The Difficulty of being a Lefty Columnist!

Nicholas Kristof is caught in an analysis which simply confirms his hatred of George W. Bush. Seems that Rape as a tactic is ok in countries which W decides to invade. Read the below column and come to his defense!

'Pro-Rape'
By JAMES TARANTO
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times had a column yesterday on a horrific subject: the use of "systematic rape" as a "deliberate weapon" of war:

"Rape in war has been going on since time immemorial," said Stephen Lewis, a former Canadian ambassador who was the U.N.'s envoy for AIDS in Africa. "But it has taken a new twist as commanders have used it as a strategy of war."

There are two reasons for this. First, mass rape is very effective militarily. From the viewpoint of a militia, getting into a firefight is risky, so it's preferable to terrorize civilians sympathetic to a rival group and drive them away, depriving the rivals of support.

Second, mass rape attracts less international scrutiny than piles of bodies do, because the issue is indelicate and the victims are usually too ashamed to speak up."

Kristof cites several countries where rape has been employed in this way: Yugoslavia, where in the 1990s "Serbian forces had set up a network of 'rape camps' in which women and girls, some as young as 12, were enslaved"; Sudan, where "the government has turned all of Darfur into a rape camp"; Congo, "where in some areas three-quarters of women have been raped"; and Liberia, where "the civil war is over but rape is still epidemic--and half of all reported rapes involve girls younger than 14."
Kristof is especially exercised about Darfur, a region where he has done extensive reporting. He asks a pointed question about the Sudanese reigme's allies:

"When the governments of South Africa, China, Libya and Indonesia support Sudan's positions in Darfur, do they really mean to adopt a pro-rape foreign policy?"

It's a fair question. We'd like to ask another one. First, some background.

We noticed one glaring omission from Kristof's list of regimes that have practiced systematic rape. The following is a passage from a report by the U.S. State Department's Office of International Women's Issues. It was released in March 2003, just before the U.S. and its allies liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein's regime:

"The Iraqi Government uses rape and sexual assault of women to achieve the following goals: to extract information and forced confessions from detained family members; to intimidate Iraqi oppositionists by sending videotapes showing the rape of female family members; and to blackmail Iraqi men into future cooperation with the regime. Some Iraqi authorities even carry personnel cards identifying their official "activity" as the "violation of women's honor.""

In February 2003, Kristof penned a column in which he urged Washington to deal with Saddam through a policy of "containment"--that is, restraining his extraterritorial ambitions but leaving him in power in Iraq.

When Nick Kristof supported Saddam's position in Iraq, did he really mean to adopt a pro-rape foreign policy? (my emphasis)

Hat Tip: "Best of the Web Today", WSJ

It ain't easy for a lefty to keep his columns straight!