Women and Sharia

Great article and so refreshing to know you’re someone my age shedding light on what’s really going on in Iraq. Congrats. You’ve managed to inform me of a great sad story in a matter of minutes.

I was pissed before we went to war, participated in the protests and always knew it was a bad idea to go in there especially with the reasons provided by the government but now I’m more pissed knowing that the country decided they wanted an Islamic state and we provided the means to accomplish this!! 160 Billion dollars of our tax payer money to endorse an Islamic state where women are second class citizens!! Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse!! What the hell were bush and company thinking? They’ve managed to liberate/occupy a secular country into another one run by Islamic rule. Another undeniable piece of evidence that Bush and company are ruining the world and need to go.

Cara Cairns

I fear that the Iraqis who thought the elections were a step on the road to liberation are in for horrible disappointment. They are trading the secular oppression of Saddam Hussein for the religious oppression of the Shi’ites, unless the Kurds can successfully demand an essentially secular government, or at least a government not utterly bounded by sharia. But if the majority of Iraqis want sharia, I don’t see that there is anything short of continued control of Iraq by the United States that can stop it, and all that would mean is “secured” zones in a war-torn, occupied nation, probably one featuring a lot of low intensity warfare, with the assumption we can eventually grind them down and get our way, whatever that winds up meaning. I also think that whatever the Iraqis decide they want is what we must accept. The behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the U.S. is nothing but neo-imperialism, and as such utterly unacceptable.

Mostly I don’t think anyone has actually won much of anything yet, that there has been a horrible amount of death and destruction, and that thus far the Iraqis are incredibly resilient, but they are not imperishable. No people are.

And I think what the Bush administration has done to Iraq is unbelievably arrogant, murderously destructive, and ultimately unforgivable. I hope with all my being the Iraqi people will be ok, but there is nothing I can see unfolding to cause me to believe that will be the case. Still, for those Iraqis fighting the good fight in their everyday lives, and for the soldiers who are essentially decent human beings caught in an utterly indecent situation, I do fervently wish only good.

David Payne

Denial or Despair

Dear Mother Jones,

I met David Enders in Baghdad, December 2003, and am delighted he has had the ‘cojones’ to return again and again to that benighted land. I think his reporting and perspective from the ‘street’ is the proper antidote to the sanitized, anodyne reporting we are besieged with emanating from the established ‘media’. Those who seem to parrot the party line given in today’s ‘five o’clock follies’.

I am a combat veteran from the last great ‘debacle’ and treasure the thoughts of an independent mind. I think David will have a brilliant reporting career ahead of him. (Provided he holds onto his head) His dispatches are always ‘spot-on’ and I thank him and you for making some sense of the horrible imbroglio ‘the sole remaiming superpower’ once again finds itself mired in.

There is something called a REMF mentality in the military and such also applies to our present-day media. Combat soldiers looked upon such with disdain. David, the journalist, is the combat soldier of his trade. I salute him and those with the wisdom to see that his words are disseminated far and wide.


Billy Kelly

Exporting America: An Interview With Lou Dobbs

Lou Dobbs is right in most everything he says. But it isn’t any Libertarian influence on congress that makes them open to free trade.

Free trade helps the businesses they represent. And it saves the butts of the money scientists running things like Alan Greenspan. While the Libertarian party may have free trade listed as an issue, I am sure that many of us who consider ourselves Libertarians look more to the trade policies of the Constitution party when all the issues and facts are considered.

As an Electronics Technician over the past 24 years, I have watched most of the industry leave the US. Meanwhile people are encouraged to go to school to learn this trade. Why? More techs for fewer jobs means pay will drop. And with the influx of illegal immigrants, there is further downward pressure on the standard of living of most Americans. Both tactics are a one-two punch to the American worker who has to watch from the sidelines as he is sold out by politicians who no longer represent him/her.

Curtis Campbell

Promoting Democracy, One Pint at a Time

I just wanted you to know that I was really glad to read such a positive article on MoJo. I’ve been reading MJ for YEARS and have always loved it, but at the same time have been turned off by it’s negativity and drama etc.
So, if you could slip in a few more articles like this, talking about the positive things happening, that would be awesome. I know a lot of people who would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much, MoJo rocks!

Rose

I love it! I found a chapter in Lakewood, Ohio less than a mile from my house. Who said the internet was a waste of time? Now this is something worth fighting for!

Ron Dodson

Adonal Foyle: Changing the Rules of the Game

I’m sure there are professional athletes doing marvelous things in their communities. Although there’s either a lot of bad press, or a whole more not so bright folks doing tacky things, because the bad far outweighs the good.

It is refreshing to read that this man, who happens to be a professional athlete, is doing so many positive things. Kudos to Mr. Foyle and his parents!

Teena Siggers