Sex trafficking a 'serious issue' in Iraq

Another rationale for the Iraq war sinks into that country's blood-soaked soil.

Among the other happy returns that humanity was supposed to receive from Bush's adventure was the liberation of the Iraqi woman. Her life after Saddam was to be fuller and freer than it ever could be under the menacing gaze of the Butcher of Baghdad. Of course, the president failed to note that in Saddam's secular Iraq, women already enjoyed more freedom than their sisters in most other Middle Eastern countries.  Granted, such freedom is relative, and being more free than a woman in Saudi Arabia can still leave a lot of room for improvement. However, the woman living in George W. Bush's lawless Iraq must endure a daily threat that she barely had to consider during the reign of Saddam Hussein:  literal sexual enslavement.

The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad, estimates from anecdotal evidence that more than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing in that period. A Western official in Baghdad who monitors the status of women in Iraq thinks that figure may be inflated but admits that sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under Saddam, has become a serious issue. The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to run amuck. Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for these girls. As a result, sex trafficking has been allowed to fester unchecked.

Nonetheless, the president continues to grasp at even the wispiest thread of positive news as a sign that his ultimate victory, along with his vindication, is at hand.

President Bush said yesterday that the United States reached a "milestone toward our victory in Iraq" when Iraqi leaders agreed on a prime minister-designate, and he called the country's three top leaders to tell them they now "have responsibilities to defeat the terrorists."

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A new government in Iraq would be a big boost for Mr. Bush, who has said success in that country requires economic advancement, trained local security forces and a central government. In a recent series of speeches on Iraq, he talked about progress in training security forces but seemed disappointed with the pace of leaders trying to negotiate a new government. [Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki] still must form a government that shares power among the various factions, and Mr. Bush yesterday urged him "to get a Cabinet in place quickly," said outgoing White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Iraqi men and women have fewer opportunities, less stability and more danger  in their lives under the stewardship of George  W. Bush than they did under the reign of a man Bush himself characterized as one of the worst monsters in history. At the same time, he asks the world to accept his assurance that anytime someone dots an "i" or crosses a "t" in an office in Baghdad, it is a nothing less than milestone in the march of freedom.

One might ask an Iraqi father who has been unable to find a job for the past three years how that march is working out for him.  One might ask a woman who has been swept off the street, and now finds herself having sex against her will with complete strangers, how much she is enjoying her newfound freedom.