Bush’s Body Count

Never fear, our former Preznit is still servin’ up steamin’ heaps o’ that deeelicious freedom!

LONDON, March 30, 2009 – Ground Zero for the so-called ‘war on terror’ is a nation where gays and lesbians live in real terror every day. Among the suffering of gay Iraqis is the regular threat (and carrying out) of rape and murder. In July, CNN reported on the case of a young gay man abducted for ransom and raped daily for more than two weeks.

Well, like Rummy said, freedom is untidy.

More than 100 prisoners in Iraq are facing execution. Many of them, says an underground gay rights organization in the country, are believed to have been convicted of the ‘crime’ of being gay, the UK-based Iraqi-LGBT group revealed this afternoon.

According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week. There is, said Hili, at least one member of Iraqi-LGBT who are among those to be put to death.

But wait! – you cry.  What about Saddam?  Didn’t he hang gay people too?

“The death penalty has been increasing at an alarming rate in Iraq since the new Iraqi regime reintroduced it in August 2004.

“In 2008, at least 285 people were sentenced to death, and at least 34 executed. In 2007 at least 199 people were sentenced to death and 33 were executed, while in 2006 at least 65 people were put to death.

“The actual figures,” Mr. Hili suggested, “could be much higher as there are no official statistics for the number of prisoners facing execution.”

No official statistics?  Wonder where the Iraqi government learned to do that ….

Most are likely to have been sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI), whose proceedings consistently fall short of international standards for fair trial, Mr. Hili said.

“Allegations of torture are not being investigated adequately or at all by the CCCI. Torture of detainees held by Iraqi security forces remains rife.

“Iraq’s creaking judicial system is simply unable to guarantee fair trials in ordinary criminal cases, and even less so in capital cases, with the result, we fear, that numerous people have gone to their death after unfair trials.

“The Iraqi government must order an immediate halt to these executions and establish a moratorium on all further executions in Iraq, particularly since due process cannot be guaranteed.

“The state executing people for ‘morals’ crimes is also obviously unacceptable and deplorable, “he said.

And the bodies keep piling up.  Heckuva job Georgie.

Gays Sentenced to Death in Iraq: Executions to Begin Next Week [PageOneQ]
40 Comments

This makes my head asplode, for obvious reasons.

Why can’t we ever install a decent and competent puppet government? Just once.

Making buttsecks the punishment for buttsecks, is that like when your dad caught you smoking and made you smoke a whole pack until you got sick?

It reminds me of this old joke:

There were these three men stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean. All of a sudden the natives surrounded them, unhappy to see Americans on their island. The angry chief gave them a choice.

“Death or unga-bunga!” He shouted.

The first man really didn’t want to die, so he chose unga-bunga.

The entire tribe bent him over a fallen tree and butt-fucked him. They kept it upo for three days and three nights, it turned into a party as they kept taking turns, on and on.

The second man was horrified by this, but he figured, hey, at least he’s alive, so he said, “Man, I don’t want to sound gay or anything, but I definately don’t want to die either. Okay….unga-bunga.”

The entire tribe bent him over a fallen tree and butt-fucked him for three days just like the other guy.

The third man, disgusted by his friends’ decisions, shouted, “Death!”

To that, the chief shouted, “okay, death by unga-bunga!”

@Prommie: I think that can better be summarized as “making rape the punishment for consensual sex,” which I don’t find remotely amusing in any way. And I’m surprised to see that coming from the man who is usually bothered by jokes about prison rape. Surprised and disappointed. Sorry to be so pissy, but this whole thing–and the Afghan rape law– has killed my snark. I am just sick at my stomach, and in no mood for rape jokes.

I’ve seen this reported for perhaps three years. And it has been ignored. I sent them today. God knows how it can help.

There really is nothing remotely funny about it. I wonder how many men have already been killed. Thousands? With drill bits through their backs and arms and heads. Death squads were dragging men out of their houses before the surge under the very noses of US forces whose duty was to protect those who could not protect themselves. They knew it was going on and did nothing.

Now I will go away.

@Benedick: It’s amazing to me that none of the Very Serious People ever point out how many regular folks would still be alive had Bush v. Gore gone the other way. Thousands might have been saved by stem cells, and think of all the soldiers, Iraqis, and others who perished needlessly.

@Prommie: I second Mistress Cynica. Rape – not funny.

@Benedick: It is just now that US media are picking up on this. UK Gay News, Outrage!, et. al. have been talking about the homoground railroad into Europe and the death that LGBTs face in Iraq for years, but it’s just now that people are paying attention.

@blogenfreude: Those people were unfortunate enough to be poor, brown, foreign, or all of the above. Sadly, most US Americans don’t give a crap about any of those groups, for all their goddam “support the troops” car magnets.
@Benedick: @rptrcub: I am deeply ashamed to say that this is the first I’ve heard of these atrocities. Don’t know what good my knowing would have done, but I still feel guilty. People are being tortured and killed by a “government” set up by my country with my tax dollars and in my name and I am sick to my very soul. Even though I didn’t vote for those bastards or support their war, I still feel a moral culpability, like that Simone de Beauvoir described feeling about the French atrocities in Algeria. Is it too early to start drinking?

@Mistress Cynica:

I think it’s fair to say that quite a few of the blue and yellow ribbon crowd would actually support the similar types of treatment for the GLBT people here….

ADD: What do you mean, too early to start drinking? Wash your mouth out with Scotch, young lady!

I think it’s SOP all across the Middle East.

@Mistress Cynica:

@Mistress Cynica: @SanFranLefty:

Then don’t laugh. I read things I don’t consider funny all the time, and I don’t bother to lecture people about it. nor do I suggest they should not be permitted to make jokes I don’t like.

I was not referring to the law allowing the rape of wives. I was referring to the horrific treatment of homosexuals. I am not going to beat my breast over the fact that we invaded a country which has always treated homosexuals horrific-ly. As if its our fault we can’t stop them from being what they are.

And for your information, jokes about men raping men are always funny, its part of the old double-standard. Women, being the weaker sex, are accorded special consideration such that one must not even joke about the violation of their honor, whereas the topic of men getting raped in prison,for example, is hilarious. I am sorry you seem to subscribe to the old double standard.

@Prommie:
I have two words for you: Fuck.You.

I don’t find prison rape hilarious.

And I don’t find man-on-man rape funny either.

@Prommie: Really? Seriously?

There’s a difference between reading a news article describing a deplorable situation, and reading the comment of someone who you had previously respected making a tasteless joke about a deplorable situation.

Would it be funny if we started making jokes about people losing white collar jobs in the car industry? Or does that hit a little close to home? Rape may be funny to you, but to anyone who’s experienced it (which I haven’t, thankfully, but I know and care for women who have), a rape joke is not funny.

I can’t believe I’m having to explain this to someone who “loves women” so much.

@Prommie: It’s not just unfunny, it’s deeply offensive. I am actually shaking. Fuck you. How’s that for humor?

I have no sacred cows. @IanJ: You could not offend me. Not in the way of this very special kind of offense thats being taken, a special exception to the otherwise dominant view that only mocking works as a way to survive the pain. A very special exception. An emotional, not intellectual exception. Explain all you want, there is no explanation for the insistence that there shall be one, and only one, absolutely sacred cow that justifies censorship, when sardonic cruelty, insensitivity, and brutal humor is accepted on all other topics.

I could say that aborted fetuses are the host at my atheist masses, and I would be applauded. But remark on the irony of a culture that despises homosexualty so much that they commit homosexual acts on homosexuals as punishment, thats fucking bizarre.

Try fucking thinking instead of shaking with rage there, cynica, and you might think that if I said something which you interpret as inconsistent with almost everything else I have ever said, then maybe your interpretation of it, or the implications you draw from it as regards my opinions and character, are wrong.

Or just shake and tell me “fuck you.” Victimhood is always a comfortable robe.

@SanFranLefty: Do you think I find prison rape hilarious? Really? Wow.

You know, when you think about it, isn’t the expression “fuck you” a symbolic rape? An aggressive expression of hate and contempt which accepts as its premise that the most humiliating thing you could do to me it, well, rape me? Interesting, never really noticed that before.

@Prommie:

Good Promnight, be not so bitter with them. Disagreements do arise between friends, and they certainly esteem you as such, I am sure. I wouldn’t say they were lecturing so much as expressing a preference.

I won’t comment on the male rape thing except to day that statics show that the average rape victim in prison is under 20, and show that such victims are generally of slight build. Not terribly funny, IMHO. And as for it being somehow less violent or less of a violation for men than for women, only someone who never had something large shoved up his ass who didn’t want it there could express a sentiment like that. I have, and that was by somebody I liked a lot, so I can only imagine how horrible it would be if I had been forced on me.

Again, not lecturing, just discussing. To be honest, I have told that joke before myself. It always gets a laugh. After this, though, I’ll probably stop telling it…probably.

@Prommie:
Gee, where did I get that idea? Maybe from you. And I quote:

whereas the topic of men getting raped in prison,for example, is hilarious.

Maybe if I haven’t spent the past few weeks dealing with man-on-man domestic violence next door to me not being taken seriously by the police, despite repeated visits of the police, even though my neighbor was in the hospital for a week, I’d be in a more expansive mood to joke about man-on-man rape.

Maybe if I haven’t sat and interviewed adolescents who were raped and sexually assaulted in juvenile halls, I’d find prison rape funny.

Maybe if I wasn’t a survivor (not a victim) of several sexual assaults, I’d be in a happier mood.

Maybe if my anti-depressants were working and I wasn’t having panic attacks and crying spells three times a day , I’d be defending your right to offend me.

Maybe if I felt an emotion besides overwhelming and constant dread and numbness at the atrocities of the world, I’d be cheering your contrariness.

Maybe if I were able to get up once in a while in the morning and not have the first thought to enter my head be “Why bother?” then I’d give a shit.

But right now, I’m not in the mood. So fine, I won’t say Fuck You. It’s not worth it.

Why bother.

@SanFranLefty:

Again, we are friends here, are we not? Surely there’s a better way to express displeasure? In any case, I’ll turn this car around and we won’t go ANYWHERE unless you kids straighten up!

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket:

Hey, you’re playing the child of alcoholic peacekeeper role that I normally play.

I withdrew my “Fuck You.”

Not worth it.

/going to office bathroom for 2nd crying spell of day.

@Prommie: @SanFranLefty:

Perhaps I shouldn’t have gotten involved. Be mad at me! I’m the bad guy here!

Everyone, please just go look at these baby otters…it can only help.

@Prommie:

You could not offend me.

Cool, I’m glad you’ve got effective filters. I do too, and it’s unlikely you could offend me either.

But the key difference, and what I think is causing the problem, is that your “can’t be offended” filters are getting in the way. You’re not seeing that, sacred cow or not, you’re pissing off your friends. Just like one wouldn’t eat beef in India, maybe laying off the rape jokes on Stinque would be a good idea. Now that you’ve found the limit, maybe repeatedly crossing it is a bad idea.

@flippin eck: I don’t think there’s any problem a good dose of Cute Overload can’t fix.

@flippin eck: Thanks, dear. The kittehs and puppehs help. As do the heelarious pictures of the Obamas with QEII and Prince Philip.

@IanJ: Agreed. C’mon Prommie, you’ve got friends here. Don’t fuck it up.

@Dodgerblue: Ditto.

By the way, if anyone wants to know, here’s an info and Paypal link http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/.

Reading accounts of this situation over the years has been very difficult. What happened before we got there was not our responsibility. But now it is and we’ve let this happen. Not to be blaming people, but it seems to me to be paradigmatic of what has been done in our name.

By the way, for something completely different, I thought Hitchens was terrifically witty on Real Time when he addressed Mos Def as Mr. Definitely.

@Benedick:

Also, as Bill pointed out, openly waving a double scotch neat around was genius.

I am sorry, Cynica, and SFL, I did not just disagree, I was mean. I am sorry, it was wrong, no excuse. Bad day (he said, hypocritically offering the excuse anyway). I love you guys.

@flippin eck: Don’t. Lord knows what he’ll do to these helpless creatures, what twisted baby otter fantasies he’ll concoct to blaspheme the snugglificaciousness of these blessed fuzzies.

@Jamie Sommers: Honey, you can make all the fart jokes you want, as long as you agree to talk fashion and football with me.

geez, i go away for a week to go have pnumonia in the hospital, and i come back to a cival war. here’s my perspective, and i speak as a survivor of sexual assault too.

haven’t most of us heard that joke? without a knee jerk reaction of horrified insult? i think the joke brought up in the context of this sickening story is what pushed everyone’s buttons extra hard. i don’t think that joke is funny, but i don’t think prommie is really that insensitive to rape. i think he took a humor mistep at a lousy time. and humor is all about timing. so it fell flat, as it should. rape is hideous, no one disagrees. jokes about rape are just not funny. period.
and now i will join lefty and cynica in the bathroom to wring our wrists, cry and wonder why our anti-depressives aren’t working.

@Promnight: I know that I’m new around here, but not so new that I haven’t noticed the thoughtfulness, compassion and wisdom which characterize the majority of your posts, and
I feel your identification with your awareness that what you’ve (we’ve) got
here is a very special community of souls. That being said, the offensive
malice of that “joke” is puzzling. I can’t imagine what you thought it might
do for your spiritual brothers and sisters. None of us are exempt from pain
and suffering, but we all have bigtime chops in our fields. Some may argue
that makes us needier than others, and you, our dear prommie, have understood that so well that perhaps we’ve taken you for granted.

Mistress Cynica and San Fran Lefty, I have an urge to minister to your pain with balm and unguents and all other good things. I hope you and
others who have experienced sexual or emotional abuse, can take this man back into your hearts over time and help him…help us all…to heal.

Promnight: my friends tell me (har!) that I’m something of a wit. If so, it’s because humor, like your cooking, depends on one’s immediate synthesis of what’s recognizably fresh, wholesome, and in season, and whipping up some delicious laughs right on the spot. My advice to you:
avoid pre-packaged or prefab jokes. All such jokes are more dangerous than cheap fireworks. They’re designed to reveal things about the listeners’ prejudices and characters while they are feeling pain and being
burned to distraction. You’re too funny for that shit, man!

Like an obnoxious, ill-fitting garment, that joke doesn’t suit you atall. You, I think, are aware of the unwelcome bloke who bores all his auditors
by reciting half a dozen of the latest yuks, desperately hoping to squeeze out some flaccid “laffs” which are expected to pass for human communication. That’s not you. But, for a brief moment, it was.

Whoa. This was an April Fools joke right? Yeah. Must have been. I’ll just move on the next thread.

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