Reply #4: Sounds sadly like parts of American history. [View All]

[jobycom]

This woman was murdered for trying to leave her group and join another one. White Americans used to murder African Americans (still do, but in lesser numbers) for trying to leave their group or interfering with white groups. Black men were lynched or stoned for saying hello to white women on the street. Black children were stoned to death for being in white neighborhoods after sunset. This was not just in the South, as the murder of Yusuf Hawkins in 1989 demonstrates.

Then there are the stories of what Americans did to the Native Americans, of inner city gang battles, of horrific domestic murder rates.

I guess I'm just trying to point out that we have our own nasty history, and without a strong government here, it would be even nastier. The murderers who committed these crimes should be condemned and punished strongly (and probably won't be, because there is not enough government in Iraq to condemn them), but we should be hesitant to condemn all of Iraq because of the horrific stories that come out of it. Out of 26 million people, without a government to enforce any real law, horrible people are bound to emerge to do horrible things.

We need to get out of Iraq, turn all peace-keeping operations to an international entity that has an actual desire to establish a real government in Iraq, and pay them lots of money, with no strings, to clean up the mess we made. Or some such comparable solution. We have no chance to make that part of the world better, and until we leave, stories like this will continue.