September
11: The Epitome Of
American Arrogance
By Lucinda Marshall
14 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Another
September 11th has been and gone. Flags were waved, tears were shed
and silence observed. Generals offered their assessments and politicians
blustered. Across the political spectrum, we Americans continue to insist
upon our unwavering support for the troops, from the right-wing call
for continued funding of their work to the left-wing call to bring them
home.
In what can only be called
the epitome of American arrogance, concern for the plight of the Iraqi
people, particularly the 4 million of whom are now refugees is absent
from the rhetoric, the clear implication being that that our suffering,
which is the result of our own failed policies, is far more important
than the suffering we have inflicted upon others. Missing from the national
dialog is any sense of pressing horror at the lack of electricity and
potable water in Iraq, or the trauma and malnutrition, especially among
children.
Of particular concern is
the increasingly dire plight of Iraqi women, whose lives President Bush
promised to better. “Violence against women and girls has been
an invisible but constant feature of ethnic cleansing, which the US
continues to ignore,” according to the human rights organization
Madre in their analysis of the Petraeus report, a point made all too
clear by the slaughter of women and children by U.S. Marines at Haditha.
As Madre points out, that women cannot go out in public without their
husbands or that girls are forbidden to attend school in some areas
is not a factor in the rosy assessments of progress being made.
In addition, pregnant women
face serious dangers because of the constant bombing, curfews, lack
of electricity and safe water, hospitals that have been destroyed and
lack of medicine and medical personnel. According to reports from Save
the Children and UNICEF, rates of maternal mortality, anemia and underweight
children have sky-rocketed as have the mortality rates for children
under five.
There have been numerous
reports of women in Iraq being kidnapped or sold into sexual slavery
by families desperate to put food on the table. Widows are particularly
vulnerable. Al Jazeera reports that prior to the U.S. invasion, Iraqi
widows were provided with financial and housing help and free education
for their children. Today, no such safety net exists.
The Organization for Women’s
Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) estimates that some 4000 women and girls have
disappeared since the U.S. invasion and have likely been trafficked
to other countries and forced into prostitution. Honor killings have
also risen dramatically since the U.S. invaded Iraq. In Kurdish Iraq
alone there have been 350 such deaths so far this year and there were
95 reports of women committing suicide by self-immolation during the
first six months of 2007.
As difficult as life is in
Iraq, leaving the country poses significant problems for women as well.
Iraqi law requires that women have permission from a male relative in
order to get a passport, which is only obtainable in Baghdad, a journey
that is too difficult and dangerous to be feasible for many women who
do not dare risk traveling without a male relative.
For those women who are able
to leave, economic realities force many to turn to prostitution in order
to feed their families. The Independent (UK) reports that some 50,000
refugee women are now working as prostitutes. While that number seems
huge, given that there are an estimated 4 million refugees, the majority
women and children who are not being allowed to work in other occupations,
the number is sadly believable.
As horrific as the humanitarian
crisis that is occurring in Iraq is, in terms of American politics,
it is the expected and acceptable collateral damage of war, where the
lives of women and children in particular are routinely discounted.
Certainly it is not worthy of Congressional attention or media coverage.
The unfortunate truth is that it will take much more than bringing the
troops home to truly end the war. Yet with persistent myopia, we continue
to discuss Iraq in terms of our national honor, refusing to acknowledge
the true scope of the carnage and humanitarian disaster that we have
inflicted upon the Iraqis, especially women and children. To continue
to do so is an act of great folly, one that will ultimately become our
greatest national disgrace.
Lucinda Marshall is a feminist artist, writer and activist.
She is the Founder of the Feminist Peace Network, www.feministpeacenetwork.org.
Her work has been published in numerous publications in the U.S. and
abroad including, Counterpunch, Alternet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs,
The Progressive, Countercurrents, Z Magazine , Common Dreams, In These
Times and Information Clearinghouse. She also blogs at WIMN Online and
writes a monthly column for the Louisville Eccentric Observer.
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