An Open Letter to Karen Hughes
“An inglorious peace is better than a dishonest war.” Mark Twain
“Really the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every human life.” Karen Hughes – after the invasion of Iraq
No one can fault you for loyalty, Karen, for you have been the ubiquitous puppy to Bush’s WAG. Whilst you were thought to be retreating to Texas with your homesick high school son and your husband, being the “mommy” that you insist takes priority in your life, you were privately shuttling back and forth to the Washington several times each week to participate with the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) the recently uncovered effort designed to justify and create a war. Branding and selling the war in Iraq certainly now appears to have been an additional priority for you, one that flies in the face of the mommy duties that you so espouse. Your son was safely tucked away in Texas while you were actively planning the invasion of another country, which involved sending OTHER mom’s sons to do the fighting.
I can’t help but notice that your son chose not to enlist in the service of his country after his high school graduation this spring, opting out of Bush’s “noble cause.” No doubt he, like Cheney, had “other priorities.” For now he basks in the beautiful California fall at Stanford. Hopefully, he has, at minimum, learned the school fight song. Does that count, Karen?
And with son away at Stanford, you are free to travel the globe selling freedom to the unfortunates who have not seen the light of the U.S. brand of democracy. How thoughtful of you to reach out to those poor subjugated and oppressed women in the Middle East. As you present it, they exist without the basic freedoms enjoyed by American women. Forced to exist in a tyrannical society of patriarchs rather than enjoy the pleasures of – driving? Let’s see, the Saudi women are not free, because they do not drive themselves. That is, after all, the mark of freedom. Karen, you totally miss the point, and show your complete ignorance of world cultures. Generalizing freedom is a dangerous thing.
First, check it out. Women drivers are not restricted in most Arab countries. Have you considered that many of our own conservative religious folk in the grand old U.S. of A. do not drive – men OR women. Are they languishing from lack of freedom? As I read accounts of your statements to Saudi women that “driving a car is an important part of my freedom,” I could not help but wonder about the tremendous numbers of American women who have no access to transportation AT ALL, much less the ability to own a car to drive. Are they free, Karen? How do you propose to assist them in finding their freedom? It is one thing to depend on a chauffeur. It is quite another to depend on a random bus schedule.
And the constant Western reference to the wearing of hijab as an outward sign of inward aggression toward women is ludicrous. Many women in Arab societies do not veil, and many who do, choose covering as an outward expression of their religious commitment. Should we ban the wearing of crosses around the necks of U. S. women to insure their freedom? Are our Roman Catholic nuns suffering from a lack of freedom? Maybe we should ask them.
Before you began your “listening” tour, Karen, you would have done well to do your homework. For, shriveling females who cower to their husbands are not at all what I found in my travels there. I have actually witnessed more of that sort of oppression here in the U.S. among the Christian Right to whom you unabashedly pander. And, Karen, unlike you, I have experienced both.
As one highly educated Arab man said to me during a deep conversation on values, “If what your country is currently doing represents freedom and democracy, then we want no part of it.” Watching the lying, cheating and morally deprived political scene in this country makes for a comical, if sad, parody of democracy that you propose to export to the world. I must ask you, Karen, what IS the freedom and democracy that you are selling?
For the past four years, I have had the honor of teaching leadership to young Arab women in the United Arab Emirates. They are not burqua-ed. They veil. No doubt, some would prefer not to veil all of the time, but many with whom I interacted feel that the wearing of the veil allows them MORE freedom to perform equally in the work place, lessens the societal bias regarding women’s appearance as the measure of their worth, and in no way represents the restrictions that you have so narrowly assumed. Such tyrannical regimes such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Khomeini regime in Iran must not be generalized to the entire Middle East. These countries are as different as our own Kansas differs from Hawaii. One assumption does not fit all.
And, like our own country, the range of conservatism in every culture is broad. The issues of women and culture in the Middle East are complex and cannot be reduced to sound bites. However, there are some essential underpinnings of Arab culture that you would do well to know, Karen, before you begin to export our own brand of feminism and “freedom.” A few examples follow.
First, as directed by the Quran, both women and men carry separate and independent
legal status from birth to death. Every woman has the right to enter contracts, conduct business, and to earn money and own property independently throughout her life. That status is not affected by marriage, and, following marriage, women retain their own earnings, their property and even their family name. A wife in UAE does not relinquish her identity nor her valuables to the marriage.
Second, there is no separate status of rights for men and women under the law. Penalties for civil offenses are the same for both genders. If a woman is wronged, she is entitled to recompense just as a man would be. Men carry certain obligations within the Arab culture and if they do not fulfill them, a woman can go to court to hold them accountable.
These women are not imprisoned in their homes, Karen. In the UAE, women actively participate in the public sphere. One is a Minister on the country's Governing Council, and many, many women drive their own cars! Another generalization that reveals your ignorance, I am afraid. Also, unlike the laws in the U.S., UAE national law mandates that women receive three months of maternity leave at full pay, with the option of another six months’ leave at half pay. Now that seems like a true family value supported by the culture-at-large.
As in the U.S., there is an under culture of “servant class.” Correctly criticized, in my opinion, in BOTH cultures. Neither is exempt from discrimination. What shall we teach them about equal rights, Karen?
Next, you really need to understand that the family unit is sacred in Muslim culture. They don’t just talk about it as if it were so, they LIVE their family values. The extended family is an integral aspect of life and elders live within the family unit with great honor until death. My students in the UAE could not understand the concept of “nursing homes” as a place to shuttle elders away when they are no longer capable of self care. The Western concept of individualism that has so defined our culture is simply counter to their entire belief system and way of life. In the Muslim world, family means much more than annual Mother’s Day and holiday turkey. Much more. Let us not be so arrogant as to think that we have something to teach "them." We have so very much to learn.
A review of your “listening” tour begins with your soiree into Egypt where you were asked by a government official why Bush so often refers to God in his speeches. Your response, that “our Constitution cites ‘one nation under God’.” Ummm, Karen, Ms. Under-secretary of State, our Constitution never mentions God. “Under God” rests solely in our Pledge of Allegiance, and was only added in 1954, by McCarthy-ites, during the Red-baiting witch hunts. One would think that you would know that, with all of the legal battles that have recently been waged by those who want that phrase removed from the Pledge.
My, my. Karen.
And by the way, Bush was not the first American president to advocate for an independent Palestinian state as you stated. That would be his “evil” predecessor, Clinton. Possibly that is the one thing in Bush’s term that has not been reversed from Clinton’s administration. And you didn’t even notice.
My, my.
And I must point out that back in Saudi Arabia, you mentioned that Laura Bush, First Lady, says that no society can prosper when half of its population is not allowed to contribute to the process. Ummm, Karen, that assertion was actually made in the 2002 Arab Human Development Report, a study conducted and written by Arabs, in which THEY emphasize the need to fully incorporate women into all aspects of economic, intellectual and leadership life of the Middle East. “As women number half or more of any population, neglecting their capabilities is akin to crippling half the potential of a nation.” Ironically, that report was funded by the United Nations. Surely Laura has not been lifting from U.N. material! Pshaw!
Well, you completed your “listening” time with the Saudi students by stating “I hope many of you will consider coming to the United States to visit us and to study, and we’re hoping to encourage many young Americans to come to Saudi Arabia.” Now, really, Karen. Would that be after the travel advisory against Americans traveling to Saudi Arabia is lifted? Can you really make such a statement without a wink and a grin? Since your oft-referenced 9-11 events, Arab students have had to go through crippling obstacles simply to return to their studies in this country following holiday breaks. Many missed classes for months while attempting to re-enter the U.S. for the years after those events. Thousands have resorted to enrolling in European schools instead, as the U. S. has made entry so difficult. Our country has lost billions of dollars in economic support by our parochial behavior toward Arab students, especially males. And our culture has been deprived of the exposure to others that you promote (and that you so clearly exhibit that Americans desperately need)!
On to Turkey, where, by the way, Karen, there is a country-wide law AGAINST wearing hijab in public buildings. Yes, a law. Hmmmm. Those Turks can be challenging to a stereotype, as well as to unfounded propaganda. If you really want to know some uber-feminists, you can meet them in Turkey! Not only in U.S.
Those women saw right past the hollow “Bush-Man of God” remarks and shot straight to the invasion and war in Iraq. As Fatma Nevin Vargun, a women’s rights activist stated, “War makes the rights of women completely erased, and poverty comes after war – and women pay the price.” Your response? “You’re concerned about war, and no one likes war,” but “to preserve the peace, sometimes my country believes that war is necessary.” Bush and your WHIG’s are not MY country, Karen.
Next, you contend that women in Iraq are better off now than before we invaded. Not so, Ms. Under-secretary. Have you been there lately? Poverty is rampant, medical care is virtually non-existent, women and children are suffering immeasurably. The U.S. has done nothing to rebuild the infrastructure in either Afghanistan or Iraq. U.S. concentrates on U.S. interests and military complexes. Period. Ask the soldiers who have actually been there and made the sacrifice that was set up by your WHIG campaign. As one Turkish woman appropriately observed, your condescending misrepresentations and political rhetoric were both transparent and insulting.
In summarizing the Turkey misfire, one journalist noted that it remains “somewhat an irony. . . Sometimes you have to engage in combat in order to confront terrorists who want to kill you.”
My, my, Karen.
But, ever the optimist, on you go to Indonesia to spread God’s cheer! And there, you contend that Saddam Hussein “murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas,” and when asked about that statement, you got specific. You stated that the figure was “close to 300,000.” Hmmm. Karen. That figure is about 60 times the number that most observers give for civilian death toll during those attacks.
60 times. Not a small miss. Actually, about 5,000 were believed to be gassed in a 1988 attack in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Please note, Karen, those attacks occurred in the late 1980’s. We invaded to liberate the Iraqi’s a full 15 years later. Swift justice and humanitarian mission, yes?
And, by the way, you issued those remarks in Indonesia, a country that, for 30 years, was led by a violent dictator, Suharto, who slaughtered over half a million of his citizens as alleged supporters of the Communist Party. During that time, the U.S. sent billions of American taxpayer dollars in armaments to shore up that bloody dictatorship. The Bush administration has never voiced one word of concern for those atrocities. Not one word. In five years.
Shame.
But, on to Malaysia! Final stop on the Good News Express!
There you stated, “I also consider it one of my jobs to be … to help to foster greater understanding among Americans about people of different countries and cultures.”
Karen, in the words of an old hymn, “Let it Begin with Me.”
So now you are back home, preparing the turkey, baking cookies, getting out the pear/ lime jello salad recipe and generally performing your duties as “I-Mom.” And the pundits get to evaluate your performance.
Fred Kaplan’s assessment:
“Put the shoe on the other foot. Let’s say some Muslim leaders wanted to improve Americans’ image of Islam. It’s doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented ‘Good morning.’ Yet this would be the clueless counterpart to Karen Hughes.
Robert Pape, University of Chicago political scientist, who observed that “If you read Osama’s speeches, they begin with descriptions of the U.S. occupation of the Arabian peninsula driven by our religious goals and that it is our religious purpose that must be confronted. That argument is incredibly powerful,. . . everything that Hughes says makes [that] case. And further, “If you set out to help bin Laden, you could not have done it better than Hughes.”
Finally, Sidney Blumenthal, in his article “Bin Laden’s Little Helper,” describes Hughes’ phenomenal blundering through Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, “The people stared at us everywhere, and we stared at them,” Twain wrote. “We bore down on them with America’s greatness until we crushed them.”
As Pape observes, “It would be folly, were it not so dangerous.”
And that’s the way it is, Karen. That’s the way it is.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Yo, Jim, Elise here. After all of this checkin' in on each other, I think it is time for us to be on a first name basis. You clearly did your research on me, and I am certainly doing my research on you. I feel like I know you close, like a preacher or teacher. And I am learnin' alot.