The Dark Side of the Iraqi Election
Regarding Robert Scheer’s Feb. 8 commentary, “Law of Unintended Consequences,” I’m glad that someone else was uncomfortable with some images coming out of Iraq on its election day, particularly concerning the dress of the women voters. I couldn’t help but notice that, since liberation, media images show Iraqi women garbed almost exclusively in shrouds, whereas before the invasion Western-style dress was more the norm. This is a frightening development that is being overshadowed by the cries of “freedom” and “democracy.”
Alexis A. Cameron
San Pedro
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In his column, Scheer sees a sad scenario stalking Iraqi women who “enjoyed freedoms in the secular world of Saddam Hussein that are denied under fundamentalist Islamic law.” Bet those women felt liberated when feminist Hussein tortured and murdered thousands of their husbands. But anything’s better than being forced to wear those “identical shrouds” -- right? Proving the law of unintended consequences, Scheer has slapped himself out of political discourse and into the mad world of haute couture.
Stuart Weiss
Beverly Hills
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We go to war, unprovoked, based on lies and borrowed money, remove Iraq’s Sunni leader -- who was not developing a nuclear bomb and who was detested by Iran -- and are about to put into Iraq a Shiite theocracy, sympathetic to Iran, which is developing a nuclear bomb, which it may share with Iraq when we declare victory and leave.
Like Max Boot (Feb. 3), I nearly “teared up” at the Iraqi election, but only when I read Scheer’s explanation of George Bush’s stupendous folly.
Raymond Freeman
Thousand Oaks
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So democracy will come to Iraq, and there will be an elected government. It stands to reason that it will be dominated by the Shiite majority. This will ultimately give more power to the mullahs. Will the Sunni minority be content with being the loyal opposition, or will it struggle, even rebel against the elected government? And will the Shiites form coalitions with their brethren in Iran? Will we have created just one more nation of America-haters?
As terrible as Hussein was, at least he was no religious zealot. His government was secular, and, as such, less of a terrorism threat than an Islamic theocracy such as Iran.
Jack Redmond
North Hollywood