[littlemissattitude]

There are so many things I want to say here, and they are just not coming out right. I agree with you completely about the situation of women in the world. And it seems to me that as long as our military is in Iraq, they should be doing things to actively help the people there. And, in fact, I think that such things do go on, but they are mostly individual initiatives by members of the military and not officially sanctioned activities.

But I don't think that staying there with a military presence is going to materially improve the situation. We can't stay forever, and unfortunately I think that is what it would take. Not because the people are not willing to improve their situation, but because the governments involved...both the American and Iraqi governments...are not really all that interested in improving the situation of the people. Governments pretty much never are interested in that, sad to say.