LAURA'S WAR

What a delightful interview Katie had with Laura. One cannot help but listen intently when the first lady of TV news speaks with the first lady of the country.

When asked about the conditions in Iraq, Laura, ever so sweetly proclaimed that it was just that the photographers were only taking pictures of the horrible stuff. Really most everything was just peachy-keen there.

The country was being rebuilt under her husband's direction. Schools and streets and homes were filled with happy, smiling Iraqi grateful to Bush for saving them from the terrible dictator.

We wondered about the women of Iraq. Did Laura have any idea of what her dear hubby had done to them? Before Saddam had been overthrown, women were encouraged to study, have a profession and work outside of the home. They could drive; they could choose whether or not to cover their body with a black abaya and their head with a black scarf.

Iraq was one of the most progressive Middle East countries in its treatment of women. Saddam advocated women's full participation in the culture. Now Iraqi women say life has become unbearable. It is "just like being in jail, I can't go anywhere".

They believed Bush when he declared that increasing women's rights was part of the democracy being created in Iraq. It made them hopeful of greater equality with men.

But have we been misled by the reports from Iraq? Are the many stories about women's loss of equality and personal peril just figments of some scribe's imagination?

If things are truly so fine in Iraq as Laura believes, wouldn't it be just ducky if she and her two daughters would go there to lead the women of Iraq into the light that has been denied them?

Laura could open or supervise schools for women all over the country. The Bush daughters would roam the countryside as examples of the equality of women in a democracy, thus giving hope to the entire nation.

Of course those nasty photographers would have to be banished so there would not be any more killings or beatings or bombings, but that could be managed by presidential edict or a signing statement.

And wouldn't that be a super Winter Solstice present for every living thing on our planet?.

gapperserve-at-peoplepc.com
http://gendergappers.blogspot.com

2006-052

Copyright 2006 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.

G e n d e r G a p p e r s   ^{T M}