Official Participant in the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon.

From The Play Ground

Ironic that today is the official kick-off for the Youth Media Blog-a-thon on the topic of violence, considering that today is also the fifth anniversary of the US occupation of Iraq. As nothing more than a campaign of violence and terror, war is always justified in its disguised form. For the war in Iraq, it was freedom and liberation that served as masks for the public eye. But whose freedom and liberation? And at what costs have we and others paid for this mission?

A few bloggers have already discussed the war and their thoughts/reactions (check the post below for a run-down). It’s not strange that when we think of violence we think of war, especially one in which we are actively engaged in—as a country, at least. But when I think of violence, I think of women. It’s an association that is natural for me, primed in some evil way by the forces of our society and my own conditioning. So I thought I would share some facts about women and violence, and the war which seems to be on our minds today.

At a press conference earlier today at the Pentagon, President Bush was very wary of stating definite success, but made huge efforts to clarify that victory was soon to come.

Five years ago tonight, I promised the American people that in the struggle ahead ‘we will accept no outcome but victory.’ Today, standing before men and women who helped liberate a nation, I reaffirm the commitment. The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory.

A witty opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times asks,

The experts all agree about the war’s success, but does anyone else agree with them?

Putting into question who these experts are and their partisan allegiance, this article humorously questions what we regard as truth and shines the spotlight on every phrase of success and victory we’ve heard over the last five years.

But war is not always as funny. Today MADRE, a human rights organization that fights for the rights of women and families around the world issued a statement titled, “Iraq: Five Years of Liberation and an Epidemic of Violence against Women.” According to MADRE:

· Since the US invasion of 2003, Iraqi women have endured a public campaign of harassment, beatings, abduction, rape, and assassinations.
· The main perpetrators are militia fighters who see violence against women as a way to enforce their vision of Iraq as an Islamist state.
· The largest Islamist militias are the armed wings of Iraqi political parties brought to power by the US.
· In 2005, under a policy called the “Salvador Option,” the Pentagon began providing money, weapons, and military training to Shiite militias known to attack women wherever they patrolled.
· Since early 2007, the US has also funded Sunni militias, including groups that murder women who do not dress or behave to their liking.

According to a new report by Amnesty International, titled, “Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On” states:

In most governorates, women are being threatened by armed groups that they will be targeted if they do not observe strict Islamic dress. Women and girls are also at risk of rape by armed groups and members of the Iraqi security forces. Domestic violence and ‘honor killings’ are on the rise too. A WHO (World Health Organization) survey conducted in 2006/2007 in Iraq found that 21.2 percent of Iraqi women had experienced physical violence.

Who knew that the terms liberation and freedom carried such emptiness and such high costs. Who knew that in the process of granting “liberation” and “birthing a democratic nation”, we would be involved in killing the same people we claimed to be liberating. Could it be that in the end we were doing nothing more than securing our own interests, using humanitarian jargon as some vechicle for a camaign of terror against women and children? A campaign of terror we hypocritically claimed to be fighting against.

The US?

No, it couldn’t be involved in such matters.