A woman appeared on Al-Jazeera Monday night, claiming she'd been raped by officers of the Iraqi National Police. That would be the largely Shiite security force that has the full backing of the U.S. Shiite government officials called her a liar. Sunnis called her a martyr. And the U.S. military responded with more charmless stammering than you'd find in a Hugh Grant triple feature, their official statement saying, essentially, "We're, um, um, investigating, and, um, um, we'll, uh, let you know."
And where does Bush's loyal dog, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, stand on all this? First he issued a statement promising an investigation, then abruptly claimed the woman was a liar, that the woman showed no signs of assault, had a criminal record, and that the officers involved should be rewarded.
Very sensitive, Nuri.
Problem is, there's a nurse claiming the woman did indeed show sign of sexual assault. She's not willing to give her name to the press, however, because she's a Sunni, and the Shiite-dominated government has claimed that both she and the hospital where she works have provided aid and comfort to the enemy, because they have provided medical care for insurgents.
There's no way, at this point, to know for a fact that the woman's story is true. But Maliki's rabid willingness to throw his support behind alleged rapists, only hours after the accusations have been made, certainly makes him sound every bit as insane as Saddam Hussein. Sunnis live in fear of official reprisals from the Shiite government. The Iraqi government is worthless, the Iraqi military is dominated by cowardly thugs. Car bombs explode every day.
Meanwhile, Dick Cheney made a speech on the deck of an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan, claiming that victory with honor is possible in Iraq.
