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jrbrown10

Published Letters: 298
Editor's Choice: 13

Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:04 PM

From Slates own past stories

The below is from a story that Salon posted not that long ago, and with all the other investigations going on about the military, who are these trolls that don't believe her story?

***

A shocking editorial posted at Truthout reports that Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison, testified last week that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, ordered that the cause of death for some female soldiers who served in Iraq be covered up. Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration. The women wouldn't drink liquids late in the day because they were afraid of being raped or assaulted by male soldiers if they used outdoor bathrooms in the middle of the night.

Karpinski also testified that after an Army surgeon stated in a briefing that "women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep" he was told not to give specific details during briefings anymore, especially about female soldiers.

And there's more: "Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw 'dehydration' listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003," Truthout reports. "Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights."

"Sanchez's attitude was: 'The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory,' Karpinski quoted him as saying. Karpinski told Truthout that Sanchez, who was her boss, was very sensitive to the political ramifications of everything he did. She thinks it likely that when the information about the cause of these women's deaths was passed to the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld ordered that the details not be released. 'That's how Rumsfeld works,' she said."

Last year, Karpinski leveled similarly damaging charges against the military when she told a group of students that even though there was an 800 number in Iraq where women could report sexual assaults, it was useless because most soldiers didn't have phones, and even if they did, there was no one on the other end of the line to talk to. Even after more than 83 incidents of sexual assault were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still not staffed by a real person, only a recording.

If true, Karpinski's allegations -- and there are more in the editorial -- are horrifying and show a complete disregard for the safety of women in the military. What needs to be investigated now is whether these kinds of offenses are the exception or the rule. Either way, leaders like Sanchez need to be held accountable.

Thursday, October 5, 2006 12:18 AM
Original article: I want my foie gras!

Its like driving a Hummer

You can't stop people from driving Hummers, nor

should you be able to. The idiots should be able to drive or eat what ever they want.

But it says alot about a person who would eat this stuff or drive a Hummer, and it is out there for everyone to see - these are people who only care about themselves, their pleasure of the senses, glutton refers to both, and they don't care what impact it has on animals or the environment, and since this is only a wealthy persons kind of thing, odds are they are the same people.

Its about the pleasures they take at the expense of other living beings. Something only the well off can do.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 07:20 PM

Interesting assumptions

1) People seem to assume that she is a single mother who was never married to the father of her kids. No where in the article does it say that. What if she is divorced and up on forgery charges, because her ex-husband is not paying support?

There were two parents, yet no one talks about the mans responsibility. As part of her sentencing the judge should look at the causes of the crime, she still does her time, her parole and full fills all requirements. Meanwhile who will help her get child support??? No one, because no one cares, and if they really believed that men should be responsible, they would care.

Also if he really cared about her financial difficulties it would be no pregnancies period, no exception for marriage.

Of course if he did that, he'd be violating some mans rights, and that would never do.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 07:35 PM
Original article: A motherless child ...

So are we going to stop all foriegn adoptions?

Yeah, lets ask all those parents with Asian and S.American

kids send them back, so they don't lose their heritage!!

This is so stupid. The only issue in adoption is to verify the biological parents are a) dead or b) voluntary giving up the kid. And that the child wasn't stolen.

That's it. The adoption agency, before hand will do a home visit and make sure the new parents are not insane, or child abusers...

Saturday, October 21, 2006 09:07 PM
Original article: Taking back "Slut-o-ween"

Equality

The issue shouldn't be an article with lots of pictures of pretty women dressed up like sluts, but why are the not an equal number of guys dressed up as sluts???

What women don't want to look? Your brain is only capable of objectifying one gender???? Get with the times, lets see some skin on the guys.

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