal refugees. And with the Shia ruling the roost, some areas might as well be run by the Taleban.

Today CNN online reported that women in Iraq's south are facing mutilation and death for failing to follow fundamentalist Shia rules. "The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion--some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture."

Basra's police chief says: ""When I came to Basra a year ago, two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."

Outside Basra's main downtown market, a sign painted in red says: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you."

What else has this White House wrought?

(For the whole article, go to: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/08/iraq.women/index.html)