The appropriate word is “duh”

As I’ve said before, I’m not versed in international politics, in strategy or warfare; yet, all the things happening in Iraq now were predicted by me before the war started. Maybe I’m just more well-informed than the Bush cabal, perhaps I am more cynical or a bigger realist. But I said right at the start that it would create more terrorism, more hatred of America, more fundamentalist Islamic nutcases. That Saddam Hussein, no matter how much of a despotic dictator, was a stabilizing factor and created one of the most secular societies in the region… and without him, the resulting vacuum would simply be filled with more of the same religious fascists that we see all over the middle east.
Yet, it took years for a story like this to arrive in the Washington Post:

Life has become more difficult for most Iraqis since the February bombing of a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra sparked a rise in sectarian killings and overall lawlessness. For many women, though, it has become unbearable.

As Islamic fundamentalism seeps into society and sectarian warfare escalates, more and more women live in fear of being kidnapped or raped. They receive death threats because of their religious sects and careers. They are harassed for not abiding by the strict dress code of long skirts and head scarves or for driving cars.

For much of the 20th century, and under various leaders, Iraq was one of the most progressive Middle Eastern countries in its treatment of women, who were encouraged to go to school and enter the workforce. Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party espoused a secular Arab nationalism that advocated women’s full participation in society. But years of war changed that.

In the days after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, many women were hopeful that they would enjoy greater parity with men. President Bush said that increasing women’s rights was essential to creating a new, democratic Iraq.

But interviews with 16 Iraqi women, ranging in age from 21 to 52, show that much of that postwar hope is gone. The younger women say they fear being snatched on their way to school and wonder whether their college degrees will mean anything in the new Iraq. The older women, proud of their education and careers, are watching their independence slip away.

For a bit of contrast, let’s take a look back at some hilarity from the past.

• March 27, 2003: picking a mobile phone company for Iraq
• January 28, 2003: State of the Union commentary
• March 23, 2003: At least one member of the Bush administration knew early on what was happening
• March 22, 2003: Bush detached right from the beginning
• March 20, 2003: The war made for television
• March 5, 2003: What ever happened to the Project for the New American Century — the cabal that started all this?
• April 14, 2003” Freedom is untidy.