Egypt is a male-dominated society and men see it as their right to verbally abuse women, grope them, said Shahira Amin a former Egyptian state TV anchor who currently freelances for CNN. Women are ashamed to speak out and we've been brought up to think it is okay.
Posted 1/13/2012 4:23 pm
Pissing on the body of a fallen enemy is dishonorable. But worse things happen in war. Homer teaches us to respect our fallen foes when the gods punish Achilles for his treatement of Hector's corpse. But Hector was the champion of Troy, a noble prince, a worthy enemy. Let us not forget that the taliban are terrorists who supported the mass murder of civilians in New York City and Washington DC. They routinely film the decapitation of captured westerners. They have more in common with suitors Odysseus slaughtered in his living room than any fallen hero on the battlefield. Are own government spelled out the difference when they chose to deny captured Taliban POW status and basic legal rights.
We pull young men out of high school and send them off to the worst places in the world to defend ideals and political strategies that they cannot even understand. They are barely more than children. In war, women are raped, villages are burned and babies are bayonetted. Yet in the 10 years we have spent in Afghanistan the worst ethical violations the enemy can throw back at us is that some of our soldiers mistreated the Koran and pissed on some dead bodies. Name one other decade long military occupation that went so smoothly. Check out what the japanese did when the occupied china in WWII. Name one other country who has ever invaded another nation and spent so much blood and treasure to build up that nation for the purpose of handing back freedom and soveignty. Every victorious army before the US burned, raped and pillaged. That is the reality of war, even the expectation. America stands alone in the history of mankind as a nation that holds its soldiers and its people to a higher standard. I doubt the Taliban treated the bodies of the civilians they decapitated with an respect at all. So to the soldiers fighting in this war, piss away boys if it makes you feel better but try not to get filmed doing it next time.
Posted 1/13/2012 4:24 pm
After this (which is wrong) we might start seeing pictures and footage of Lara getting pissed on and raped.This is a bad example for Americans.
Okay i admit it citing homer for an premise is cool.
I know. But that is how it is: You do not wage wars with an all voluntary army. You can crush enemies on the battlefield like in Desert Storm but you cannot occupy shit. For occupying you need manpower. And that is only achievable by mandatory service.
My first words on 9/11 to the american public would have been: Ladies and Gentlemen. Due to the horrific and in no way provoked attack on 2000 civilians we are in a state of war against Islamic terrorists mainly stationed in Afghanistan.
Thus i am forced to evoke mandatory military service for every U.S. Citizen between the age of 18 and 30 male and female. There will be no exceptions but the military will use special talent as needed when you have a college degree or some other useful skill.
Overnight the USA would have had an army of 10 Million+ Soldiers something to dwarf even the capacity of World War II. With that the west would have had the resources to re-manage every country from Marokko to the borders of Pakistan. The War would have lasted perhaps four years but then it would have been done. The professional soldiers would have defeated everything on the ground and the conscripts would have swarmed every village and alley.
But noooo....we send ONLY voluntary specialists and then wonder why we cannot hold Iraq and Afghanistan!
Posted 1/14/2012 12:34 am
The Lara Logan assault/rape footage or tapes deserve the same attention and political fallout as been given to the Marines video.
I love this: "This is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the Afghani martyrs, and it is shocking to the most basic principles of human civilisation," a senior adviser to grand imam of Al-Azhar told Reuters.
What the fuck does "Martyrdom" have to do with the most basic principles of human civilization? Please explain senior adviser to grand imam.
"This shows the emptiness and the absence of the values of the civilisation that those aggressors belong to," the Al-Azhar adviser said, quoting Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayyeb, the grand imam.
What the fuck do the actions of a few have to do with the values of the civilization they belong to? So with THAT logic in mind the abuse and rape of Lara Logan does indeed prove the emptiness and the absence of the values of the egypt-arab civilization?
My Conclusio: Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayyeb is an Idiot. He cannot argue. His logic is flawed. He contradicts himself at every turn. I shudder at the thought of his fatwas. They must be ripe with mistakes and horrible inept thinking.
PS: I am glad nonetheless that i am writing anomyously because due to the great values of the great arab civilization i would probably be suicide-bombed out of my bed for writing this.
We can safely assume that the mentioned woman had not been sexually humiliated by employees of the Pharaoh because she was member of a famed tribe and helped a world famous protester.
All evidence points toward her being a famous singer in the tradition of SHAKIRA or BEYONCE or ADELE or OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN.
She had many fans. That is why she was buried in a royal tomb.
What responsibility? How is she a role model? Nobody got arrested, nothing is done to get the people responsible, and Egypt is still harassing and assaulting women. The only good thing is she is more popular and now than before.
I understand your grievances. Do i find some of what happened very much lacking in certain areas? Yes.
But she is coming clean little by little. She has now - read the article - voiced that she believes that Egyptian secret service was behind HER attack. She did not claim so mere months or weeks before. That in itself is really a BOMB. An US ally that gets much military aid and is a tourist hotspot has used its own secret service to gang rape a famous and widely known western journalist. That is really a bomb. It is not something to scoff at.
She is more a role model for sexual assaulted journalists (mainly women) who walk the line between keeping their jobs and stating that they were raped. Now many of these foreign correspondents go to countries that are no help whatsoever in bringing their attackers to justice. So...it is not something she could be a role model to. Because it would not make sense anyway. You cannot really bring a russian para military soldier to justice. You cannot really bring a Somalian Pirate to Justice. You cannot really bring a Taliban Fighter to Justice. You cannot really bring a Sudanese arab cavarly rider to Justice. You cannot really bring a Angola Soldier to Justice.
The horrible truth is that most of the attackers of foreign correspondents will not be tackled. They go free. And their bosses and commanders too. So it is not her job to really force the issue in that regard. Her mission should be to awake the awareness how difficult it is to speak about it and how problematic the consequences are for her and for other raped journalists.
What i would wish from Lara Logan is to openly state how enormous difficult her PTSD was. I mean how PTSD works and how difficult it was for her to work in the last year. I think THAT is important. Because many people do not know shit about what a rape victim has to go through and that must change. NOW. That is much more important than to try to get the attackers arrested which would not happen anywhere as Egypt very much shows us.
PS: she is a role model just for being what she is: OUTSPOKEN and STILL she has her career. Even after what happened in Egypt. She is still up there having her career and her fans and her work.
She was a role model before this happened. Sometimes, like maybe when you get into a fight with two hundred men, all you have to do to be considered a "role model" is to survive, to not let them destroy you. She not only survived, she got back up to report the news. She spoke out. She's done a lot.
In January 2012 Logan returned to the Middle East, reporting on US brothers fighting alongside each other. However she says she can't imagine ever returning to Egypt.
Egypt will always be a scar in her memories. She probably doesn't even go to any Egyptian restaurants or anything that has to do with Egypt. This song probably drive her crazy and make her go into shock.
