Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

On March 30, 2005, First Lady Laura Bush visited Afghanistan and spoke at the new Women's Teacher in Training Institute in Kabul. In her address, Mrs. Bush stated that Afghanistan is "only a few years removed from the rule of terrorists, when women were denied education and every basic human right." She went on to note that "the power of freedom is on display across Afghanistan."

Mrs. Bush's definition of freedom obviously differs from mine.

Just a few weeks after the First Lady's visit to Kabul, a 29-year-old woman accused of adultery was dragged from her parents' home in Afghanistan's Badakhan province and publicly stoned to death, by order of a local court.

Meanwhile, three Afghan women were found raped and strangled to death in the Baghlan province. According to Reuters, the women's bodies were found with a note stating that "this is retribution for those women who are working in NGO's and those who are involved in whoredom."

While this sort of thing is going on in "liberated" Afghanistan, George W. Bush keeps reminding us also that "the Iraqi people are now free and are learning the habits of freedom and the responsibilities that come with freedom."

Habits and responsibilities of freedom like those experienced by Baghdad businesswoman Huda Hafez Ahmad al-'Azawi, whose home was recently invaded by the Iraqi National Guard, and who was being beaten, handcuffed, and blindfolded, along with her two daughters, and then detained incommunicado by U.S. forces without charge or explanation?

Habits and responsibilities of freedom like the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and other facilities, which our current Attorney General has attempted to justify and which the U.S. government has thus far taken no meaningful action to remedy?

Habits and responsibilities of freedom like the indiscriminate attacks on civilian homes, businesses, mosques, and hospitals in Falluja, Karbala, Najaf, and other parts of Iraq, leaving countless innocent civilian men, women, and children dead or maimed?

Habits and responsibilities of freedom like the mocking and desecration of dead civilians, including children, by coalition troops?

Some Iraqis have claimed that their lives are even worse under the U.S. occupation than they were under Saddam Hussein's regime. I cannot fault them for feeling this way. Two years ago, we set out to "liberate" them. Today, many of these "liberated" people still have no clean water, no electricity, no access to proper healthcare, no jobs, and no security. Many women try to avoid leaving their homes as much as possible for fear of abduction, rape, or other atrocities.

To our nation's leaders, this is "freedom". Heaven help us all.