Definition of Terrorism

Yesterday, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence committee called the attack at Ft. Hood acts of "terrorism." In an interview today on CNN, he repeated his accusation, saying that people shouldn't leap to conclusions, but still saying this is terrorism because it is the tactic of Islamic Jihadists to recruit US soldiers to attack US targets.

Now, notwithstanding the fact (and Rep Hoekstra had no answer for this either), that the FBI has reviewed the communication between Major Nidal Hasan and a radical Muslim cleric who formerly lived in Falls Church, VA - and commented that NO communication between the two indicated any attempt to 'recruit' Major Hasan or incite him to attack US soldiers or otherwise, to Rep Hoekstra, the mere fact that Major Hasan is Muslim opposed our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and that there are radical Islamic sites he might have visited, despite the fact that he acted alone, means that it was terrorism - and reflected this 'tactic' - but hey, he's not jumping to conclusions.

Further, Rep Hoekstra was miffed with the FBI and CIA for not giving him a briefing the DAY AFTER it happened, but rather waited until yesterday, because Rep Hoekstra had returned to Michigan for the holiday break (Thanksgiving), and 'they knew' he was leaving - so to get this straight Rep Hoekstra demanded a briefing before they had concluded ANY sort of investigation - he needed he HAD to have HIS briefing on HIS schedule because waiting until Monday to fly home, rather than Saturday, well that just didn't fit with his schedule - so shame on the FBI - they should give briefings before they have anything substantive to say - to some Congress-schlep who they don't report to and doesn't NEED to know today - right now-- in fact, they should take time away from perhaps finding other people involved JUST to brief this guy.

I make that point rather strongly to point out what a schmuck the guy is - his claim that 'we shouldn't leap to conclusions (what President Obama asked for and he agreed with) - while LEAPING to the conclusion that this is terrorism' is just bald-faced hypocrisy.

What's worse is that there is zero evidence that we know of that this guy was acting in concert with anyone. He MAY have been an Islamic radical - but exactly how would you stop people like him? How will our 'war on terrorism' stop individuals who simply disagree with a governmental policy - which I bring up because IF it was terrorism then frankly, our strategies to confront it should work - which helps to illustrate in part, that it isn't - terrorism ISN'T defined as any violent act of dissent against a government.

What's more - when confronted about Timothy McVeigh - Rep. Hoekstra commented that THIS WAS DIFFERENT - because McVeigh wasn't succumbing to the tactics of Jihadists - even though McVeigh CLEARLY worked with, was familiar with, radical militia groups who advocated - oh I don't know- violent acts of dissent against the government.

Terrorism is commonly defined as....

"The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons."

Major Hasan's "ideology" was that he felt Muslims shouldn't be required to serve in combat areas against other Muslims - he personally opposed his deployment and made plain why. He opposed our participation in - and conduct of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to be sure, but at this point the only thing we know is that he was most strongly motivated by opposition to deployment of Muslims, especially himself. His 'coercion' was specifically in relation to himself - and I'll add one more point - he attacked soldiers, not civilians - while the definition above makes no distinction - the common usage does - we consider terrorism (most commonly) to be attacks upon civilians - the innocent non-combatants rather than wreaking your vengeance upon the war-making ability of those whom you oppose. Major Hassan took his grievance to those who were going to deploy him and the Army itself - the initial victims were certainly defenseless, but hardly what we would call 'non-combatants'. While his acts, in my mind, were horrific, and the worst form of "protest" imaginable - he in fact took his fight to those who have the obligation to fight - he didn't kill a doctor in a church.

Time will tell if he was acting for some larger Islamic fundamentalist principal - at this point we don't know - but using this attack for political purposes is despicable and repugnant. If we are now going to define any attack by any individual as 'terrorism' when it is in protest to something they don't like - well, we have an impossible problem to solve ahead of us. Claiming that this as about Islamic extremism before the facts are in, simply because it gets you political mileage, is race-baiting, religious-baiting ugly bigotry done purely for that political gain. McVeigh, who consorted with and complained with all kinds of anti-government nutjobs - well that was 'different' apparently and only because he wasn't a Muslim. But now, apparently, if it is convenient, we'll use a standard that would have us define the acts of fratricide committed in Vietnam by US soldiers upon their officers - as a protest to poor orders, or as a protest to their presence 'in-country' or for any of a myriad of reasons, well, apparently all that was 'terrorism' too - why?? Simply because it's convenient to claim that Muslims love terrorism, their acts are somehow different, and because we want to claim that Obama isn't 'keeping us safe.' I wonder then, what we call the hand-grenade attacks in Kuwait and Iraq's green zone by US soldiers? Was that not also terrorism, or is it NOT terrorism simply because they weren't Muslims and maybe while they read radical sites protesting government actions - well that's okay, because it wasn't at least radical MUSLIM sites...

This is political grandstanding, ugly, repulsive political, blindered, myopic grandstanding, and nothing else.

47 More Sexual Assault Victims of Halliburton and KBR

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States
1858 - 1919

“There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.”
James Thurber
American Writer
1894-1961

Update:

Forty seven more women have reported similar experiences to those of Jamie Leigh Jones. I had previously indicated the number was eleven, from an earlier research source. I have contacted the Jamie Leigh Jones Foundation directly for further information, so I hope to provide continuing updates. At least two of the women already have had similar court cases challenging the enforcement of arbitration clauses which was the subject of the Franken Amendment. They are mentioned in the May 9, 2008 decision of the Jamie Leigh Jones case in the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. That decision mentions the similarity of the sexual assault in Cravetz v. Halliburton (Southern District of Florida Court), and the sexual assault in the case of Barker v. Halliburton (Southern District of Texas).

While looking into what I could find on the allegations of sexual assault related to Halliburton and KBR, I also came across a reference to a criminal conviction of David Charles Breda Jr. for the sexual assault of a woman while employed by a KBR subsidiary in Iraq. There is a wonderful web site hosted by the Project on Government Oversight, "POGO", which maintains a Federal Contractor Misconduct Database that is fascinating reading at http://www.pogo.org/.

The political fall out for those Senators who voted against the "Franken Amendment" has begun, with the first Senator, Vitters from Louisiana (R), to be confronted by a rape victim in his home state, following a public meeting on health care reform in Baton Rouge on Halloween.

Here is the link to the YouTube video of the encounter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6YZ1wP1978

It could be said that the real life confrontation was potentially far scarier for Vitters, at least politically, than any holiday monsters. It should be interesting to see if this vote against the Franken Amendment is more damaging to Vitters' re-election hopes in 2010 than the fall out from his prostitution scandal.

Vitters earned a certain notoriety for his use of a prostitutes, including apparently being phoned by the prostitution ring to set up appointments for their services while he was on the Senate Floor during actual votes, according to correlations between phone records and Senate vote records. Apparently the Senator has an interesting way of mixing business with pleasure, or at least the business of pleasure.

It has been the recent pattern when asked to explain their vote against the Franken Amendment, for the nay-voting Senators to state their opposition to the intent of the Amendment, while misstating the position of the Obama White House which supported the intent, and worked with the Senators sponsoring the Amendment to make it more enforceable and broader.

There is every possibility that there are more victims than the 11 who have now come forward in addition to Jamie Leigh Jones. It will be interesting to see how this plays out between now and the 2010 elections for those Senators, and with the Department of Justice.

A Creepy Trick, No Treats, for Halloween

"For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
MacBeth, act IV scene 1, 1623
William Shakespeare

Kimberly Daniels wrote about Halloween Candy for Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network web site where it drew the attention and ridicule from sources across the Internet, including the Huffington Post and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Daniels personifies that brand of religion that amounts to Christian superstition. It links to the crazy that is epitomized by extreme fundamentalists. It holds little similarity to what most people think of as conventional religious faith or spirituality, and holds more in common with Grimm's Fairy Tales, seances by adolescents at slumber parties, and ghost stories told at camp in the dark in the woods around a camp fire before going to sleep in a tent, (shining a flashlight up your nose, optional).

Daniels' version of Halloween is as different from real Wicca and modern Paganism as the fictional highly commercialized figure of a red-suited, white bearded fat old man with flying reindeer we think of as Santa Clause differs from the Biblical account of the birth of Christ at Christmas.

Daniels has made a career out preaching a religion of fear at seminars. She prattles on about sex with Demons, time released curses oozing malice like cold tablets release medicine, and trick or treat candy prayed over by witches to curse it. When I was a child I toured a local Pearson's candy factory on an elementary school field trip, a place where they make salted nut rolls, nut goodies, mint patties. I sure don't remember any witches on the tour.

I feel qualified to address Ms. Daniels stupidity passing as faith, because I am a Minnesotan. I live in the fly-over land that is home to crazy fundamentalist Christian zealots like Michele Bachmann. Bachmann during her earliest forays into politics, served on a charter school board of directors position, where she tried to prevent the showing of the Disney movie Aladdin because it promoted magic and paganism, while trying to insert teaching Creationism and Christianity into the curriculum. Bachmann when she first ventured into state politics, is alleged to have brought in a group of other crazies to the chamber of the state legislature while her fellow legislators were away from their seats, to pray over the desks of those legislators who did not agree with her extreme views, in order to change their minds. Apparently that made more sense to her than using reason and critical thinking for persuasion.

Bachmann and her co-religionists represents that view of religion that sees prayer as manipulating God to take their side, viewing prayer as if it were equivalent of the witches scene from Shakespeare's play Mac Beth. "Double double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and Cauldron bubble," right through the Eye of Newt, and other creepy recipe ingredients.

It is one thing for Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his poem Kubla Khan, to create with his words the mental image "A savage place! as holy and enchanted /As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted/By woman wailing for her demon-lover!" but quite another to believe it is real. Religion peddlers like Ms. Daniels assert that having a jack-o-lantern at Halloween is a means of access for demons into your life. She asserts that Dracula and presumably other vampires, mummies and werewolves, and witches on brooms are real, that people on Halloween can be tricked into having sex with Demons instead of people, and that there is sacrificing of babies, followed by drinking their blood. I've actually attended a few pagan Samhain events; people drank Coke and Diet Coke, Mountain Dew and other soft drinks, a few drank beer. No one sacrificed babies or any other living thing, and no one drank blood. (And in case you are wondering, NO, it was not something done as research for this.)

When I read the article Ms. Daniels wrote, which is all over the Internet despite being taken down by the Robertson web site, I couldn't avoid the thought that the best explanation for this nonsense was that Daniels had wandered around a Hallmark store or maybe a costume shop while high out of her mind on some kind of hallucinogenic, like a bad trip on LSD, and this was the result. If so, she must trip a lot, because this is not a purely seasonal message from Daniels. She's bat crazy year round, and even crazier people pay good money to listen to her. It is perhaps not so surprising that Daniels embraced an extreme form of religion, as she came to her ideas about religion after having been a prostitute and a drug addict. What is surprising is that Daniels appears to have degrees in Criminal Justice studies, and more recently in Christian education. So apparently her ideas have been given validation by others; she is not unique in her odd notions, which explains how she came to have her words on Robertson's CBN web site.

I like to read things that are too obscure to interest other people. I read Congressional Bills, Court filings, Orders, and decisions, science papers, obscure literature and poetry, philosophy, and historic documents. I'm one of the few people I know who has actually read the Malleus Malificarum, more commonly known as the Hammer of Witches, the 15th century witch hunting manual. Daniels really should be looking to the classics; she just has no sense of the richness of tradition. Daniels is a light weight; you won't find any silliness about haunted candy corn in the classic old texts.

I can't help but wonder if Daniels gets her ideas from watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the spin off series, Angel, that are still showing in syndication; or maybe the Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi marathons on the movie channels; or perhaps from the panels at science fiction conventions. I'd bet some serious coin that someone with a wicked sense of mischief and a decent familiarity with H. P. Lovecraft could persuade Daniels to preach a sermon or two at one of her seminars against the evils of Cthulu. Fiction and fact are so nebulous to crazies like Daniels, the troublesome notion that Cthulu is fictional would likely be completely unimportant.

Of course, the serious side to this silliness is that people like Daniels and the right wing extremists to whom she appeals like to pander to fear and ignorance. They want to create paranoia about people who might find their spirituality in pagan nature worship, or ethnicity based practices, or alternative traditions by equating it to the the most hateful ideas possible.

You know what is really scary? That people like Daniels, and those who pay to listen to her, and those who feature her on their web sites --------they take her and people like her absolutely seriously. They are convinced that they, and only they, have the right idea, and that they have to either persuade us or force the rest of us to do and to see things their way. They have to save the rest of the world from being different from them and the one true, right way.

The RIGHT way, not in the sense of right that means correct; RIGHT in the sense of the political and religious spectrum. Now THAT'S SCARY!

Happy Halloween, Samhain, All Hallow's, Feast of the Departed, whatever name you give to the date.

the Text that Daniels' briefly had posted on CBN:

During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure ... During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.

I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store.The demons cannot tell the difference.

Even the colors of Halloween (orange, brown and dark red) are dedicated. These colors are connected to the fall equinox, which is around the 20th or 21st of September each year and is sometimes called"Mabon." During this season witches are celebrating the changing of the seasons from summer to fall. They give praise to the gods for the demonic harvest. They pray to the gods of the elements (air, fire, water and earth).

Mother earth is highly celebrated during the fall demonic harvest. Witches praise mother earth by bringing her fruits, nuts and herbs. Demons are loosed during these acts of worship. When nice church folk lay out their pumpkins on the church lawn, fill their baskets with nuts and herbs, and fire up their bonfires, the demons get busy. They have no respect for the church grounds. They respect only the sacrifice and do not care if it comes from believers or non-believers.

Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist. I have prayed for witches who are addicted to drinking blood and howling at the moon.

While the lukewarm and ignorant think of these customs as "just harmless fun," the vortexes of hell are releasing new assignments against souls. Witches take pride in laughing at the ignorance of natural men (those who ignore the spirit realm).

Decorating buildings with Halloween scenes, dressing up for parties, going door-to-door for candy, standing around bonfires and highlighting pumpkin patches are all acts rooted in entertaining familiar spirits. All these activities are demonic and have occult roots.

The word "occult" means "secret." The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes.

These activities include:

Sex with demons
Orgies between animals and humans
Animal and human sacrifices
Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
Revel nights
Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
Release of "time-released" curses against the innocent and the ignorant.

the "Franken Anti-Rape Amendment"

On page 245, between lines 8 and 9, insert the following:

Sec. 8104. (a) Beginning 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any existing or new Federal contract if the contractor or a subcontractor at any tier requires that an employee or independent contractor, as a condition of employment, sign a contract that mandates that the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.

(b) The prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply with respect to employment contracts that may not be enforced in a court of the United States.

The Franken Ammendment

“America's state religion, [is] patriotism, a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that "treason" is morally worse than murder or rape.”
William Blum

Rape is a part of war; but it may be more accurate to say that the capacity for dehumanizing another which so corrodes male sexuality is carried over from sex into war.
Adrienne Rich
U.S. poet
b.1929

The appalling power with which metaphors of sexual lust illuminate the nature of war, and vice versa, proves that they are based on millennia of human experience. The poets of all time have used these figures. To conquer and loot a country is to rape it: to violate a woman is to conquer her by force and plunder her of her treasure. The violence that attends sex when it is unmitigated by love, and the sexual excesses that have attended war and been its aftermath, are the psychological and historical demonstrations of the consanguinity of the two.
Harold C. Goddard
U.S. educator, critic
1878-1950


"Without tenderness, a man is uninteresting."
Marlene Dietrich


On October 7, 2009, Jamie Leigh Jones testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, relating to Minnesota's Senator Al Franken's Amendment to the FY2010 Defense Appropriations Bill. Senator Franken's Ammendment, which passed 68 - 30, withholds defense contracts from companies like KBR, "if they restrict employees from taking sexual assault, battery, and discrimination cases to court".

Franken's Amendment, more correctly identified as Senate Amendment 2588, to House Bill HR 3326, passed 68 to 30. All 30 nay votes were from Republican senators (in alphabetical order) : Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS).

If you read to the conclusion of this post, you will perhaps better understand just why I am paying such close attention to those senators who voted against Amendment 2588. I intend not only to remember their names, but to observe their respective next senate races, even though I am a Minnesota voter. I intend to bring this specific vote to the attention of their opposition, in the hopes that it becomes the basis for political advertising against their re-election. As a usual thing, I oppose strongly the intervention, more precisely the interference, of people outside a state in another state's politics. But this vote was so egregious, that it has moved me to make the exception.

It is worth noting that a vote of 68 Senators in favor of the Amendment indicates some bi-partisan support, although clearly a majority of the Republican Senators voted against the Amendment, so those Republican Senators who voted for it are relatively few. The two Senators who abstained were Democrats Byrd of WV, and Spector of PA. Those Republican Senators who voted for the Amendment were Bennett (UT), Collins (ME), Grassley(IA), Hatch (UT), Hutchison(TX), LeMieux (FL), Lugar(IN), Murkowski(AK), Snowe(ME), and Voinovich(OH), along with Independent Senators Lieberman(CT) and Sanders (VT) . I will be following any re-election campaigns of those Senators as well, but more suportively. It is a justifiable speculation that had former Senator Coleman won the seat for Minnesota, we would not as a nation enjoy the benefit of this Amendment. I felt strongly enough to contact Senator Franken : http://franken.senate.gov/contact/

Excerpted from the Amendment (because, yes, I read these things as part of doing research for my articles), also known colloquially as the 'Anti-rape Amendment':

"AMENDMENT PURPOSE:To prohibit the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims. "

It was sometimes reported that both the White House and the Department of Defense opposed this legislation. What was not as often reported was the reason; the DoD specifically wanted the purpose EXPANDED to include all contracts and contractors, and that the DoD worked with the sponsors to make the Amendment as enforceable as possible. I feel that the widespread use of contractors, especially no-bid contractors like Halliburton, by the Bush Administration, which is continuing under the Obama Administration (at least with better oversight), has been one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our government, and second only to the decision to employ torture, is the worst decision in pursuit of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

So, who is Jamie Leigh Jones, and why should anyone care?

At 19, Jamie Leigh Jones started working for Halliburton subsidiary KBR in 2004 as an administrative assistant in Houston TX. In July of 2005 she went to Iraq to work in their Overseas Administrative Services. A week after her arrival in Iraq, she was allegedly drugged and gang raped by seven men who were also apparently KBR employees.

The rape involved unprotected anal and vaginal sex while she was unconscious from the drug, leaving her bruised and lacerated and bloody. Jones was so viciously abused that her breast implants were ruptured, and her pectoral muscles had been ripped off of her chest wall. For anyone lacking sufficient imagination, it takes an amazing amount of force to rip a woman's breasts off of her chest; breast implants while designed to imitate fairly delicate tissue, are designed NOT to rupture easily. Jones required extensive reconstructive surgery, including the reattachment of her pectoral muscles. Suffice it to say that without more graphic detail, her lower torso was treated just as viciously as her upper body. This being national breast cancer awareness month, I cannot help but remember that breast tissue trauma is a predisposition to cancer, making this rape a horror that will keep on haunting Ms. Jones in yet one more way.

Even allowing for the differences in sexual response between men and women, and understanding that the act of rape is profoundly about dominance and violence more than it is about sex, I cannot fully wrap my mind around how these men (allegedly) could find gratification in sex with an unconscious woman, much less find pleasure in such violence. One of the men has come forward, making an apology to Ms. Jones, but only because he was confronted in her bedroom, still there from the crime, when she regained consciousness; the other six are still unidentified.

They are likely to remain unidentified, and none of the seven will be facing trial or jail for their actions. Jurisdiction would reside with the Department of Justice, which at least under the Bush administration, did not pursue the matter for criminal prosecution, in part because of the actions of KBR.

What happened to Ms. Jones after the rape was, in some respects, as bad as the rape itself. She regained consciousness, naked and injured. She fell unconscious again when she tried to make it to a bathroom. Jones was eventually examined by U.S. Army physician Jodi Shulz, who completed a rape kit in addition to providing care. The rape kit was given to KBR, and conveniently lost for two years; when it was recovered, key items were missing.

In addition, KBR on discovery of Ms. Jones did NOT provide her with medical care. They (allegedly) locked her up in a shipping container secured by armed guards, without food, water, medical care, or access to help. After some 24 hours, Jones was able to beg the use of a cell phone from one the armed guards imprisoning her, and called her father back in the U.S. Her father contacted his congressman, Republican Ted Poe. Poe in turn contacted the State Department, which then contacted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The embassy sent someone to rescue Jones from the custody of KBR and arranged for her medical care.

CPA Order 17 provides immunity to U.S. contractors from the Iraqi government; this matter falls within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution. Except that they haven't. I have not as yet been able to determine properly what the statute of limitations is on this crime, but so far it does not appear that the Obama administration's DoJ is pursuing it either. Congressman Poe, who is a former judge, and others before whom Jones testified in hearings in 2007 made the observation that the Department of Justice had appeared unwilling to pursue prosecution of contractors except when embarrassed into action beyond any excuse to avoid it, yet another instance of the apparent politicization of the Bush Administration DoJ.

So........why this Amendment? Halliburton and KBR had kept Ms. Jones from proceeding with a civil suit by demanding arbitration under her contract until a Court decision in mid September 2009. It is in response to the arbitration clause in the Halliburton, KBR and other contractors' contracts, in conjunction with the inaction by the Department of Justice, that this Amendment was deemed necessary by its supporters.

It is unfathomable to me that these corporations, responsible through the actions of its employees for not only this rape, but other crimes and tragedies such as the electrocution deaths of armed forces personnel, blatant fraud and overcharging, continue to receive lucrative contracts from our government. It is implausible to me that the individuals who (allegedly) raped Ms. Jones committed only this one act of violence. It seems to me far more likely that there were other incidents, possibly against Iraqi women, who would have had no legal recourse. This is not idle speculation; there have been allegations of such crimes and other crimes throughout the duration of the tenure of Halliburton and other contractors.

My friend Mitch Berg, on his blog Shot in the Dark, writing on another topic entirely, included a reference I will paraphrase to an unspecified and unattributed quotation,that an innocent man in jail for rape was a deterrent to those who were rapists. In the midst of researching this article when I read that, I couldn't help but think that while certainly any innocent man should never ever be incarcerated or executed for a crime he did not commit. I could appreciate how a sense of helpless rage and despair could provoke that kind of comment. I thought about those men who had not been strictly guilty of any crime, like the Republican Senators who voted against this Amendment, men whose actions contributed to the rapists going unpunished. While legally innocent they seem to me to be morally complicit.

I applaud Senator Franken for this, his second piece of legislation. I applaud Ms. Jones, for her strength in getting on with her life, including her education and marriage, for her strength in repeatedly appearing before our legislative branch of government to testify about her experiences despite their intimacy and the horror of them. Perhaps most of all, I applaud Jamie Leigh Jones for responding to her experience by creating a foundation to help others.

Leaving Afghanistan

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome a new contributing author to Penigma, one that you may recognize from his regular comments - "ttucker".
Here is the first of what I hope will be many posts to come. Ttucker - welcome!

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."
- General George Patton Jr

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
- George Santayana

When the US sent our military into Afghanistan most of the country supported it wholeheartedly. The Taliban ran the country and had helped and motivated the people who attacked us on Sept 11, 2001. They gave them sanctuary and a place to train and celebrated with them when the twin towers fell in New York. We went over there with a clear mission, remove the Taliban from power, kill as many members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda as possible, destroy their training camps, and deny them a safe haven in Afghanistan.

For the most part we accomplished a large part of this within a couple of years and were busy hunting down small groups of them and capturing or killing them. After 4-5 yrs of focusing on Iraq and sustaining little to no casualties in Afghanistan the mission creep started. Now we needed to rebuild their government, train their troops, and win over the hearts and minds of the people. The last war we tried to win over the "hearts and minds" of the people was Vietnam and we all know how that turned out. I am now fairly certain that this war will turn out no better. I have not ever been in the military but I read a lot of military history and have friends and family who have served or are currently serving. Reading some of the military blogs and seeing news of Afghanistan it seems to me that we are no longer fighting to win.

When we pulled our ground troops out of Vietnam the South Vietnamese were still winning battles with the help of US air and naval support, as soon as the funding for that was cut the entire South fell in less than a month. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan in the 80's they were winning until we supplied the Taliban with stinger missiles to take away the Russian air support. The key to beating a guerrilla force that knows the area is air and artillery. We have now almost neutralized our own air and artillery support in Afghanistan. The new rules of engagement have caused us to be so cautious of civilians that our troops are required to retreat if it is possible that engaging the enemy could endanger civilians. Some have said the rules are not that strict and are being misinterpreted but either way the rules of engagement are putting US soldiers in more danger than they were in before.

Another problem occurs when the US conducts joint operations with the Afghan forces. There are a higher percentage of ambushes in joint operations than there is when US forces go on missions with only US forces. Maybe the Afghan troops are just not as alert about spotting an ambush, maybe someone in the Afghan HQ is still loyal to the Taliban, who knows, but US soldiers are dying because of it.

One of the military blogs I read spoke of a discussion with a former marine who was commandant of “The Corps” when LBJ took office. LBJ called him in and asked what to do about Vietnam. The commandant told him that Vietnam was like a snake in the grass and your first and best option was to leave it the hell alone. If you just cannot live with a snake in the grass then you get the biggest stick you can find and you beat it to a bloody pulp. The one thing you do not want to do is go in the grass with a small stick and play with the snake. Of course LBJ chose the last option and it looks like we have again in Afghanistan. It is time to get out of the grass and leave the snake alone.

Why Say Yes to Comprehensive Sex Ed?

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. "
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Victorian Era Poet
1806-1861

"Does it really matter what these affectionate people do-- so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses!"
Mrs. Patrick Campbell
British Stage Actress
1865 - 1940


While the Republican party has become the party of 'Nope', serious harm has been done to our country by the right wing saying 'yes' to abstinence only education. Decisions made promoting the mandate and funding of abstinence only sexual education have a serious impact not only on the educational goals of producing literate, knowledgeable and informed students graduating from our public and private educational system. The resulting ignorance that is associated with abstinence only sex ed has an equally serious impact on our public health policies and expenditures.

I reviewed the research on abstinence only sex ed, and also reviewed the arguments for any kind of sexuality education to be included as an appropriate and desirable subject matter. There were a lot of arguments in support of sex as a legitimate subject of study, and very few arguments against it; most of the against arguments boiled down to a few people who are still too embarrassed to deal with the subject in any objective manner.

The overwhelming statistics indicate that the teaching of comprehensive sex ed in schools is supported by parents, teachers, and the students themselves. According to SIECUS in 2005, more than 90% of high school and middle school parents support funding sexual education in schools, with majorities supporting that sexual education be comprehensive, include accurate information on contraceptives and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

The majority of objections to teaching sex ed at all, and the majority of support for abstinence only sex ed seem to have a close correlation to promoting a specific religious view that the minority objectors would like to impose on the larger majority. For example, a report in 2004 by Congressman Waxman's special investigation committee reviewing the abstinence only sex education programs supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that over 80% of them used curricula containing false, misleading, or distorted information about the effectiveness of contraceptives and the risks of abortion. According to this paper, http://www.scribd.com/doc/16415796/ARGComprehensive-Sex-Education ,
Waxman's committee also "found gender stereotypes and religious beliefs treated as fact, as well as deliberate scientific errors." I think it is a fair statement that religion should be personal, and that the religious beliefs of a single segment of society should not be presented as fact; and I would hope even more strongly that we should insist on accuracy, including scientific accuracy, in our educational system.

The next best reason for discarding any further funding for abstinence only sex ed is that it doesn't work. A 2006 study by McKeon found that despite the existence of abstinence only until marriage sex ed existing for more than two decades, no peer-review study found abstinence only sex ed effective in either delaying the first sexual experience, or in any other impact either long or short term. But it makes neo-puritans happy, so for far too many years, it continued to be funded, one more terrible waste of tax payers money trying to force religion and religious belief into more and more areas of politics and government improperly.

As part of my research for the preceding post Just Say No to Abstinence Only Sex Ed, I researched a variety of documents that included statistically reviewing a comparison of the rates of teen pregnancies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries in the world, reflecting varying degrees of development and industrialization, with the results cross referenced to the types of sexual education provided in the schools of each country. This reflects the issues that correlate sexual education with public health policy (I almost made the typo pubic health policy). One of the most liberal countries in openly teaching comprehensive sexual education is the Netherlands, which had the lowest rate of pregnancies in young women between the ages of 15 to 19, at 8 per 1000. The US and the UK, with a preponderance of abstinence only sex ed were among the worst, at 93 per 1000 women in the same age range; while England and Wales had a rate for the same age group of 63 per 1000. There are compelling numbers available from the study of sex ed as it is practiced world wide; this is not unique to a few countries.

These statistics represent real people, not just abstract numbers. They represent real costs as well, to the individuals involved, to their families, to their communities, all the way up to the national level. This makes how and IF we teach Sex Ed a valid interest of our government and of our educational system. It is sufficiently important to us as a nation to deserve a fair and objective approach, rather than to be dominated by the religious beliefs of anyone over fact.

Comprehensive Sex Ed is endorsed by the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, and the American College Health Association, among MANY others. Some scientific studies suggest that far from achieving the desired goal of abstinence until marriage, abstinence only sex ed actually correlated to an INCREASE in teen pregnancy. At approximately the same time, a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy showed that sex ed that includes discussion of contraception does NOT increase sexual activity, the great fear of those who oppose comprehensive sex ed.

Someone I know, outside of this blog, wanted to know what business it is of government to be involved in sex ed. THIS is why it is the business of government, and of us all, to be involved in seeing there is objective not belief-based sexual education in our schools.