A tale of two stories

By Libby

This is what happens when the media depends on the wire services to get the news. Everybody reports the same story but when they make a mistake, there's no independent reporters to fact check them. Last week Reuters reported 40 women were murdered in Basra in the last five months.

Today, the AP runs an almost identical story but notes that the deaths occured over the last year and the latest report they have is from early September, which is right about the time the British forces pulled out. Since they left violence has gone down 90%, including these sort of sectarian attacks. Thus the AP account would appear to be the correct one, but it's rare to see this happen and Yahoo News, who ran both stories, doesn't note the discrepancy. I only found it myself via Gateway Pundit of all people.

Both accounts agree on this fact though.

Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was known for its mixed population and night life. Now, in some areas, red graffiti threatens any woman who wears makeup and appears with her hair uncovered: "Your makeup and your decision to forgo the headscarf will bring you death."

In other words, before we 'liberated' them from the tyranny of Saddam, women were free to dress as they wished without fear of death instead of being afraid to go out on the street. That's not to say that Saddam's reign was a good and glorious time for the Iraqis, but it does make it hard to argue that Iraqi women in particular are better off since we decided to remove him without being invited to do so.