Is letting women and children flee Fallujah sexist?

[DrWeird]

[skooooo]

1. Uh...kind of a stupid question??

WTF?

[Renew Deal]

2. Some people say Kill 'em all.

Obviously the WH doesn't agree :silly:

[madrchsod]

4. i worked with a guy

that said right after 9-11 that we should kill them all so they can`t breed anymore..he was raised in a fundie home...

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Only if you call them

"bitch" on the way out....

:)

[Supply Side Jesus]

10. i think he was poking at that...

and might I add, it got a laugh out of me.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. Thanks, it was a "risky" joke

[revcarol]

5. No, but collective punishment of the men and young boys is,

plus IT'S A WAR CRIME!!

[JVS]

6. Other: Do you really think people care about being sexist...

when they are ordering an atrocity?

[loftycity]

7. Families should be able to flee...They have been hiding for a week

I don't think it is a good idea just to let women and children go alone. The men that had no part in this and trying to protect their families will be left behind and then probably killed or arrested.
What a mess.

[lyrical di]

15. I'm with you

Having travelled overseas in countries experiencing terrorist attacks, I agree with those wanting to keep families together. We are still human beings. Those who advocate atrocities are losing their humanity and becoming less than members of a Democratic society.

Our soldiers are professional and will not simply react for vengance. They will follow the orders they are given. We need to keep pressuring the government to consider all possibilities not the Repos reaction of calling for nukes, murdering all men, etc.

Just because we are dems doesn't mean we are "against" our troops. We need to pressure the ones making the decisions.

[rumguy]

8. it's a tragedy

[kdmorris]

9. On one hand

I say anyone that CAN get out of there should.

One the other hand, I just can't stop crying when I put myself in those people's situation. Not that I can do anything but imagine their hell, never having been in that sort of situation. My husband and I have 3 daughters. Knowing that, in that situation, we would be forced to split up and he would be forced to go back into the city while I tried to find shelter with my children makes me sick to my stomach. And yet, it's happening to these people every day. They are forced to decide between safety and staying together. No one should have to make that choice.

Is it sexist? Yes and it's also barbaric, unfair, sad and makes me want to puke.

[haele]

11. Letting the women and children flee without their menfolk

Allows them a longer, torturous life in a changing national culture where women without a network of related male protectors are increasingly considered little more than beggers or whores and children without family considered little more than fodder for slavers or militia.

This, on top of losing a trusted and loved life partner, brothers, fathers, cousins and uncles...

A terrible future for many of these refugees to contemplate. From what I've read of news reports, many of these women - even with children in tow - have decided not to flee and to chance dying with their male family members and protectors rather than to face such a potental fate in an increasingly fundimentalist culture.

Sexist? To a major degree, yes...certainly there are males in Fallujah - probably doctors, teachers, "nerds", handicapped, the aged or those who see business opportunities scamming foreigners - who have no interest in insurrection just as there are certainly women and children who are sick and tired of what they might precieve as an invasion by those who are determined to destroy their culture and traditions and would be eager to strap bombs to their bodies, drive a bomb-laiden vehicle or otherwise pick up a rifle against those they think are stealing their country from them...

To me, this is just another subtly sick form of mental and emotional torture on a people who are already conflicted.
If faced with a choice - to save yourself for an uncertain future, you must leave your home and loved one(s) to face "unfair", potentially fatal retribution by an army surrounding your city, or to stand next to your loved one and face fate together - come what may - what would you do?

As it is, IMO, this entire exercise of "saving women and children" is only an attempt to assuage the sensibilities of the individual soldiers surrounding Fallujah, not to actually save lives. If an army is going to level a town in retribution, the individual soldier already knows he or she is going to be engaged in destroying the innocent along with the "guilty". This way, it looks "better" to western sensibilities and the media.

("Hey, don't blame me, I gave them a chance to save the kiddies before I destroyed their homes, their family, and their future...")


Haele

[Karenina]

12. Yo GO Haele!

"there are certainly women and children who are sick and tired of what they might precieve as an invasion by those who are determined to destroy their culture and traditions and would be eager to strap bombs to their bodies, drive a bomb-laiden vehicle or otherwise pick up a rifle against those they think are stealing their country from them..."

Do NOT misunderestimate them. The Amis have invaded and destroyed everything near and dear, spreading poison and raping anyone in the path of their avaricious resource and power grab.

Make NO MISTAKE, my compatriots, AMERICA IS THE DARTH VADER in this little adventure.

May the Force be with you.

[kdmorris]

13. You said that so much better than I did.

<<"to save yourself for an uncertain future, you must leave your home and loved one(s) to face "unfair", potentially fatal retribution by an army surrounding your city, or to stand next to your loved one and face fate together - come what may - what would you do?">>

That's the part that tears me up..and makes me start crying all over again. I don't know what I would do and I NEVER want to find out. That fact that these people have to find out is barbaric.

[loftycity]

14. That was great...