Colonizers wife - I beleive it was Colin Powell who said that the only land we ever ask for is the land to bury our dead who sacrificed their lives for the ideals of freedom and liberty.

Perhaps you should make Normandy a stop in your world travels. Colonizers, indeed.

If Colin Powell really said that, someone needs to lend him an introductory American history text book.

My worry is that this is going to make things much more difficult for Middle Eastern feminists. Anyone who calls attention to women's issues can be branded a tool of American imperialism.

tfreridge -

I hate to use this kind of language, but don't you DARE compare the disgusting mistake that is the US invasion and occupation of Iraq with WW2. I could find you WW2 vets that would take serious issue with that comparison, even implied, including my grandfather who fought, and my Oma who ran Nazi patrols in occupied Holland.

This war was never about the spread of freedom or peace or rights. It was the grasp for oil, for power and to create a strategic buffer in the middle east. Moreover, to have a woman who stands as one of the female heads of an administration that has made some of the largest rollbacks of women's rights in the US in recent times to go to the middle east and speak on women's rights is such a phenomenonal irony to be insulting.

On the Chris Mathews Show this morning it was cited that over three quarters of americans think the spread of american values around the world is a good thing, and less than a third of all people polled overseas agreed. Pushing your values down the throats of another country's culture whether they want them or not is colonisation, and Samhita is right on with this call.

If the Bush administration really wanted to do things to improve the lifes and rights of women in the middle east they will realise that their mere presence is seen as abhorent, and should perhaps send someone, or a bunch of someones that are seen as neutral to work with the countries involved, instead of lecturing them. This is lipservice in, again, an insulting manner.

Thanks for the support Sarah! And do you think Laura Bush has met with ANY of the feminist activists working their butts off in all the Arab nations, putting their lives at risk, pushing their feminist agenda. If you remember back on the report I did on 25 feminist activists being shot dead by fundamentalists.
http://feministing.com/archives/001034.html
Did the US do anything there? I don't think so! The day the US truly supports a feminist agenda (which is different then just granting women some basic rights) home or abroad will be the day we all stop writing/thinking/researching and being active!

In case you haven't noticed, Americans are the good guys! We're the country that supports feminism and freedom for all. We're the country that gives more for womans health and other charities than any country in the world.

Sarah - Islamo-religious fascism is just that, FASCISM. The same thing we defeated in WWII.

A dictator by any other name.....

tfreridge -

Sure, Islamic religous facism, as with christian religous facism, is facism ... but what on earth has that to do with Iraq?

There was no connection to 911, there was no connection to bin Laden ... hell, there were no WMD's. This wasn't even remotely about the war on terror, or islamic fundamentalism. If anything, the invasion has INCREASED islamic fundamentalism in the country.

And not everyone sees America as the good guys, right now even your allies see the US as neutral.

The islamo-fascists grew during the clinton years also. Not his fault, but thats when they really started growing. We tried treating them like just criminals and even Bush treated them like that until 911.

Knocking out the Taliban, and Hussein is part of a doctrine. Peace through the spread of Democracy. You might not like it, but it is working. Popularity is not important, self protection and a peacfull world is.

What we are seeing now is the last gasp of fundementalism, they are trying soooo hard to convince the world that they're vision is right and ours is evil. The world is responding. Freedom is on the march. Kuwait, Eygypt, Lebbanon, Iran, all of the "Stans". I don't believe your statement about fundementalism spreading. I think we are just seeing a hidden problem come to light finally. Like when you kick over a log and realize thats its rotten with termites.

What boggles my mind is that people hate Bush with such an unreasoning hatred that they won't even acknowledge all the good that has come of his doctrine. How can liberals be so blind to the greater good of humanity?

I wasn't a big fan of clinton, but I didn't hate the guy. He did some great things.

I'm not the only one that feels this way. Democrats have turned their backs on the Joe Liebermans of their party and cast their lot with Howard Dean. The next election is going to cripple the Democrats for 10 years if they can't at least acknowledge what the Clintons have been saying all along, Bush did the right thing going into Afghanistan and Iraq.

tfreridge,

I imagine that a lot of things boogle your mind. Things like 2+2=4, history, facts, reality, etc. I must give you credit though for being one of the best writers of fiction on this site!

I challenge your whole concept that the Bush administration has rolled back womens rights. Is there one person on this blog who can give a personal(specific) example of a right they had and used during the Clinton administration, that they are no longer free to exercise under the Bush administration?

Just one. A legitimate right. One.
Speech?
Religion?
Equality in the eyes of the law?
Just. One.

By comparison there are a more than a million women in the middle east that have MUCH more rights than they had 5 years ago.