A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials. The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines’ shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach. Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields “would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome,” according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times. For the first time, the study by the military’s medical examiner shows the cost in lives from inadequate armor, even […]
About two dozen Republicans have agreed to sign a petition that calls for an election to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay as majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, aides said on Friday, dealing another blow to the indicted Texans political future. Fifty signatures would be needed to require the 231-member House Republican conference to hold an election, which could come within weeks, they said. We have commitments for about 25 signatures. The letter calls for a leadership election for a permanent majority leader, said Matthew Specht, a spokesman for Rep. Jeff Flake, a conservative Arizona Republican. A source close to House Republicans, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of DeLays situation, told Reuters that the signatures were being collected from conservative and moderate Republicans. The source said Rep. Charles Bass, a New Hampshire moderate, was working closely with Flake. Another source, a Republican leadership aide who asked not to be identified because the petition effort was still underway, said it was still unclear whether the remaining 25 Republican signatures would be collected, but that they had already made a strong statement. Calling Fridays developments significant, the aide added, It is […]
These are cruel times for vaginas. Lately, as if I don’t have enough to worry about, with the deadline on various unkept 2005 resolutions fast upon me, I have begun obsessing about various aspects of my genital appearance. Take my labia minora, for instance. Tucked away as those intimate folds of flesh are – hidden in the underbrush, you might say – I have never given them much thought, except as they relate to experiences of sensual pleasure. Ditto my labia majora, which dutifully served their purpose in guarding the entryway to what the Victorians would have quaintly referred to as my maidenhead. As for the much vaunted hymen (named for the Greek god of marriage), mine remained intact longer than most thanks to my slow-blooming erotic life, until such time as a boyfriend’s patient late-night exertions finally parted me from it at the age of 25. Needless to say, its absence – much less the idea that I might be harboring a deep sense of nostalgia for this tiny piece of overinvested membrane, might indeed be secretly yearning to reclaim it – hasn’t so much as crossed my mind in the intervening years. Ah, but how blithely backward-looking […]
As the weight of the Shiite Islamist victory in Iraq’s election is still being calculated, US influence in the country – in reconstruction, security, and politics – is steadily receding. While a diminished US role in Iraqi affairs was inevitable, the speed of the retreat raises some risks to the establishing of a stable, US-friendly Iraq. The Shiite parties that dominated the vote in December have closer affinity to Iran than to the US. At the same time, the Bush administration is planning sharp cuts in reconstruction aid, a major point of leverage in Iraqi affairs. “I think it’s pretty clear our influence is waning as far as agenda setting,” says Noah Feldman, a law professor at New York University and a former top US adviser on the writing of Iraq’s Constitution. What then are America’s best hopes for steering Iraq in a direction favorable to US interests? Some analysts say the US may reach out to its erstwhile enemies – the Sunnis. “I wouldn’t be the least surprised if the Americans cut a deal with Sunni [political figures with ties to the insurgency] to cut the Shiites down to size,” says Dan Plesch, a research […]
THE IMPACT OF SHARIA Article 14 of Iraq’s new constitution, approved in a nationwide referendum held on October 15, states that Iraqis are equal before the law “without discrimination because of sex.” Yet the constitution also states that no law can be passed that contradicts the “established rulings” of Islam. For this reason, the new document has been condemned by critics both inside and outside Iraq as a fundamental setback for amajority of Iraq’s population — namely, its women. According to Isam al-Khafaji, an Iraqi scholar, the document “could easily deprive women of their rights.” Yanar Muhammad, a leading secular activist and the head of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, worries that the Islamic provision will turn the country “into an Afghanistan under the Taliban, where oppression and discrimination of women is institutionalized.” These criticisms are not without merit, and the ambiguity of the new constitution is a cause for concern. The centrality of Islamic law in the document, however, does not necessarily mean trouble for Iraqi women. In fact, sharia is open to a wide range of understanding, and across the Islamic world today, progressive Muslims are seeking to reinterpret its rules to accommodate a […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
