Sigh.
Still reeling from allegations that Iraqi police officers raped a young Sunni woman in Baghdad, Iraq on Thursday confronted a second set of sexual-assault charges leveled against its security forces: that four soldiers raped a 50-year-old Sunni woman and attempted to rape her two daughters in the northern city of Tal Afar.
In Iraq’s conservative society, where rape is considered a particularly heinous crime, two such allegations in a week are likely to deepen sectarian chasms, tarnish the already tattered image of Iraqi military and police forces, and further call into question their ability to provide security in Iraq — a fundamental condition for a U.S. troop withdrawal, some experts warn.
(via)
Ok. Allegations of rape. Happens every place in the world. And this is a country that has seen the violent death of more than amillion of its citizens since 1980. And now, these allegations of rape, are going to undermine the whole country? All is going to h*ll? Doesn’t make sense in context.
You do understand that the whole rationale (this week) for us leaving Iraq is having Iraqi troops “stand up”. If they’re too busy raping women and informing insurgents as to our movements, we never get to “stand down”.
And now, these allegations of rape, are going to undermine the whole country? All is going to h*ll? Doesn’t make sense in context.
Doesn’t make sense in context? Here’s your context:
The country is riven by bitter sectarian animosities. The best hope for ending the internal fighting is for a police force to rise above the intramural divide and work on behalf of all the Iraqi people.
If half the people won’t trust the police, they’ll turn elsewhere for security, most likely the warlords and militias. Or maybe even an outfit like Hamas.
So no, these allegations all on their own aren’t going to undermine the whole country.
But they ain’t helpin’ none, either.
Why do these Sunni women hate the troops?
At least rapes are reported and prosecuted now.
In saddams day we never would have found out about it….