LMFAO!
Iraq "progressive"? I'm guessing since the Mafia has had a few women starting to rise in their ranks that they must be labeled a "progressive" organization as well, right? If so, I must remember that gassing your own citizens, routine torture, unprovoked wars, standing orders for your troops to rape and pillage those that you conquer and sinking one of the stronger economies in the Middle-East into the Stone Ages is a b!tching thing to do as long as you give a broad or two a position on your cabinet, but only after they've put a bullet in the head of one of your enemies...
The ONLY women that made it in Hussein's govt. were one's with blood on their hands AND well-connected Baathists to boot. I utterly challenge you to find a Shi'ite, Kurd or Bedouin women or man in high positions after Hussein took power and before the invasion. If you were anything but Sunni, you were s**t in Hussein's Iraq....
One point of difference I do have here is that historically, women in Iraq were allowed access to higher education since the 1920's; the Shi'ite majority are now moving to prevent the continuation of such an event, which will have to be addressed. Iran and it's unwelcome influence is going to be a bear to counter, no doubt about it.
Someone once said that nature and politics both abhor a vacuum and Iraq is no exception to this rule. It seems that another rule is that no lasting democracy was birthed without a fair amount of bloodshed, so calling the game either way this early is being premature at best.
Good things ARE happening in Iraq (just don't look for your local newspaper or TV station to report on it), but whether they are culminating into something that has momentum and healthy staying power is yet to be seen.
